skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I guess my site was hit by Panda too.. I said guess because all of us are guessing since Google does not bother to inform us.
Like you, searching for a keyword, previously lands you in the first page - now it's on the 4th/5th page.

Try searching your site on Bing, Yahoo and see..

videowatchr.com uses Google video search and the youtube API to show youtube videos. So of course, it will have duplicate content.

If you use an API, you are getting someone's content most likely, does that make you a content farm?
How about if you use an RSS feed?

Google should publish guidelines on this Panda - so we're not guessing.
Wouldn't that be nice?
I've read part of both patents. Yes, they are very, very silly and obvious.
You'd be surprised how few people notice you're doing it.
I don't understand how Apple proponents can claim on one hand that iOS is vastly superior to Android but on the other that similarities between the two systems pose an existential threat to Apple's ability to innovate. Either execution counts or it doesn't. If Android is outselling the iPhone at similar price points it's obviously doing more than just copying. What's worse, the patents with which Apple is actually litigating are trivial.

The defenses I hear of the patent system remind me a lot of defenses I hear for American drug policy. At this point the evidence is overwhelming that current U.S. patent law does more to stifle than to foster innovation and this is going to hurt American global competitiveness in the long run.
What Jekyll and Fixies have in common
Excellent points and pretty damn insightful. Thanks.

Was the open source project he contributed to something your company uses? If not, why on earth was he doing it at work instead of at home (or perhaps I misunderstood)?

Some was used directly and some was only peripherally important to the projects in the lab.

The time, energy, creativity, interest and so on that he put into that project should have been something the company was trying to capture for it's benefit. You allowed him to fritter those valuable personal resources away. He didn't want to be frittering away his time. He wanted it valued. So he went to a company that valued the work he was willing to pour himself into.

I think his work was highly valued by the company and myself, but his work for the company perhaps underutilized his skills or just didn't interest him. I think your point is critical, though, that employees need to feel their efforts are strongly valued.

As to the point of my post/question. Does the culture of "just quit" promote a certain level of irresponsibility? I think it does. If you have to leave, of course do so. But make efforts to minimize the disruption your departure will inevitably create (if you were good at your job). Your employer gave you a chance. Whether it worked out or not, the honorable path will leave behind less ill will. Sometimes previous employers can serve as excellent contacts, references, and even future partners.
Expertise:
3rd year computer engineering student, run my own freelance web design & dev company since 17 - akpro.net. My personal portfolio, aysark.com. UI/UX & frontend developer with decent backend experience.

Desired skill set:
We are looking for a backend (PHP/MySQL) and/or mobile developer. This is our priority atm, but if you have something else unique (ie. marketing/business guru)- shoot me an email. (Currently a team of 2 cofounders, looking for a 3rd to tie the knot)

Idea:
Currently working on a new recently launched startup, Studygig.com - a search engine and hub for university/college students to find, share and list study material. Customer has been validated and idea has 2nd-mover advantage, with emphasis on product and traction.

Interest:
Making the web a better place. Based in Toronto, Canada.

Contact:
ak@akpro.net
They are using the patent system exactly as it has been setup. You can argue about the system, but they are definitely not acting as patent trolls here. If the patent was too trivial, then expect HTC to argue for patent invalidation - exactly as the system was setup.
There's no such thing (legally) as a warrant under court seal. If there is no warrant presented, and no warrant that can be gotten simply upon request by the searched party, then this was a warrantless search.

If it was a warrantless search, it was a crime, and every participant engaged in a felony (presuming they were armed.) US Code 18-242 makes it a felony to violate constitutional rights under color of law (while armed. If unarmed I think it is not a felony, a lower penalty applies.)

If the constitution is the highest law of the land then no subordinate organization (namely congress) can make a law that violates the constitution. Congress was authorized to make laws, and the government was given limited, enumerated powers in the enumerated powers section. If a particular law is not under and enumerated power, or involution of the constitution, it is never a valid law. The moment it is signed, it is null and void-- according the the supreme court in Mabury v. Madison.

Thus, a law authorizing a "court seal" for warrants, which violates the fourth ammendement, even if it exists, is null and void, and does not need to be struck down by any court to be null and void.

Without this law, without any presented warrant, the search is thus illegal, and every participant is a felon (if they were armed.)

I say all this to point out, just how far from obeying the law our government is.

Of course, it is absurd to expect that any prosecutor in the justice department will bring any of these people up on charges (presuming that an investigation reveals the facts to be as supposed in the context of this discussion.)

Since the government is not operating within the bounds of the law, the government doesn't have the protection of the law, and the government is, itself, a criminal organization (to the extend that the previous two clauses are true.)

Denial of this-- which is not really an opinion so much as legal fact-- is why americans are constantly surprised when things get worse and worse. (For instance: The TSA is not valid under the law, all of their searches are illegal. But nothing was done about them, so now they are molesting children in public.)

Things are going to get much worse until people start standing up to the government.
They already have this in QLD and I don't really see what the problem is with it. Police still need a warrant to access the data and tracking analytics could be very useful to Translink to see where bottlenecks are occurring and plan future upgrades better.
All over Germany the companies do this. Almost always there is also a network map and other information. I am flabbergasted at the state of public transport in your vicinity. How were you supposed to use it conveniently without that information prominently displayed.
When evaluating whether test first or test driven development is worthwhile I would encourage a holistic approach. What is the total cost to the organization for the development, quality assurance, deployment and maintenance of the software? On its first release? Over its lifetime?

Carefully consider the alternatives. No testing? Manual testing? Automated UI testing? Test second?

On the softer side (and more difficult to measure) I ask development teams how test first affects their thinking. Do you converge on users' requirements more quickly or slowly?

Finally, recognize that programming is a hard skill to master. TDD is another skill on top of that one.
Chart: Fab.com Member Growth, 35 days
The British don't deserve the sole or even major credit for the cultural changes you talk about. Reformers like Rajaram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, Gandhi, Ambedkar deserve most of the credit. Cultural changes can not simply be forced by external forces. The British just wanted to organize the Indian society the way they idealized so that they could reap the surplus.

The India of today would be unrecognizable from British India. Many former British colonies in Africa continue to be only slightly better than Somalia. You are giving the Raj too much credit.
Ask HN: finishing projects that got stale?
So as a starting developer working on a project I'll typically run into the following cycle:

1. Come up with a project to work on that I think is super-cool and that I can execute.

2. Start working on project for weeks/months, do pretty well, make it past the halfway point and get most functionality going.

3. Uh oh, this thing I've designed looks and feels like crap, even though it pretty much works. Motivation starts dipping. Innovation and creativity fade.

4. Either gruelingly force myself to finish something I once thought was so cool (but I now feel is a burden), or abandon it and go back to step #1.

So now I have a list of kinda-interesting but unfinished projects that I can't really stand to look at. Why does this cycle happen? It can't be solely because of my lack of good UI/visual design.

And better yet, how do I motivate myself to finish these projects that I've abandoned? They're still worth completing for the sake of building up my portfolio, but the motivation just isn't there.

Looking forward to hearing your insights.
Chaitin: How Real are Real Numbers?
Most of your desires and goals are related to the scarcity of time. In a broad sense, having children for example is a rewarding experience for people, we have an innate desire to reproduce and rear children (talk to any childless post-30 woman who didn't explicitly choose that situation, you'll see it's innate), but it's also something we probably wouldn't continue to do should death be removed from humanity, there'd be no need. But in a smaller sense, even something like enjoying a nice meal with friends would be called into question. Your enjoyment of food only exist because we've got a biologically programmed taste for foods that assists in our survival, and social interaction in an infinite time scale even gets weird, everyone would eventually know everyone and know everything there is to know, unique life experiences would become commonality, etc.

Things get weird on infinite scales.
> Apple has been researching personal computing since it was founded, and invests heavily in figuring out exactly what works to make viable products.

Apple actually does comparatively little spending on R&D when contrasted with the likes of Microsoft or even Google. [1] When it comes to design, it's well known that Apple is of the mentality that good design is something recognizable and, that being the case, they don't invest in human-computer interaction research. [2]

[1] http://b2bspecialist.posterous.com/chart-randd-spending-comp...

[2] http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/97958-why-is-great-desig...
I was not familiar with Slicehost before watching these videos, but I can say their story and philosophy has really changed my outlook on things. Most importantly, the discussion about not being content with sitting around all day post-exit. I love to hear that the drive still exists, even if you've already made it (I'm sure this doesn't apply to everyone but is hopefully common).
Great Idea. These kind of laminated bus schedules are normal all over Germany, so it's easy here to find the right bus and to understand where it goes. But whenever I'm in the states (and that's rather frequently) I'm always grateful about Google Maps on my iPhone because it actually gives me a chance to use U.S public transit. Otherwise I'd probably end up in dark nowhere and never ever get back home since there is no information whatsoever at the bus stops.

I was always wondering why you guys had no maps at the bus stops.
But with respect to the first point, Apple is using the patent system exactly as it was intended. Apple has been researching personal computing since it was founded, and invests heavily in figuring out exactly what works to make viable products.

How do you feel about the MS attacks against Android? I find it odd that so many have come out in support of Apple, but against MS. MS has taken a much softer position (licensing fees vs injunctions) and frankly the Apple patents are no stronger than MS's in these cases. In fact, I think that one of Apple's patents have prior art in Windows Mobile.

Personally, I've come around to believing that we should end SW patents (if you can actually separate them from patents at all), but as long as they're on the books a public company that isn't utilizing them to the best of their ability is violating their fudiciary duty.
Most americans voted for either a democrat or a republican in the last many elections. I think he's safe saying "most americans" since the democrats and the republicans were involved with all of the situations he's describing, and even in recent elections, most americans voted for democrats or republicans.
"Copyright" and "patent" are different concepts and saying the two together, e.g. "copyright and patent", is wrong. People that write "copyright and patent" are almost invariably defending patents by arguing copyrights are important.

Cloning products is primarily copyright and trademark infringement. The companies that are victims of cloning fight back with trademark and copyright laws, typically not with patent laws.

Copyright is primarily for preventing others from directly copying a specific implementation (source code, MP3 player look & feel, etc.). Patents cover an invention, a conceptual thing. An invention doesn't need to have a physical implementation to be patentable.

For instance, LAME[1] is copyrighted itself and does not violate anyone else's copyrights, but anybody that does any MP3 encoding[2] without having an appropriate license to the underlying MP3 patents is infringing patents.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAME

[2] In a country that the MP3 encoding patents are registered, of course.
We've all seen this but people seem to forget:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

Steve himself: "We have been shameless about stealing great ideas". It's sad to see him now, reduced to these tactics.
I checked that page and checked the page specifically addressing Sovereign Immunity in the USA. Other than the repeated assertion that the US government has it on the wikipedia page, I could find no evidence that they do.

For instance, I doubt the constitution provides for this immunity.

I think that this immunity is not legal.

But maybe I missed some text in the constitution that grants it.
That they tried to exert too much control over their platform and lost out to competitors who could offer more choice and better value? Yes the same thing has happened here, but the answer is not for Apple to abuse the legal system as a substitute for competing on the merits of their product.
Path is also doing really poorly. Another site based on sharing information privately with a smaller group of people. Has anyone shown traction with a product that is explicitly anti-viral?
I always felt there were lots of gymnastics required to get data into a suitable format for Google charts (filling zeroes in time series, tough to work with multiple series, etc)
Netflix's Updated Culture Slides
Yes, there were several factors that spiraled up together: the entry of 2 new rating agencies, the new credit enhancement structures, the new types of collateral that the agencies deemed to have "predictable enough" P+I cashflows, and the pension funds and insurance companies' appetites for AAA.

One other factor (from the early 90's, I think), was when getting asset sale treatment for GAAP and RAP (bank regulatory accounting) while still getting debt for tax treatment become standardized. That was a breakthrough.
They're rolling them out in Bath too. Very useful!
I am flabbergasted at the state of public transport in your vicinity.

Sadly, I think this is pretty typical of the state of public transit across the US. Subway systems tend to be better - maps, when the next train arrives, etc. But the bus systems have little to no info.
i especially enjoy when shutdown notices are written to sound as though they are delivering really great and exciting news - "we've decided to shut down the website you've invested time in, but it's your lucky day because our team of ninjas is super stoked about a new big idea we're working on. It's so exciting! we can't wait to tell you about it! We can't tell you now. But there are more updates to come soon!! Promise!! :) :) :) !!!" which I always take as code for "our product didn't work. we're out of money. we're now sitting around depressed trying to think of a new website to build. you'll probably never hear from us again."
Brubeck: A new Python web framework running on mongrel2
I'd argue that you're using the wrong statistics. You should also take into account the average cost per mobile phone when determining the size of a market.

If the US market is 3X smaller than China's (by volume), but spends 3X more for each phone, then the markets are roughly equivalent in the terms that a company would care about: profits.
I don't see how [2] says anything about whether Apple invests in HCI research. Whether they do market research or customer research is a completely different matter.
A blast from the past, legacy tech
It seems likely that they were talent acquired by one of the big tech companies. I have seen similar things in the past (etacts sent a cryptic message like this when salesforce bought them).
It is uncommon to the regular user, though, who is probably the one targeted by this feature.
FORTH ?KNOW IF
HONK
ELSE
FORTH LEARN
THEN
I'm not for a second claiming that Britain didn't exploit India - I'm merely refuting the idea that all of the British acts were purely negative.

1. Well, I don't necessarily agree that your point c. is the most difficult and I would guess (without knowing) that in many countries the proportion of British-made goods increased dramatically during the 19th century. Is it possible to explain any of the growth in manufactured goods in terms of increased quality, reduced price, improved shipping and transportation and a large immigrant population with massive comparative economic power?

I also disagree with the implication that industrialism and capitalism in the west are purely due to GB's exploitation of India. I'm certain that the influx of money and goods from India to GB helped. I find it beyond reasonable to claim it the sole cause. Britain was already a strong (the strongest?) world power before it became dominant in India.

2. Yes, I agree. The British did the same thing in Ireland. However, as with slavery, the empire seemed to learn from its mistakes and had reversed this inhumane policy towards the end of its life. British rule did unite an historically divided country and thus set the course for a country that looks to ascertain status as an economic superpower today.

3. The fact is that all around the world, being a peasant during the 18th and 19th centuries was awful and that it is only in the last 20-30 years that we have come to understand and abhor racism - in fact, in most countries, that statement is still not true. Blaming the British Empire for racism is misleading - racism wasn't a particular trait of the empire. You'd as well blame the empire for female subjugation. It was specifically bad in India because India was in a unique situation as having a mix of ruling whites and a large population of native peoples, but it could have been worse. See, e.g., America of the same time period.

4. My point was that the division between India and Pakistan was not something that could be laid solely at the feet of the Brits as the OP seemed to do. I accept that it is simplistic to label the divide simply as Muslim-Hindu.

I wouldn't claim that the Brits were hugely beneficial for India. I would claim that they were not entirely negative and that there was some good to the empire as a whole. I'm not regularly exposed to points of view that see the empire as a positive anywhere - quite the opposite, actually. In my part of the world, the empire is viewed as a terribly shameful, hateful thing (something the OP seemed to claim) and I disagree with that.
If the data didn't exist to begin with there wouldn't be a need for a warrant. As the data will now exist, they will be able to justify the need to access it on demand.[1]

What's the difference between this program or one that pushes "Everyone is now required to keep a device on them that records everything they say. The purpose of this device is to improve the quality of X, Y and Z services based on real-world conversational feedback."

The data was then also accessible to the Government, with a warrant, when needed.

I don't believe you can justify uninvited invasion of privacy to improve a service when the data collected can also be used against you.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html
I'm pretty sure Apple learned a different lesson...
I would have imagined that someone from QLD would know better.[1] The abuses of the 1970's in QLD are surreal, but they are only a few short decades away; that's to say nothing of One Nation. But, to pause the banana-bashing for a moment, there are also regular abuses of the police databases in other states.

And all this for what supposed gain? I can't see the exact benefit this will bring as opposed to keeping things as they are. And it always starts off with a voluntary anonymous option, then all you need is one murder/kidnap/rape vaguely connected to the anonymous option in some way and that will be removed in a shower of tabloid hysteria.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen#Civil_liber...
Apple is in comparatively less markets then Microsoft and Google so it would make sense that they could spend comparatively less then Microsoft & Google in R&D.
Public transport is very different in the US than in Europe, and a large part of the reason is density. If that were the only reason, I think we could solve that, but unfortunately, a large percentage of Americans' attitude is public transport is for poor people, especially off the eastern seaboard.

I was alway hugely impressed with the public transport in Europe. Utah has pretty good transport (this project wouldn't be necessary, for example), but it is still difficult to use if you aren't either traveling around or to the downtown Salt Lake City area or have a lot of time you are willing to drop on the commute.
Discovered a New Band? Find Out Which Songs To Check Out First With GoRankem
Since it isn't specified as part of the spec, browsers would potentially have a different implementation for each OpenID provider, so yeah, that's a problem.
So if Apple are against software patents (IIRC this is their official stance) then that leaves us having to believe what they say and not what they do.

BTW, why is it Google's responsibility to "spend billions dismantling the patent system"?
Euclid's Algorithm: An Analysis
BKs happen and are factored into the price for a lot of business-to-business services. But no, I wouldn't invest in anyone who stiffed their employees. Ed is exactly right about that.

And you wouldn't want to anyways. The kind of person who keeps employees on staff after they stop being certain they can make the next payroll isn't a good investment anyways.
This is one of the benefits of living in a highly religious area. The LDS church is big on service projects, so church members are out on a regular basis from the age of eight and up. Givwen the high density of Mormons here, that gives us the net effect you are speaking of.

On the ice inparticular, In the US, you could be liable if you don't keep it clean so it often is, but I can't stand letting ice accumulate on the cement anyway. My nerd forces me to clear all the way to the edge, pile appropriately so wind can't blow it back on the cement, etc.
Yes, I totally agree with you... But do you have access to such data?