skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I just finished coding a web service in both Java, PHP, and node.js. Java took 1848 lines of code. PHP 548. Node 201.
In my tests Node uses much less CPU and has way better
performance than Java or PHP. 201 lines is far easier to get
working than 1848.
Fair enough, and perhaps your comment is a sign of change. However, though this is a global forum, the source article is from the American Bar Association.
0.01% is actually a much larger transaction than market cap is normally computed on. The last trade at anyone time in a company can be as small as a single share. Of course you can object to this, but it makes no sense just pointing out a single case like this.

Regarding the estimation of the personal wealth of Zuck-whats-his-face: since the wealth of the rest of the bunch of billionaires he's compared to is estimated roughly by extrapolating the last transactions on the mass of equity they own, it would be unfair to not do the same with his.

Forbes calling MZ's holdings a "mostly paper fortune" is in fact themselves questioning the underpinnings of the valuation mechanics. I think they are keeping their heads fairly leveled.
Sending a beam of light along a sheet of graphene
Indeed. I bookmarked it for later, rather than viewing anything immediately. I'll have to start ... each ... video ... one ... by ... one ... to ... see ... which ... ones ... are ... interest ... ing ... to ... me.
One caveat before commenting is that I haven't written a major app in Node.js and I use Python most of the time (vs. Java).

I don't think the decision to use Node.js should be based on the fact it uses Javascript. Currently, Javascript has a much more interesting ecosystem than it has at any other time. Just as Rails took many collective practices and managed to communicate them clearly to a huge group of developers, I think a similar trend is happening in Javascript. From this perspective, Node.js is appealing because it rides atop this Javascript revolution with tools like Coffeescript, Backbone, etc.

Outside of the language decision, I think people are choosing to use Node.js b/c of its programming model. There are many applications that are relatively easy to code for when you can assume a constant connection between two processes. Where Node.js seems to excel is in these service level, socket based servers that may or may not have a web component. Likewise, Node.js also aims to be very nix friendly in that it tries to use simple processes for scaling instead of relying on more complicated application / language specific tools. This adherence to nix patterns is also very advantageous to some people.

Finally, as people start finding use cases where async really is a good idea, Node.js ends up being a decent option. Having done some async programming in Python, it is very difficult because the async assumption needs to be made throughout in order to avoid blocking. My impression is that the experience in other languages is similar, where no library is truly able to make the async paradigm seamless. Node.js has been written from scratch to support this model and many developers understand it via their Javascript experience. It therefore can be a good option when compared to including something like Stackless, EventMachine, etc. in their applications.

I think the key point here is that Node.js has managed to hit something of a sweet spot in that it is async, uses a language that is having something of a renaissance and uses *nix to make its integration obvious.

Again, I don't use Node.js very heavily at all, but that is my impression as to why people would choose it over other technologies.
Restyled Google Top Bar
Yesterday I commented on how I didn't like the dark grey Google bar (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2707564) so I decided to quickly whip up a different style.

Screenshot of new version: http://cl.ly/81PS

Pastie of CSS: http://pastie.org/2140161

There are probably better selectors to use but this tramples on the default style nicely :)
Clever Foursquare Hack Turns New York City Into a Giant Game of Risk
There's a need for good Clojure tutorials for beginners. I have a whole lot of technical nitpicks with the content, but this is a good start and a good thing for the Clojure community. Great work.
In a perfect world you would be correct. But answer me this:

How many Java backend engineers know how to unit test javascript, how to make modular templates (e.g. writing their own tags, or nesting/tiling their JSP's), how to systematically minify their code in production and use CDN's ... or even how to use any design patterns in Javascript?
I generally do drive somewhat efficient cars. My most recent car, an old Outback, is the worst I've ever driven at 28mpg typ.

It's just been my experience that more efficient cars have smaller tanks.
This is the exact same setup I have; two hosted accounts and one gmail account. I had conflicting accounts with gmail + my hosted apps account, and merged them which created a bunch of issues (I was warned, I suppose)

I don't know if the personal choice of how we use our accounts is abnormal, but the resulting effect is definitely not something desirable.
Most "herbal medicines".
Solve a puzzle, get a discount to ISM
Ah, good call.

It's mentioned in the Google+ help centre: http://www.google.com/support/+/
refers to the interfaces to the black box with which software developers typically interact, then it is largely true that Windows is based on .NET because .NET provides control of the operating system for the vast majority of projects

I agree that the vast majority of Windows thick client business projects developed in the last few years probably target .NET, but, looking at the start menu on my Vista laptop currently, apart from dev tools, PAINT.NET and Keepass 2.0 (which still maintains a 1.x Win32 release), every other end-user application installed on my machine does not run on .NET.

EDIT: In fact, I only run Keepass 2.0 for Mono compatibility on Ubuntu. I also would guess that a default Ubuntu desktop install has more dependencies on Mono, than a default Windows install does on .NET.
1. I think you're wrong. I would agree that JavaScript's syntax is not great, but it's still better than Java's. (And dynamic typing, whatever your complaints with it, does significantly reduce how verbose the language is.) Also, first-class functions are a huge benefit for me.

Also a lot of JS's syntactical issues/verbosity can be alleviated with libraries like Underscore. Start using CoffeeScript and you're miles ahead of Java in terms of syntax and verbosity, and you make some of JS's more annoying issues a lot easier to avoid.

2. Yes, you do care about performance, to a certain point. If everything I was doing had to immediately be available at Google scale, then yes, I'd consider Java a lot more seriously. However, most of the stuff I do doesn't have to scale to millions of simultaneous connections on just a handful of servers. Absolute performance is not my highest consideration, and NodeJS absolutely is more productive for me than Java.

I think you're missing a couple of very important points, which are why I think NodeJS is the best tool for some tasks.

First, and by far most importantly, it has Socket.IO, which is by far the best choice library when you're doing anything in real time. It is fantastic, and is a huge part of the reason why I use NodeJS for certain classes of applications.

Second, there is value to being able to share code between the server and the client for nontrivial web applications. Most code doesn't get shared, but not having to have separately maintained models for the server and client is really helpful.

For me, the 'cool factor' doesn't come into it at all. I enjoy programming in JS and even moreso in CoffeeScript. I dislike programming in Java. And when I'm not doing something that has to be hugely scalable, Java's only real advantage is raw speed, and NodeJS has vastly superior tools for doing what I'm trying to do (real-time webapps), NodeJS is the clear choice.
I whipped up a new design for the top bar and posted the CSS for it in a new HN submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2709736
What CouchDB can do for HTML5, web apps and mobile
Is it difficult to have PHP display a splash page for 500 errors?
Why Concrete Language Communicates Truth
what is the whole idea of writing ... 3 dots?
Is it for readability or anything else?
>Actually I never really thought Facebook's interface was that good - mediocre at best.

Why do you think it's only mediocre? What's keeping it from being good?
Hacking the War
You could probably apply much of this logic to building a webapp or native app for that matter. The rules all apply everywhere, it is just a matter of how mature the market is.

Mobile is still new. Tablet is VERY new. Motion/kinect is basically nonexistant. So, understanding where the market is should change the way you target it.

Launching an app on the app store is probably akin to launching a blog in 2002-2005. There was competition, but it was still relatively little compared to now, but there was still enough competition that you had to hustle to get noticed. Launch a blog now and nobody cares. You have to make them care.

If you think pushing an app is hard now, wait 5 years.
An 'average weekend warrior' or people 'without programming experience' who are daunted by the complexity of Java should not be implementing server applications (see PSN security issues). They are complicated independent of the language, and anyone capable of implementing one will not be tripped up by syntax.

The authors points were all legitimate, there was no trolling there. I think a lot of us have quietly wondered why there was a need for a Javascript based server framework; maybe a lot of the hype was driven by frustrated/advanced front-end developers that wanted to work w/ familiar tools combined with the new/shiny factor. It doesn't seem exceptional in any respect outside of being implemented in JS right now.

That said, you should be happy for this kind of post. It means that node.js is catching on enough that it's getting critical attention. Same thing happened to Rails, and to Java before that.
I don't think the idea is that it is better than a hybrid. I gather that idea is consumers get to "test-drive" the electric concept for the first 40 miles of every "tank", and that they will begin to realize that's all they need.

Currently a hybrid like the Prius is largely indistinguishable to the driver from a gas-only car. It sounds to me like GM is aiming to give drivers the electric car experience, with the gasoline as a safety net.
Cameron Diaz swears up a storm in 'Bad Teacher'
I think this has potential. Facebook over took Myspace because it solved the biggest flaw Myspace had, it was messy. Facebook offered a simple clean alternative. Now Google+ solves the biggest flaw Facebook has, confusing privacy controls. Perhaps that's enough to migrate people from Facebook? Who knows. I know I'd like to post something for on Facebook for my political friends without the fear of getting my parents foaming at the mouth.
You have to submit an email address to request access. I'm wondering if they are using their gmail address book data to see which emails are connected to each other before handing out invites. So if 10 of my close friends and I (who all have each other in our gmail address books) request invites, we'd be more likely to all get accepted than interested individuals with no interested contacts.

That might be a smart way to ramp up.

Also remember that Facebook started out very privately, too.
I had this exact problem (multiple gmail/gapps accounts that I'm in all day) and the experience got a lot better a few days ago when this consistently colored bar across the top was rolled out to me.
I hope that at least everyone on the Google+ team got an invite. Lol.

I`d be pretty upset if I put so much work into something and wasn`t even allowed to use it.
... Microsoft's profit incentive ...

Exactly right: it's in Microsoft best interest to not to enter the "Post-PC Era".

However, I have often wondered when will Microsoft be irrelevant? Will there be a technology world without Microsoft (or a vastly different Microsoft)? Or will Microsoft's intrenched position in the corporate (and enterprise) environments ensure its continued (and varied) success?

People "accept" Microsoft products in a work environment largely because of inertia and a distaste of change. Very good arguments can be made whether or not there are just-as-good or better alternatives, but I believe that organizations can thrive without Microsoft technologies.

And maybe the inertia and distaste of change is a generational phenomena, because I cannot imagine a future world where my children are using Microsoft products. When I was growing up, I learned how to program using a Commodore 64 (and the "cool kids" had beepers) and then Microsoft was a blessing of sorts since it was accessible and affordable. But now we truly have technological advances in terms of hardware and software, so why will our future accept technology based in the past? (Really, how much of Windows 7 isn't based on the old Win32 APIs?)

As a casual observation, it seems to me that the battle for corporate e-mail will be the next major "battle ground"...
Anonymous Antisec leaks Zimbabwe, Australia and Brazil governments data dumps
I've noticed this trend directly. Our incoming non-spam rate has stayed steady at an avg of about 10 msgs/min in the least few years, but our overall average rate has dropped from 250 msgs/min to about 60 msgs/min.

Another trend that I've noticed recently, and what seems is an example of a targeted attack, is an increase in brute force attacks on user accounts. This is likely anecdotal though, if something works once for spammers, they are pretty relentless at trying to attack it again.

I do find it interesting to watch these trends shift, and to have to respond to new methods. It's a great, big, penis-enlargement-pill-fueled, game of cat and mouse to me.
Possibly. However, I've found that it's fairly easy to identify who is saying what based on writing style, grammar and punctuation habits. Any HR person will tell you that's how they identify respondents to "anonymous" employee surveys.
Leadership Through Stories
I think they said the emulator is slow because it doesn't have GPU acceleration and because it's emulating the ARM architecture on the x86 (though this might not be a very big issue). They said a fix is coming by the end of the year.
Local Food or Less Meat? Data Tells The Real Story
=\ I've been talking to HostGator support for 30 minutes and all I've managed to get from them is "500 errors are caused by too many processes running at once." Wow, thanks HG for that little gem right there. Sigh.
This is not linkbait.

This post by 37signals is criticizing the way market capitalization is often determined. Facebook's current valuation is just an extreme example.

Your choice to ignore the argument doesn't mean there is none.
355/113 is good enough for Chuck Moore (the Forth guy).

http://www.colorforth.com/pi.htm

[edited to correct blatant error. Thanks Florin]
While I'd love it if it were true, that's not a valid conclusion. How many cases of winning cheaters are out there that never got caught?

Only "cheaters that get caught never win" would be true, but that's kinda obvious.
I think there is a big difference between a business paying an iOS developer $100-200 an hour to make an app and a software developer releasing an app in their spare time. I'm in the process of doing the latter. I've got an idea for an app which I believe is new and original and I hope I make more than $100 a month. Really, I'm hoping for 1000 sales a month in the first few months but that might be overly optimistic.

I'd be fine with $100 a month though. Really, as long as I make $100-200 overall I will recoup my original investment and have learned a valuable professional skill.

I think marketing is going to be a problem. Becoming lost in the appstore seems like it could be an issue.
They already did.
Which image did you boot from? I'm trying to run this within qemu, but I never managed to get network working.

The android emulator works fine and running any linux distro inside qemu likewise.

I'm using something like this:

kvm -soundhw es1370 -net nic -net user \
-cdrom android-x86-2.2-r2-asus_laptop.iso

and when pressing ctrl-alt-2 i get:

QEMU 0.14.0 monitor - type 'help' for more information
(qemu) info network
VLAN 0 devices:
user.0: net=10.0.2.0, restricted=n
rtl8139.0: model=rtl8139,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:56
Devices not on any VLAN:
(qemu)

but network doesn't work and I'm unable to change the network settings from the android configuration menu.
I've occasionally used the web apps for viewing and editing docs (especially OneNote) on Linux with Firefox. They are admittedly pretty slow and clunky, but work adequately for what I need and I don't think I've ever seen them freeze or crash.

When you say Office Live, was this back when it was actually called that (the new incarnation is "Windows Live Office", though I don't blame you for not keeping track of Microsoft's constant baffling name changes)?
Seems like it could be useful with some polishing, but I can't get past the Comic Sans.
This immediately strikes me as a "why didn't I think of that" idea, but in practice (in my workplace at least) everyone would figure out who was who based on the writing style and general tone. In a larger more anonymous group of people (like a class) you could probably get away with it, but then what have you got to lose in the first place by just voicing your opinion publicly?

But good luck, I think this is a pretty cool idea.
I was at my local public television station yesterday working on a project, and their editors said they are seriously considering switching to Avid because of this release.
"Unfinished"? Is that a euphemism for awful, because that's what it is. :)

Downloading a blip.tv video is such a pain in the ass that the only logical explanation is that the blip.tv guys are doing everything they can to prevent people from downloading anything from their site.
Great, now they just need to stock compatible napkins in bars. "hey, I've got this idea... Look, it works!"
The server displays the error pages, not PHP. Its not that hard to customize, and you can have a script do it, but once the misconfiguration page is being shown, your configuration is screwed up anyway. This kind of error usually results from your script not interfacing with the server correctly (like not sending the response code in the right format).
I don't use Flask, but sqlalchemy. If you want an orm in a flask-based app, you will most probably end up using sqlalchemy, and there is a migration tool for sqlalchemy:
http://code.google.com/p/sqlalchemy-migrate/
Why Start-ups Matter
Agreed that you can probably find commonalities within the individual comment threads, but I feel like you'd be hard pressed to do it within a large group.

Though I guess those semantic specialists from HR could do some damage.
The 37signals folks are interesting: as product designers and product managers, I have the utmost respect for them. As observers of the VC scene, their opinions and observations are often useless. That said, if you don't want to go the VC route and instead want to have a go at building a successful business without outside financing, I think Getting Real and Rework are must-reads.

Genius is rarely universal. William Shockley invented the transistor — yes, a gross oversimplification — but was an advocate of eugenics. Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh? Nazi sympathizers. No, I don't think Jason Fried, DHH, and co. are monsters, but these high-profile examples show that skill, talent, or insight in one area do not necessarily transfer to others. Not everyone is a Leonardo da Vinci.
In this case, I wouldn't care much about the growth of the user base, which is pretty ubiquitous regardless of some dropoff or slow growth. Rather, the only number I'd care about is the growth of profits and advertising, which is relatively unknown at the moment.
http://www.linode.com/index.cfm
Neat, I had thought about putting this same concept into action, though it seemed like anonymity would be really difficult until you had a large enough user base. Otherwise, you invite say 10 friends to a conversation and only 3 accept, then it's going to be pretty easy to narrow down who is who.
Filter Bubbles?
http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bu...

Feels a bit like over-fitting, getting stuck in a local maxima type of problem.

Take music. Why is it that people get stuck? I'm stuck. I feel it. 90's metal is all I listen to willingly (current British pop hitting my ears is GF's fault). There are "generations" of music and people just stop liking new songs. They feel unfamiliar.

Apply the same to a world view(news, politics) or anything really. How do we make recommendation systems that allow users to grow their tastes?
I have access but I looked and found no invite button. Also, I don't find all Googlers in there, which is weird because I'm one of most lowly Googlers (new, young).
SoftwareHamilton PubNite: A great turnout, eh
How to waste time in your startup
>What have you got to lose in the first place by just voicing your opinion publicly?

Your job, for one.
Joshfire : HTML5 cross-device development framework
Needs lazy evaluation. Just don't try to look at the whole number at once.
Maybe I'm crazy for thinking this, but am I the only one who doesn't think that "the cloud" has to equal "the web"?

Dropbox is probably my favorite cloud based service and guess what, I almost never use the web client. Sure the web client is awesome and super useful, but most of the time I'm using the native apps.

I agree that MSFT needs to massively improve Office web apps, but just because the primary focus is syncing with existing office apps is not a bad thing at all. For those of you not keeping score at home, Office is probably the most popular boxed software in the world outside of Windows.

Microsoft would be incredibly stupid to tell all their customers that they now have to use web versions. Their customers would tell them they want to keep using Outlook, Excel, Word, and Powerpoint like they have for the last 15 years.

If you were sitting on millions of existing office users, they'd be your #1 potential customer base too. That's just good business.

As nerds we all love the internet and the potential of the web, but as entrepreneurs, we should look at what Office 365 is doing and learn a few lessons from the pros. Already MSFT is signing up big enterprises on this thing. If they can execute at all, it's going to be a BIG hit.

Ballmer might not get consumer products at all, but when it comes to selling to and serving business customers, he gets it.
Ask HN: B2B or B2C - Which way to go?
I am experienced in developing and implementing enterprise packages (like ERP, CRM). I want to start a start-up in this domain, selling to small companies. I want to experiment something part time first before I quit my job and do start on my own.

I can take a) the B2B route - Do I need to pick up sales skills in my current job and develop contacts in my local market before I jump full time. I plan to enter an existing market/product. The challenge will be my lack of sales experience?

b) the B2C route - I might not have to do any institutional selling and concentrate on my product better. Here, the product/market fit is untested. Not sure which path to take. Experiences/ advice needed.
It seems best suited for a group who are familiar, but not necessarily friends. A class is an excellent example; close coworkers are not.

And depending on what it is you want to say, you may have a lot to lose. Have you never taken a class with a teacher who displays blatant favoritism, or is sexist or racist enough to make a difference to you, but not to the administration? Being able to say something without an authority figure being able to punish you can be pretty important.