skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If you watch the video, you'll see the Windows 7 UI pop up when he opens Excel. What he's showing looks like it will be just another layer on top of what we're used to with Windows 7 now.

Which means that for touch systems, this will simply end up like Windows Mobile 6: pretty UIs for touch screen, but as soon as you want to be productive, you need a mouse.

Sorry MS, I would never use what's in that video on my desktop.
I wonder if they're keeping it quiet but plan on Office vNext being fully integrated into the new UI. I recall some leaked screenshots that seem to be leaning in that direction. Mmmm... here:

http://www.redmondpie.com/microsoft-office-15-leaked-photos-...
7:36PM Is Microsoft worried that enterprise users may see this and think it's too consumer-focused?

Not really -- employees are consumers too, and the lines have blurred somewhat. That has definitely been a recurring theme throughout D9, starting with Eric Schmidt's line that traditional IT is dead.
What they showed was primarily the UX though. Nothing about the capabilities of the new "windows 8 apps". Though given that it has a powerful OS underneath it should have all the capabilities that windows provides.

It would be exciting to develop for this. Glad I familiarized with the metro look and feel developing for the Windows Phone. I can reuse it.
I suspect there is more crime when resources are more focused on violating rights than on protecting them.
>porting an app from another platform to this is ridiculously simple

This has been at least a part of the sell. It runs Linux with libSDL, they said they ported the Unreal Engine in about 2 weeks. It also uses gcc, so you could compile Objective-C.

http://youtu.be/40ga1lyFPFg
He did show the mean. It looks like you're interested in the median. From a potential startup founder's perspective, the median is pretty important. From YC's perspective, mean is all that really matters (except to the extent that median affects the input to their program).
That's one step closer to a keyboard-free future. I wonder how developer tools will evolve.
I always loved The Perl Cookbook. It's got some in-depth discussion in there about language features, but most of the time what I want from a language book is a bunch of (complete) examples to help me learn the syntax, and probably to show me what the language's benefit is.
Apple Creates Communities Not Products | Analysis | The Mac Observer
Would love if you wanted to use http://confered.com for your mobile app site.
Jann Wenner: iPad Magazines a Bad Move for Publishers | News | The Mac Observer
They will likely release a new version of Windows Phone that makes use of the new UI capabilities.
My first thought was "are you serious?" But then I remembered the Win8-on-ARM promise. I'm not sure I'd want to use a desktop (to me 'desktop' means 'workstation') like this, but it's interesting for sure. The more I think about it, the more the seems like a product of MS's unreleased Courier UI work.

This reminds me of a recent article about how Linux is inventing the future of the desktop experience. I disagreed immediately, and this UI is an example of why. I do prefer the Linux desktop experience to others, but it is a refinement on a core of existing ideas with a few small but important inventions. So it's more like a limo than a bus, which neither KDE nor Gnome are driving.
If people are swtching because the UI alienates them then I understand them sticking to Windows 7 but why would anybody switch to Lion given that its even more alienating than Windows 7.

Besides, it looks like the OS will still have the old UI if people need to use old apps.
Another good examples is connecting to a database on the MS stack, so many different ways of doing it.
Yeah. It has been a mess for a long time. In the end, though, C/C++ is still the main API and it will probably stay like that.
the last line gives the game away.

by all means express a view of specific people based on what they say and do, but to speak so of a people or a nation is simple bigotry.

why post this on HN? the news has been covered, and this adds nothing.
I created an app called Scan4Points which uses your barcode scanner to get nutritional information and calculate the WeightWatchers points. Actually my wife had "forced" me to make it. She said it was finally something I made that she could actually use. http://confered.com/apps/Ryb70
It might be better now than since I last looked, but the one language I haven't found a good tutorial for is Haskell.

All the ones I've seen either dumb things down way too much with cartoons and such until they're difficult to slog through and pick out the relevant info, or they assume the reader either already has a working knowledge of Haskell syntax or a working knowledge of group theory.
No aircraft carrier has actually been sunk since World War 2. So they can't be that vulnerable.

Isn't that like saying Hoover Dam has never been destroyed, so it can't be that vulnerable?

I'm not sure that there have been serious attempts to destroy either (is my point).
HTML5+JS will still be Windows only.
Sure! I'd buy a $300 house and use it as a garden shed.
Is There a Plugin to Collapse Comments?
Is there a greasemonkey script or similar that can collapse/expand comments and maybe organize them a little bit better (like reddit's grease monkey script)?
Occasionally, a downvote can be caused by someone accidentally pressing the downvote button on their phone or tablet when trying to scroll or upvote.
Main problem with any kind of biometric authentication is that it cannot be used as basis for generating encryption keys (eg. for whole disk encryption). Because in that case it's totally irrelevant if you can fool the sensor, you just have to process somehow "stolen" biometric data in same way as the sensor (+ encryption software) does.

For other authentication applications, all security lies in fact that it's not possible (for reasonable values of "possible") to fool the sensor or bypass it. But most commonly used fingerprint scanners are incredibly easy to fool (even including so called "high-security" sensors that happily accept photocopy of fingerprint as valid finger). Bypassing the sensor is often even easier, but on the other hand I've seen systems (for example BIOS level fingerprint authentication on ThinkPads) that are explicitly designed as to make that very expensive (in the ThinkPad case you would have to actually decapsulate the sensor chip from it's package).
You're right. He probably had a deadly disease and the only cure was at the top of the highest mountain on earth.

Honestly what context do you possibly need? There aren't really a lot of externalities here
Introducing RestBucks on .Net
Same with Pog collecting my friend. You either 'get it' or the practice is a complete act of tomfoolery
As an iPhone developer (well, mainly designer, but I also write Cocoa) I can tell you that thinking it's "some pretty gloss" is a big mistake. It's not "gloss" it's incredible over-execution and it's what separates a regular app from a blockbuster app. This is especially true in games. The audio design, impeccable visual design and extreme planning of every single user interaction is what takes an app to the top.

By dismissing immaculate execution and over a year's worth of work from some of the top game & visual designers in the iPhone industry as "some pretty gloss" you're completely missing why it (and almost every other Tap Tap Tap app) has went #1.
You shouldn't pass judgement on the living.
And what I meant by related was that another pin in the same keyboard controller was tied to the A20 gate, so it was toggled in a similar way.
I'm going through a similar experience. I haven't posted my resume anywhere and I'm not even really 'looking' right now. But I've got a ton of emails from people who've seen my tweet on leaving MSFT or better, from a post on HN about it.
That is interesting for sure. And it's really in line with HP's plans all along to use webOS on printers.

Even more reason for HP to go open source though. Why use webOS when you can use Android for free instead? Why try to get ahold of an HP sales rep to discuss licensing terms when the Android repository is seconds away from any desktop. Android is already being used in phones and TVs. Soon it will be in cars and pretty much any other embedded device with a screen for a user interface.
'lost' or 'spent'?
Watch bridesmaids online
Watch bridesmaids online
the servants of other cheerful. They all work hard to wrest the maximum absurd script co-written by Annie Smart Mumola and Wiig, friends, whose collaboration tracks their lives Groundlings improvisation.
I'm sure there will be some kind of a store for these dashboard apps. It's really not that different from a new skin on sidebar gadgets, is it? They're developed using HTML+JS and distributed through an online store. This UI looks great though and will definitely be beneficial to tablet/touchscreen computers.

There will still be registry+dll hell because the core operating system and applications will be running on the traditional windows environment in the background.
Except that unless they actually do treat it as an act of war, it's an empty and pointless threat.

And they're clearly not treating it as an act of war, which is why the US (thankfully) isn't at war with China right now.

Politically, going to war with China just because they hacked the SecDef's email would be an impossible sell to the American people, who frankly aren't that keen on starting World War 3 unless it's absolutely necessary. If the Pentagon is getting hacked by China then the correct response is better security, not making threats, whether idle or serious.
This works if USB devices haven't been locked down by some kind of IT policy.
Any chance of having one of these that works two-way? I have found a need to type things back to the candidate.
I haven't heard the term "50 cent army" before. I assume it's not a rapper's fan club?
Are there any numbers on how many YC companies are now defunct? Would be interesting to see how this compares to the anecdotal 9/10 startups fail in the first year.
Interview with Shelley Dolley: Tips for aspiring (professional) speakers
a better way:

If we convince US congress that they are losing tax dollars for each software patent awarded the change in law may happen quicker.
This seems like pretty good advice for anyone who wants to do better at learning-on-your own, lazy and hyperactive or not. I especially like the idea of writing down non-obvious things, as I've found that helpful in the past but have never really gotten into the habit.
I really like what http://www.githits.me is doing. I think it's a great way to improve your programming skills too by looking at great code written by some of the top github users.
Or just use a screen sharing tool like Skype. That's how I got interviewed by the company I'm working for right now, and no browser based tool can match it. I could use my favorite editor(Vim) and show off my command line skills too. It was one of the best interview experiences I had.
Pretty much this. We spy on them, they spy on us. Not much to be done about it. It used to be bugs in hotel rooms, now it's email phishing schemes.
The Story of MySoti.com
Awesome. I'm so glad that you have shown me the light. I now realize that we are perfectly and 100% secure right this very moment and that the security system of using the same password everywhere (e.g. password = 'password') is working out so well for people!

[Also: If a user enters <FORM OF AUTHENTICATION>, how do we know for sure that they aren't entering <FORM OF AUTHENTICATION> under duress? We'd better just scrap this whole authentication thing altogether.]
You managed to pack a great deal of trolling into this post. Kudos for this one.
Full screen apps look awesome. I can only think of how the web apps will look on Windows 8 devices now. Hopefully there will be no need to learn a new SDK and leveraging the Web technologies for building great apps that will work across all devices will be enough.
At the risk of revealing some intrinsic immorality or something, I don't really see what's wrong with this. It would be wrong of the sales team to claim to have used Airbnb for stays that never happened, or to invent false testimonials, but that's not the charge.

The allegation is that they emailed property owners and said, effectively, "Airbnb is great, you should use it" without saying how or why they came to hold that opinion. It's untruthful in the sense of not including the whole truth, but I'd put it decisively under naughty, not blackhat.
I think there was mention of how easy it will be to install/uninstall apps in the All Things D presentation earlier today. Registry+DLL hell might just die with 7.
I'm currently unemployed.

I would say that some recruiters are great, just like some internal recruiters are poor. The worst experience I've had this round of interviewing has been with an internal recruiter, where there was both no personality fit between me and the managers/recruiters and the job was not what they had advertised.

I alerted my network that I was looking for work before I resigned. I didn't get an attractive offer through my network so I have to look through ads on various job boards.

By replying to those ads with applications I eventually got interviews or recruiters calling me back about positions that they had not advertised yet.

You are correct in that your friends won't recommend you to a place where they aren't enjoying working or where they don't think you'll enjoy working.
I remember feeling that way when I submitted a successful bid to bring PyCon to Atlanta, GA, having lived in Atlanta and run the Atlanta Python User Group. I believe our main competitor was the Bay Area and we "won". It turns out Atlanta was pretty cool, it had a walkable city, etc.

Now that I live in the Bay Area, I have to admit, I like that it is now in my backyard again :)
> I actually think that it would be much easier to recognize a 'female Einstein' just because her intelligence would be so exceptional.

Sorry, I don't get it. What are you trying to say?

By the way, the most beautiful result in physics was discovered by a woman, Emmy Noether. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noethers_theorem)
Thanks Tom. Though I should say, both to reply to your "a smart guy" crack and to further advertise the position, I'm actually the dumb guy in this group.
If Microsoft can retain and gain mindshare you may very well be right, going forward I just doubt Microsoft's ability to "capture people's imaginations" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvskEGWMLp4).
Yeah, once I'm done school I in all likeliness will move to the Bay area. Just too much is happening there (well, here. I'm here for the summer) to miss it.
There was a thread about this at some point. The answer was "a bunch", though the numbers were complicated. Some had merged, others experienced "exits" which were really just talent acquisitions and shut down all operations on their product. Very few really "failed".

The 9/10 startups thing was always a myth, though, especially if you're talking about startups which get to the stage of getting any funding at all. It's more like 1/2.
I've heard several horror stories of EA working their developers very hard. Is this studio any different?
http://www.climberbum.com - a site to help rock climbers find the best deals on climbing gear.
Why is this free? B/c you're not charging for your product, I'm skeptical that you'll be around long enough for it to make sense to learn how to use your product. Remember you're target is businesses, who are much less price sensitive, and are much more interested in stability. PLEASE CHARGE.
How do you open Control Panel?
Interestingly if your 4 digit key for iPhone has a digit used twice then it is harder to guess the correct order given the smudge marks:

4 distinct digits = 4! = 24 permutations
3 distinct digits (one repeated) = 4!/2*3 = 36 permutations

Note: division by 2 is because of the symmetry of swapping the order of the repeated digit, multiplication by 3 is because it is not known which of the 3 digits is repeated.

Note2: Using 2 distinct digits (both used twice or one used 3 times) is not as ideal as that results in: 4c1*2 + 4c2 = 14 permutations
The truth? It’s simpler…and harder than you think.
Wholesale GPS Navigators - Car GPS - GPS Navigation System
the government will most likely kill bitcoin

Which one?
No jQuery for desktop JS?
Is there an official response yet from PG regarding contracted use of Black Hat tactics as a starting YC company? I understand breaking the rules but black hat?

It seems like I could contract a spammer and discontinue the contractor services when getting a HN frontpage. The contractor would get a sizable exit sum. All because AirBnB is allowed to 'get away with it' after at least a year of doing it [0].

[0] http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/airbnb-brian-chesky/
The one thing that really jumped out at me was that "thumbs" keyboard. I would LOVE to have that option on the iPad.

The rest of it looks cool enough, better than expected. For me personally I can't imagine going back to any version of Windows. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me...uh, you won't get fooled again.

But for those still on Windows this will be an interesting transition.
Is that the one down by the river?
Scala One Liners
IMO you may want to re-think emphasizing "a very polished UI", currently Geckoboard's UI is much more "polished"[1]. Instead, play up the tangible benefits over Geckoboard (realtime, data export).

[1]https://demo.geckoboard.com/dashboard/B6782E562794C2F2/
If you buy a computer in 2012 it's gonna have Windows 8 on it (unless you buy a mac). Microsoft don't need to 'capture imaginations', they have the market share already.
> UI that got away from the classic icons + sidebar widgets design.

Have a play with kde netbook stuff, pretty funky and solid. Also there is meego but i've never used it.
Ask HN: Graduation Present for Aspiring Math Major?
One of my wife's piano students is going off to college, and the student wants to major in math, at a liberal arts college with a strong mathematics department. As we are invited to her high school graduation party, I thought we ought to bring a gift along, and I'm wondering what you suggest as a gift to send someone off to college as a math major. I can think of a few books, but perhaps you have some other ideas. Any and all hacker-friendly suggestions welcome. Her dad is an MIT-trained engineer and has run a start-up business for a number of years, so I figured this was the right place to ask this question.
Our engineers can outdrink anyone.

That sounds like a challenge. :D You think you can outdrink Grooveshark?
This actually looks like a great touch UI, and it would make a great tablet UX too given that users will never have to see the standard start menu and icons (at least for tablets).

I know it might be fashionable to bash Microsoft, but this demo looks great. While I'm at it, the Metro UI and Windows Phone 7 are actually good. Current market adoption is not equivalent to "goodness". I use it personally and I'm very satisfied .. even as a Linux user and an iPad owner.
They 'illegally' spammed users for at least a year.

> It never fails that I get at least 20 marketing emails a day from airbnb when I post a property on craigslist. I hope they do more of these PR stunts than filling up my inbox with unsolicited messages. [0]

"I'm not a lawyer but I am an anti-spam expert.

They most certainly are illegal. They are unsolicited advertising (which is fine under CAN-SPAM, sadly), and contain none of the requirements of CAN-SPAM - a legitimate business address, and a clear unsubscribe link.

Just because they come from gmail accounts does not exempt AirBnB from the law." [1]

[0] http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/airbnb-brian-chesky/

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2605565
So no estimates at all? And I was beginning to look forward to some tasty grilled foreskin!
You seem to be judging people's decisions based on your own value system and dreams as opposed to theirs.
All this functionality requires a touch screen, thats fine on mobile devices, but what about on a desktop pc - what will be the cost of big touch-screen monitors?

I guess a really cool idea is to have a small touchscreen you use for control, in combination with an existing/bigger screen for the actual display.
I feel like this article is an example of how a lot of charity and social businesses are half-baked at best.

First is the idea, mostly held by people at places like Dartmouth, that because these problems exist it must mean that nobody is trying to solve them. In reality, plenty of people are trying to solve them, its just difficult. This leads people to start their own charities that end up competing with each other for donations and thus it is difficult to develop the economies of scale that makes this stuff efficient.

The article mostly talks about the lack of market research. Its not difficult to ask someone 'What do you need' or 'Why don't you have running water' or 'Do you need your house to double as a workshop' and this would have helped guide the designs. A simple walk through and critical thinking would have shown designers that many people lived in apartments, and perhaps a 3000 dollar apartment building would get more use.

The article brings up putting local laborers out of business. I'm not sure I buy this argument against charity. The authors had spent previous paragraphs explaining the need for customization. The builders would not automatically be out of work if people bought prefab houses.

I guess in conclusion I think a lot of people who go into charity have the 'saving the world' attitude that makes them arrogant. This leads to people trying the same thing over and over again, and while competition is great in a market economy, when non-profits are competing for donations it leads to the non-profits viewing the donators as their customers and the most important people to please rather than the people they claim to help.
Not quite. Safari for iOS is crippled when compared to the desktop versions. You have to write a native app over a web app if you want to allow the user to upload images or video, for example.
Can't be done. The discussion happening at gist.github.com for the specific gist has some good info on why it can't be done.
I think the drive in people who push boundaries between what is safe and what is dangerous is beneficial to overall human survival. It puts us more in control of the surrounding natural environments.

We all take survival risks. I wouldn't climb Everest but I do ride a motorcycle and scuba dive. Both hobbies do add survival risks for only enjoying life more.
Maybe you are adding up all of the great discoveries throughout all of history and comparing them to a 50 year period.

Another issue is that many of the "great" theories were considered to be crocks at the time. It took decades for them to be proven and/or accepted. Anything equivalent discovered now might not be proven for a hundred years.

For example theory of manmade global warming.
Telomere theory of aging - may lead to everlasting life
Genetic basis of disease
How viruses are integrated into our genome

Things that are yet to be proven but there are competing theories. Some may turn out to be correct
Origin of species
Unified theory
Extraterrestrial life
In case anyone's wondering how to add the +1 button to their Posterous (which doesn't allow Javascript), feel free to use this iframe:

<!-- default size: 110x30, tall: 50x60 -->
<iframe src="http://dev.syskall.com/plusone/?url={Permalink}&size=tall" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="border:0;width:50px;height:60px;"></iframe>

I'll publish the PHP script on my github[1] shortly in case you want to host it yourself.

[1] https://github.com/olalonde/google-plusone-posterous
'The Little Schemer' is not intended to be a tutorial on Scheme. To quote the preface, "The goal of this book is to teach the reader to think recursively". Similarly, the other books in the series have well-defined goals.