skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
<rhetorical question>
So which of the tab button locations is well designed, and which is not?
</rhetorical question>

It doesn't matter which one is used, so long as the application sticks to the platform conventions, and for the actions that don't have platform conventions, picks bindings that don't need you to be a finger contortionist.

It doesn't matter if the 'ok' button is to the left or right of the cancel button, but if a UI designer swaps them around relative to what the platform normally does, he's just designed the UI poorly. If 'q' exits a command line app normally, but the developer makes 'esc' exit his app, then you just made a poorly designed UI.
TechCrunch Changed
Technorati Buys Blogcritic.org | SlashBe
What about if I have a common word that is quite recognizable, but only own the .net version?
There might be some selection bias here in Thompson's friend. Despite our narrow view that everyone has a blog, and a ton of personal information out there, most people's favorite middle school teacher isn't readily available. I think the solution, that I have noticed many sites doing more recently, is to more carefully create the list of questions. I am no longer asked my best friend's last name or my dog's name, but rather more obscure questions, which, as the article suggests, is a step in the right direction.
That's good news then, as that's a very non-geeky audience.
The danger of laughing at your customers
Transportation Hack 2.0: Flaw Found Calif.'s FasTrak System
The difference between keyboard friendliness on OSX and Windows has always been fascinating to me. On OSX, even being able to tab between buttons in a modal dialogue is off-by-default. Opening folders in the Finder is cmd+O instead of just enter. I still have no idea to this day how to access the menu bar from the keyboard.

Meanwhile on Windows, I spend 99% of my time on the keyboard, since both Explorer, Visual Studio, and all the other apps I use couldn't possibly be friendlier to shortcut keys. The consistency gets better with every release as well.
Russia Rising In Internet Population
Huge Security Flaw In IPhone 2.0.2
I can always count on HN to reassure me that I am not alone in my zealous excitement for new tech innovations...

As soon as I read this article, I clicked through the install and tutorial and then bounced around the cubicles singing Ubiquity's praises.

This is a huge improvement on how I interact with the Internet and I am extremely excited about the future developments brought on by Ubiquity.
Fear Makes The Wolf Look Bigger
Architects: 1998 called and it wants its web sites back
Educating users is the #5 dumbest idea in computer security ;P

http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/d...
I would go for it (advertising only as the complete yourdomain).net, but you're still setting your users up for confusion. Think of the average 13 year old myspacer, or 50 year old mom. Not everyone has a photographic memory like you.

They will forget the extension, but remember the name and be surprised with a nasty link-squatter or worse.
Google Rolls Out Tool That Suggests Search Queries
Mozilla Takes Security to the Next Level | TechJaws
What about if my target is a geeky crowd?
Why Agile Development Fails | TechJaws
Column versus row stores
Personally, I think the article is half-right. "Let an attorney handle your legal questions" is absolutely correct - Random Guy on Internets should not be making legal decisions for you, and you should always have good legal representation if you're doing business of any sort (even as a freelance programmer).

But sometimes you aren't looking for specific legal advice - you're looking to educate yourself as an entrepreneur. I've learned quite a bit about contracts, business formation, tax law, etc. from my attorneys - but I've also learned a bit from other entrepreneurs.
If you have to think what the key combo is, use the mouse.

And sacrifice ever getting to the point where you don't have to think.
Agreed. Some people can work just fine at a home office or basement. Others (like me) find that a strict separation between work and home makes both go more smoothly.
I hate to throw Agile buzzwords around but:

The Scrum master's job is to remove obstacles from the team's path. There's no telling people what to do, just listening to them at regular team meeting and helping solve what ever problems they come up with.

The scrum master does not have to be a manager just a "person with influence".

So maybe Joel & Co. can implement regular team meeting where "people with influence" listen to complaints and then try to solve them. And solving problems may require nothing more then being comfortable chatting with Joel.
what if what if what if
Tell us the name already
If you're in business with friends, either the friendship or the business needs to come first, and everyone should clearly know what that is. Are you willing to harm your friendship for the sake of the business? Or are you willing to let your business suffer for the sake of the friendship?

If you're in business with strangers, the decision is easier.
When big companies try to stay competitive, why do they so often just copy the market leaders?

Why can't Cisco come up with its own technology and innovations. Instead they see the power of Microsft Exchange and Google entering the market. "That means we need email too."

Is it would be too much to ask for an aging enterprise-focused business to do something original, when technology makes a major shift (in this case on-premise >> online)?
I've spent time in the OS X keyboard shortcuts pref pane setting up the shortcuts to be identical. For example I set up Safari to search in page when I press Cmd+/ because I used to be Firefox fiend.
In what way is this different? I've done both (hired friends and partnered with friends), and they seem to have similar advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: you enjoy the people you work with; deeper level of commitment and trust.

Disadvantages: if your professional relationship struggles, your friendship struggles; conflict of interest between friendship and business.
Twitter, the enterprise’s third space
One thing that is pretty annoying about GUIs is the fuzzy factor: there are often a few pixels that could be the button, and could be the background, but you can't tell which it is for sure -- so they're effectively off limits. A keyboard doesn't have this issue, so it's a lot easier to turn commands into reflexes -- your reflexes are less likely to be wrong.

This is also why I switched from T9 to whatever the other alphabet-entering system is for cell phones: it was just too frustrating not to know exactly what the output would be if I typed quickly.
How we learned to cheat at online poker: a story of software security
Sleipnir - A highly customizable Japanese web browser
I don't know why the parent gets downmodded, he is right. What is considered morally right and wrong is culture specific, it is not absolute. For example, some cultures used to sacrifice children to their gods. We may consider this wrong, but they certainly didn't.
Meet Miss IFA, the Patron Saint of Consumer Electronics
This is a classic underestimation of the expertise afforded by non-PhD graduate programs. Three years is a fair length when compares to quite a few graduate programs. Expertise does come through experience, like in almost anything else, but I am hesitant to accept the ease with which you wipe away legal education's value.

Many of the comments here are underestimating the technical (although perhaps not technological) training a lawyer receives, at least a good one. If you look at the first year of law school, it is often about learning how to think like a lawyer. That, to respond to the comment below, is logical thinking, but within the legal system. Legal research, even the use of LexisNexis or Westlaw is an ability not easily mastered by the novice, no matter how brilliant their startup idea or programming acumen.

The truth is that almost everyone underestimates the difficulty of other's expertise. I could point to (hundreds of) thousands of blog posts about individuals who think it is easy to whip up a good website, program, etc and how stupid those people are. The parallel to that is programmers who think the law is easy.

Matt's key point, to address other comments, at least in my view, is not necessarily that you have to go to a lawyer when you have no money, but 1) when you have some money, go to a good lawyer and 2) know that you're ignorant. Know that you, your friends, the people you often talk to, likely have no idea what they are talking about where the law is concerned, and do not under any circumstance forget 1) because you did not realize 2).
You know you're in trouble when the thugs are in the street waving their arms proclaiming vice is virtue, and a system of selective enforcement by a ruling class is a practical and acceptable solution.
There are plenty of managed hosting solutions out there, but it will cost you a bundle. The time it will take to learn the Linux admin thing you need to varies, but if you are a pretty quick learner, I would not expect it to take too long.

Just don't get stuck trying to find the right guides/information. It is out there, so as around.
You don't think that defunct link exchange probably had that feature, or that there were a thousand variations of that at the time?

Its fine, but don't claim is revolutionary like its claimed on the blog post the idea was taken from. Its part of a category of web sites that even has a wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_exchange

Maybe its a good plan, I think linkexchange was bought by microsoft, which then killed it.
Oddly enough, I find that I have to put my hands on the keyboard to figure out what a particular emacs command is. My muscle memory has outlasted my 'brain' memory.
Patent Troll Immersion Gets What It Deserves - Forced To Pay Microsoft $20 Million
Juggernaut - Server-side Push for Rails
"I tend to go to the mouse as soon as I have to work with more than one window"

The particular window manager you're using might have something to do with that. I'm looking forward to upgrading to a tiling window manager, myself. When I'm done procrastinating.
Django 1.0 beta 2 released
YC's California office is within the building of Anybots, Trevor Blackwell's robot startup. So the pictures of technical diagrams and offices full of interesting hardware are the Anybots bits. The unicycles are Trevor's personal collection, arranged by YC's fabulous architect, Kate Courteau.
"...if you have a legal question, you should ask a lawyer, and only a lawyer" [emphasis mine]

Because lawyers are magic people who never make mistakes? Who are completely trustworthy? Because the act of simply discussing a legal matter with friends will somehow cause irreparable harm?

I'm leery whenever someone tells me what I can and can't discuss with whom.

Let's say I'm having car trouble. I'm not stupid, I know I'm going to have to take it to a mechanic. But, first I discuss the problem with some friends and family. I get a couple uninformed opinions on what it might be, what it might cost to fix, etc.

When I take the car into a mechanic am I worse off for getting a few uninformed opinions?
This is interesting because the exact example they provide of an order table, when released in a production environment, will more than likely _not_ be 3NF.

If you have an order table, with order details line items linked to products, you need to keep an audit log of the state of the database at the time of an order being inserted.

Putting it simply, the line must 1) reference the product and 2) duplicate the product details ( price + tax definitely). In case the price of the product changes later, we need to know how much we charged the customer at that point in time.

I've worked with a lot of large databases and with the greatest will in the world to keep them normalised, sometimes certain tables will require duplication.
Just say "partial ownership" -- they may have just been objecting to the term. If they don't care about that, then you're right, they're not right for a startup. As just a job, it's a pretty horrible job: long hours, high stress, low job security; you have to want to be a part of what's being created.
The explanation I always heard was that the date was the pull date. So NewsWeek was always dated as the day the next issue would come out. For monthly magazines, it's the month that the next issue will come out in.
Very interesting. Can the concert suggestion feature recommend artists who I'm not familiar with? Maybe with some sample music? I'd love to hear about new artists and genres and maybe find something new to like.
That's always going to be true for "front door" sales (where the product is presented to management ahead of users).

But I was referring to "back door" situations: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/08/19/BackDoor
Fkeys (they're on every keyboard) and single letter commands are easily adoptable.

I dig this one. On my mac, I always set it to let the F keys behave normally. I hit fn + an F key to change volume, etc.

I map all my f keys in emacs to something useful and save plenty of time because of it.
Error! Error! Irony overload!
Gosh. Trouble in paradise?
I find I am able to memorize keyboard shortcuts if they are actually stated in the mouse menus. I hate it when there are no keyboard shortcuts in the menus. For some reason so many apps make that mistake (including Eclipse).
The Back Door
The My Favorite Text Editor debate might change its spots, but it just never gets old.
Your rule is a good one, mattmaroon. I agree with it.

Unfortunately, you've tripped on Paul Buchheit's rule. You are overgeneralizing from your own risk profile. There may be some real cowboys on HN who are optimizing for different values and may be willing to accept significantly more legal risk in their lives in the process of launching their businesses.

(I'm not one of them.)
Download Ghost Whisperer Episodes
I believe this is the best way to download any TV shows especially if you do not have much spare money to spend. The service I am talking about allows its' members to download unlimited amount of episodes, or seasons of pretty much any TV shows you like. Personally, my favorites are Grey's Anatomy, CSI, Scrubs and a few others that I really can't stop watching. And this service is a miracle
Official Twilight Cast Picture
Yes, that’s right, this is another “Twilight” update. Why? Because people are psyche about this movie and although I haven’t read the books, or know who is who and what they’re doing and why, it’s hard to ignore all the enthusiasm the kids have for this thing.
Sure, but nothing else is so far removed from my daily experience. Even with doctors I would say that I can get quite far with my common sense. And doctors DO rip you off, as in recommend loads of useless treatments. Maybe they don't even mean bad, it is just a different perspective (it's not their money, it is yours - they can not make the judgment call of how much money to spend. As long as money is available, there is always something else that could be done).

I am also not saying that lawyers in general screw you over. But it seems very hard to find a lawyer I could trust.
"After more than four years in development, a new feature that suggests queries as letters and words are typed into Google Inc.'s"

This is kind of misleading introduction. Google Suggest was readily available as a labs feature and within other areas of Google but they did not push it to the main page until now, almost 4 years later.

They make it clearer later in the article, but still kind of nitpicking is all.
No VoIP In New Nokia N-Series Phones
Ranking using Indiana University's user traffic
Liquidity Preference May Vary
I checked out some of the examples listed on a blog referenced by the 37signals article:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/01/architects_like_to_p...

Why do people think they need a grand splash for people entering their sites?

Ohh!!! Ahhh!! come on, really?

These pages suffer from a bad case of mystery meat navigation

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html
Oh, the ATM is a good example. For a user-oriented website though, I think the Affero licenses are a good idea if you care about Free Software. I personally don't see a whole lot of difference between logging into a mainframe system using a terminal, and logging into "the cloud" using my web browser.
Update: Facebook Security Fighting Koobface Worm, Chain Letters
Here Comes The CIO
murderer!
It will be harder to raise venture debt for a while
Space Cube - the world's smallest Linux PC
Ok, one of the suggestions is not to use design elements that get in the way of your visitors. However, this comes after the author fills up most of the top fold with ads that break up the article and force the user to find the next paragraph through the clutter. Maybe they're not displaying correctly in Safari, but if you're going to pontificate on web design, you should follow the rules you suggest others do.
That ad wasn't overly misleading. Saying "all parts of the internet are on the iphone" and then adding "except java and flash" wouldn't really flow well into the ad, so its no suprise they left that out. I don't think the commercial was intended to be misleading at all, but rather just showcase that the iphone internet experience is much more capable than the competition. Its really up to the consumer to do the research on the particular technologies that the iphone does and dosn't have. Hard to frame everything in a 30 second tv spot.
I learned Emacs first, and then became a vi user in the last few years. However, I notice that when I need to use emacs for some reason I can type the correct keyboard shortcuts, even though I don't remember anymore what the exact combination is ... It is a tryly amazing feeling.
Apple should advertise the lack of Flash as a feature :) All joking aside I don't find it that misleading. I suspect that the people who complained to the ASA were not the general public but competitors just looking to take Apple down a peg or two.
I agree on this. Think of creating a 'brand' if you can. It will work out better in the long run
I mostly agree with you in the case of "back door" sales, where groups are able to make turnkey purchases as part of a group's given budget or purchasing plan. Then it is not like you are dealing with a large corporation or a large sale which requires all the planning needed to justify the purchase.
Startup Hacks: Know When to Walk Away, Know When to Run
Northwestern fighting campus P2P use with... e-mail?
photo.net seems to be doing pretty well
Interview w/ Dave Crenshaw: Debunking The Myth of Multitasking
Marc Andreessen Investment in Qik
Easy to say F* the VCs when they're knocking down your door.

Me? I'd hear out the first caller without hesitation.
How about ed?
I will get this effect in vi when I type out a long string of manipulation commands in normal mode. I'll look down and realize that I don't even remember what I typed to get that certain effect. Kinda freaky.
Human exoskeleton suit helps paralyzed people walk
Desktop Virtualization: Where Thin Clients Meet the Cloud
Y Combinator Article Nominated for Deletion by Wikipedia Administrators
Where do mouse gestures fit in? It seems like they're in the "remembering lots of stuff" category (though there is less possible variation to the mouse signal, it only has so many buttons and relative movement/timing).
When you get to the section, be sure to look up Nixon's response to that Commission's report.
It's things like this that make me lose faith in Wikipedia.
I (respectfully) don't agree with the fact that all the .com names have gone, but I do agree with creating a brand name. I've registered some great names after doing some serious searching. We created a domain name finding tool to mix and match names and one that does mix and match stuff with vowels and consonants. In addition, we've also purchased some .coms for reasonable money (hundreds of dollars, but not into the thousands) that have definitely been worth it and are memorable.
Its not your browser. You're absolutely right, he's breaking his own rules.
The other part of this, if there really is a bona fide iPhone app bubble, how will Apple react, if at all? To them, it might seem like the Champs-Élysées is getting turned into a giant strip mall. I wonder if they'd pull some kind of sudden "night of the long knives" move.
Hmmmm. Perhaps I should have been more clear. Not necessarily applications that are part of Linux, but the applications built to run on Linux.

- Mule
- Sugar
- Scalix
- etc.
I really want to use this. I just wish it would work right on my Firefox. For some reason it won't take when I press enter.
IE 8 looking like a November release
Most Sung-About Body Part? The Eyes Have It
A simple jQuery Client Centering Plugin
I know some people who have lived for many years without even once having enough cash to pay their bills.
I particularly enjoyed the irony of the anonymous commenter being labeled "Anonymous Coward" by their commenting system.
I own biology.net and I'm developing it very soon; right now it redirects to my other site, biologynews.net, which is #1 for "biology news" on all major search engines. Sure the .com would have been better, but I dont have a million dollar :)
There's a tremendous difference in likely possible outcomes between getting bad advice about a car and bad advice about the law.

It's more akin to feeling a sharp pain in your chest and asking a friend rather than a doctor.
Shelfari: Shelfari joins the Amazon.com family
Common words are useless for product names; you can't google for them.
Can JavaFX make a play for rich Internet apps?
Of gyroscopes and gaming: the tech behind the Wii MotionPlus
Yeah, if only to get some external validation that you're not crazy.
What I don't get about their open source strategy is how they're going to make money at it. Consulting? Selling complements?

It's doable, but it's tough, and it might be impossible for a company not built from the ground up for that purpose.
Ruby Developers Don't Scale
>but rather just showcase that the iphone internet experience is much more capable than the competition.

Except the competition does have both Java and Flash, so it depends how you define "capable" doesn't it?

It's interesting how they're criticising them over the use of browser plugins and not their dubious use of 'the internet'.
Yeah, scrum was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the article.

Managers who remove obstacles = great

Managers who are obstacles = get a new job
Just add animation, tweening libraries, and you'll have a nice cross-browser flash/sliverlight competitor.
Well, in my culture, this is acceptable; I'm considered a consumer in that regard.
I see this a bit more like the motorcycle helmet laws in some states: they're not required, but a very very good idea.
Apple's between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they probably want to stick with their spiel of having a better experience, on the other hand, removing apps because they are just ugly or stupid would just crush creativity. I think ultimately, openness will win out.
What do you pay for?
postpath was an awesome product. it worked without plugins. windows, outlook, everything thought it was a exchange server.

it did everthing: address book, meetings, calendars, etc.

i think others missed out!
Techcrunch redesigned
TheWB.com Launches With A Bang - But Will The Content Live Up To The Hype?
I didn't say anything.
The lack of encryption in these things is just astonishing. Sure, encryption isn't a magic bullet, but it's the first line of defense, and most programming languages make it so damn easy to use.
Continue to cash in on the 30% I'd assume. Since they partnered with a VC firm just for iPhone apps, I'm guessing they are not anti-bubble.
7 Ways I've Almost Killed FreshBooks
interesting look - the itunes one makes sense - perhaps the same reason people buy candy at the checkout
We're right.