skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Right now Apple is only competing in the high end mid-sized slate smartphone segment. You're pointing out just 1 other smartphone segment that they could compete in, the lower priced segment. There are many ways Apple could compete. They could release 2 or 3 new styles of iPhones while retaining the same price.
One Of The World's Poorest Countries Become its Top Source of Online Attacks
Seriously? iPad only? Show me a statistic that shows more people use the iPad to watch tv online than their computers.
I read this article earlier. I don't understand the following line from the chatlog:

> Topiary: better not hit me on April fool's day

is this a joke that has gone over my head, or are the logs indeed from March?

Edit: looks like I'm a fool, the logs are indeed from March and are unrelated to this incident. I thought the article was using them as proof of this incident being part of "duping" the police, but it's actually being used to show Topiary from England != Lulzsec topiary. My mistake. Will leave comment in case anyone else makes the same mistake.
Photos claim to show Apple's lighter, cheaper iPhone 4 prototype
Use it only for desktop and mobile (of course). The desktop version is somewhat "heavy" so I tend to use Chrome on lapotops etc. But in a way I feel that Opera is a more complete browser. The speedial is genius, and with the ability to make extensions for it, it has alot more potensial.
The other thing I really like, which I have been unable to find in other browser (that is equally good) is mousegestures. After just a bit of use, it gets in your muscles and creating and closing tabs, moving back and forth between pages has never been easier. My 5 cents.
I'm with you there.

However, building a mostly automated support system for array of diverse services is something we (the present-day civilization) have little experience with. This painful experiment /may/ end up accumulating enough experience to make cheap, mostly-automatic support possible in a few years. As opposed to current practice of throwing countless callcenter `drones' (people forced to adhere to ready-made scripts) onto the problem.

Should the experience gathered become public knowledge, the need for tech-support personnel would be drastically lowered. In practice significantly lowering barriers for start-ups to serving large userbases.
Symfony is closer to django than to rails (in terms of APIs, I believe the project itself is built in a more modular manner) though, many of symfony's features are almost straight ports of django features, sometimes renamed.
Maybe I'm reading between the lines here, but it seems like you want them to push harder and take more risks?
I used to use it on Symbian, but since moving to an iPhone it’s not an option. Well, there’s Opera Mini but that’s really not a great experience on iOS.

Regarding the desktop browser, I prefer to use open-source browsers, and (imho) Dragonfly isn’t as good as Firebug.
The site is down. Here is the google cache link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Mu0fyc4...
If they want to maintain the same (or better) share of profits they must take market share. Smartphones are only 28% of the total phone market today. That is what the article is talking about; future growth potential.
There's always 2 choices: Fix it, or replace it.

I think there's a good case for fixing Subversion. It's very easy to use (except for merging!) and it's got good adoption.

Git is harder to understand and use, but obviously merging is miraculously easy with it.

SVN took me about 10 minutes to learn. Git took me a week to grok the basics, and months to learn the finer points.

If I had to pick one of the 2 to train a new coder in, I'd pick SVN... If it had merging done well.
I also work in software development. Among my colleagues there are a mix of iPhone & Android users, but the divide seems primarily related to cost with the juniors much more likely to own Android.

I've played with a few Android devices and they're ok but to be honest, the whole thing seems to be playing out just like 90s Mac vs Windows, with Android users insisting iOS is a toy and iOS users berating Androids unpolished interface.

For me it always boils down to the same thing, if you're willing to accept the constraints imposed by the products designer, Apple stuff is the best out there.

> the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits

This is fairly obviously not true. The iOS SDK is still widely considered the benchmark for people that work cross platform. It doesn't really matter that your developer friends think on the relatively technical merits if they're no more informed than the average Android user.
Google 'Page Speed' Boosts Webpage Loading Times
But Jens said the same thing before the attacker had been identified, and before it was clear that it was one person (and not an organization or an enemy group.)
Would be even more interesting to know when the US will be learning from their own mistakes
Joel might be famous in the technology space and maybe a bit wider via his Inc. magazine articles, but I doubt many people from the hotel industry care what he has to say on the matter. He's just posing hypotheticals anyway.
Spotify!
Although I'm always disappointed by their mobile apps, it's still the easiest and quickest way to create and listen to playlists. Their library is large enough for me, with only a few (5-6) artists I'm missing. But now that you can add local files, that's not a problem anymore.
Until these businesses (small and large) become responsible, either legally or financially, for the security of their websites, we'll see this continue to happen.

They simply don't care about the security of their customers because they have no incentive to.

I get that security is hard, but in this specific case, they knew about a hole and left it open for two months. That's negligence.
So I tried to order a scan, given the low price of $7 only to realize the author of this service does not accept customers outside the U.S. and Canada.
That's the easy and somewhat circular answer. I'd be curious to know what rationale the service had for not integrating with Google Maps or vice versa. Cost is the only legitimate one that comes to mind - I can't imagine concerns about open data were a massive issue given that third parties have been using and providing a subset of the same data for some time.
Arguing Semantics: Using PPC & A/B Testing to Polish Keyword Research for SEO
Anecdotally the petrol station thing aligns with my experience, and my preference for filling up on the way home.

Slightly different situation for Mcdonalds though - they're trying to market convenient, fast breakfast food to morning commuters. If the location is most convenient to city-bound traffic, I think it would have a bigger positive impact on morning revenue than the corresponding negative impact on evening revenue. People are in a hurry in the morning!
None of those methods actually clear a check as valid. They check the past history of the account, or check whether the account is valid, but none actually check if the check will clear when cashed.
Symfony has cool command line interface to set up projects, crud and all model classes etc. It also has backend admin genretor. There is no built in ajax and javascript function in codeigniter (But you can add it as plugin)
Maybe the FDA (AKA First Division Association) should be outlawed then? Or perhaps broken in the same way as the NUM....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDA_%28trade_union%29
The PM actually said on the first press conference, on the night of the attacks, that the response will be more openness and more democracy.

This was before the identity of the attacker was known and everyone was still suggesting muslim extremists.
Yeah, though I do find having Firefox as well helps occasionally (mostly fb if I'm honest)

Main browser across Windows and Ubunutu (and OSX when I used that)

Having DragonFly - native DOM inspector, built in rather than external like FF is really very good. (In my experience some plugins seem to kill the perf of FF)

Continually recommend it to replace people's bundled mobile phone brower - well Opera Mobile.
There are also Deezer and MusicMe which are pretty popular in France.
That is called fragmentation. It's hard for devs to optimize their apps to look good on different resolutions or aspect ratios. Even making your app to look & work "well" on both portrait and landscape modes is hard (by well I mean pretty, slick and sound).
> The common-sense reaction to terrorism is to be terrorized by it

I think it's a learned reaction. Car accidents pose a greater threat than any terrorists, we're not terrified of cars are we? The threat has been played up by our fear mongering media, an extension of our military.
Norway PM Vows to Keep an Open Society
You know, the problem is that unless AirBnB is willing to pick up the tab on this sort of thing, they dramatically increase the risk associated with using their service.

Regardless of their legal responsibility, I would think that it was in their best interest to pay up in this type of situation. For example, a guarantee of say $10,000 for any damages (which AirBnB can then try and recoup from the perpetrator) would go a long way to making people feel more secure about renting out their apartment. That, along with a warning to store personal documents off-site, would reduce this type of event to being more of a nuisance than absolutely destroying someone. I would even think that that $10k limit could be waived in exceptional cases like this one.
It's not a lot, but on the upside, it's more than how much many VC backed startups earn :)
I wouldn't be too hard on them - any sentient AI would probably make the same mistake on a first pass given how widespread the confusion is. For instance do a Google Image search on London Bridge.
Same here, I have been using it on a new project since November 2010 and it has been great, following the commits on Github and upgrading when necessary has been relatively easy. This project has really opened my eyes to the power that Git + Github (when used properly) can bring to open source software.

I would also like to add that Fabien Potencier has been amazing and is officially a coding Robot!
Your implication that Norway learnt how to treat its civilians decently only when the United States did the opposite is offensive and conceitful.
Yeah, it was all a little unclear. I'm still not sure whether LS's Topiary stole the name from a troll, or a troll started using Topiary's name.

Not that it matters... In the end, it looks like the real Topiary is in a different country altogether from where the arrest was made.

Absolutely hilarious.

How long before the police discover their mistake, I wonder?
New version available : Tweet & Retweet directly from the ext and dismiss follower suggestions you don't like!
To me, it is only a failure if the time you put into it can make you more money or fulfill you in a greater way if you put it elsewhere.

$100 may not be much, but if you are constantly churning out $100/month side projects and working very little to keep them up and running, that turns into big money fast.

On a side note, I must admit that at $19.99, I would not buy an app with the sole purpose of cleaning out my Twitter inbox -- maybe I'm not the target audience, but that seems like a lot of money for something that does a very specific task -- one that could be easily implemented by Twitter at a later time.
In roughly this order, and none of them all that frequently.

Youtube

iheartradio

Soundcloud

Used to be iTunes but I don't use that anymore, and deeply regret every file imported into that piece of junk software. I may start using amazon mp3. The truth is despite being a musician (or maybe because of it) I am not an avaricious consumer of music. Recently I downloaded a bunch of music from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum website and that's lasted me months.
I used to use it on my Blackberry Storm, but I have no need for it now that I have a different phone.
I've got a webapp that makes $0 a month but I don't consider it a failure. Just tell yourself it's a hobby ;)
That doesn't prove much though, does it? "Northern Virginia" is a pretty broad region.
Corporate Ethical Leadership App (download me, and/or review our app)
My company has been working on ethical leadership training, and has released an app for Android, iPhone and Blackberry which is a quick reference handbook for ethical climate setting. Even if you don't download the app, we'd love to get your feedback on the app descriptions, and any questions you have about what it offers.
iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/climate/id437880907?mt=8&ls=1#
Blackberry: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44596?lang=en
This is more like "Steve Yegge discovers the power of linkbait".
This poll will have a huge bias because Opera Users are going to be more likely to respond to it.
Depends on how much time and mental cpu cycles you spend making that $100. If it's only a few minutes to a couple of hours a month, it's a keeper.

Assuming that's the case, scale your app so it brings in more (it's already proven itself) ~or~ put it on the backburner as a "passive income generator" and go hard on something that will bring in real money.
@lenary thank you very much for your feedback. I recall reading about the restart.txt - what contents should be in this file or is it generated?
Oh well, I never really targeted those countries. Where I worked previously we simply looked at our browser statistics and Opera was below 1% so we ditched it pretty quickly, unless one feature was really broken to the point where the vital tasks cannot be done (1% of a really huge user base still counts a little). We would often have an "if Opera" and replace our pages with a stripped-down version that worked on Opera. For every other minor bug and rendering differences, Opera was completely ignored.
Subjectively, Opera manages a large number of tabs much better for me than FF, and has a much nicer UI than Chrome. They seem to do a lot of innovation in browser UI and features, which the other browsers eventually copy (not that there's anything wrong with that).

I really wish it had more marketshare so it would be better supported, but 95% of websites and features work without issue.
I assume this reply was intended for my parent, because I was not arguing that companies were immoral.

I do argue that companies are essentially amoral: outside of governments, the only force working on them is the pressure to survive in the face of competition, using whatever means needed to achieve that goal. The only reason companies generally behave in morally acceptable ways is by government regulation. Without those, monopolies on drinking water, oil and other essentials would be acquired and enforced by companies with armies. But the net effect of the current state of affairs is that companies generally behave in morally acceptable ways.
Gosu Lang - Java, Minus the Cruft
Given that the course starts in October I thought that a good old concerted effort on revision might get me past the need for MU123 (would be nice to aim for a 6 year degree not a 7 year one) now wondering if it is an incorrect assumption... I wonder if they would let me see some past papers from MU123 to make sure I followed it all (again, the hard work is never a problem it's the fear of not even being able to read the damn question!)
Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows:  Evidence from Google [pdf]
If you put more than an hour a month into it, then yeah, it probably is. Your time could probably be better spend elsewhere.

Of course, that assumes the main goal of the app was to earn money. The knowledge gained from creating it could very well be worth it.
The Samsung Galaxy Europa is cheapest entry level Android phone I've seen - where I'm from the i5500 can be picked up for about €70-100. I have one and it cost 1/5 that of an iPhone and is a pretty competent Android phone. For the price it's great value in my opinion and as far as I'm aware Apple makes nothing in that price range so I can't see how you can make any sort of comparison.
The Apple lawsuit doesn't vouch for Samsung's quality, quite the opposite. Their argument goes something like: Samsung is purposely copying iOS's appearance and iOS's products' appearances, creating confusion in the marketplace as to which product is the original HIGH quality product, and which is the LOW quality knock off.
__

Your second argument is falsely premised on the idea of limited resources. Apple can easily have a good upcoming product portfolio AND pursue lawsuits. They are not resource-limited. They don't have to choose between lawsuits and good up-coming products.

___

Being a huge multi-faceted corporation, it is difficult, in my opinion, to discern their motivation down to a simple, single human emotion.

That said, if I had to guess, or put myself into Apple's mind, I would focus on Jobs' thinking. In my opinion he isn't scared, he is offended. He views his products as acts of creation--as art--and here is someone aping his art, and poorly at that. This offends him deeply.
Google Code Finally Adds Git Support
Can you please provide your email address? I'm sure that there are plenty of people who want to apply, but would like some privacy to state their case.
A Rough Breakdown of Foursquare Usage in South Africa
My company has been working on ethical leadership training, and has released an app for Android, iPhone and Blackberry which is a quick reference handbook for ethical climate setting. Even if you don't download the app, we'd love to get your feedback on the app descriptions, and any questions you have about what it offers.
iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/climate/id437880907?mt=8&...
Blackberry: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44596?lang=e...
@prognostikos - thanks man. I saw your template and came across a few others. I came across this gem (https://github.com/kfaustino/rails-templater) I might give it a go. I understand about 85% of your script so I am definitely going to try and create my own from all this inspiration.
Its not that they don't care. Its that they don't know any better. Look, these people are probably less tech-savvy than your parents. As far as they're concerned, those little boxes on or underneath their desks are magic. Now, given that, do you really expect them make informed and rational decisions about how much a computer should cost to install and maintain?
I think this is the difference between Google and Apple.

Google optimizes search algorithms constantly, apparently not thinking of the real-world repercussions of rank changes.

Apple has over a decade of experience with iTunes. Rankings on iTunes are equivalent to or even supplant the Billboard Top #100. When they moved into apps, they brought their ranking system over as well. Apple has only very carefully made adjustments to app rankings. Especially keyword based rankings. The secret of making money in the App Store is in dominating the ranking for a common keyword search. Pretty icons go a long way towards that. And a well-designed app even more (number of ratings, average rating). The Power Law distribution applies.

I have no idea why Google is tweaking or breaking their core ranking algorithms. In the Apple App Store, a high ranking is something you earn through marketing and having a product that Apple wants to have in its store.
All Eyes on the U.S.
The House is headed for a big vote on Thursday to decide on Republican Speaker John Boehner’s revised debt plan. The decision will go a long way in determining if the U.S. government is able to avoid a default by next week. If the plan does pass in the House, the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, will put it to a vote in the Senate (hoping to defeat it). He could then opt to push his own plan through or make certain changes to Boehner’s plan that are more acceptable to Democrats. As it stands, Boehner’s plan will raise the debt ceiling in two steps: (1) $900 billion now, while cutting $917 billion in spending and (2) $1.6 trillion next year, while cutting $1.8 trillion in spending. The two-step process is opposed by Democrats and many Republicans who do not wish to see this vicious debate take place all over again in 2012 during the election year. At least 18 House Republicans have said they would oppose Boehner’s plan (he can’t lose more than 23 Republicans if all Democrats vote against his plan). If Boehner’s plan does fail, the Democrats say their leverage will dramatically increase (probably true). Harry Reid has proposed a one-step process to raise the debt ceiling by $2.7 trillion and cut spending by that same amount (note that the Congressional Budget Office recently found that his plan only cuts about $2.2 trillion at the moment, but he intends to get his up to $2.7 trillion by the time Congress would vote on it).

It’s difficult to predict which plan will pass, if any. You would think the threat of a U.S. default would encourage cooperation and collaboration. Yet the U.S. sits on the brink of default. The CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris, recently stated that Europe views America as a "bit of a laughingstock." Let’s hope we prove them wrong.
Sometimes I wish I could burn karma to up vote something more than once. :)
I think Opera and Google Chrome combined would make the best browser. Opera has some great UX benefits over chrome, but completely lacks in some obvious ones. The toolbar, homepage setup, settings, buttons, tabs, are all superior in Opera hands down (in my opinion of course). Chrome wins with it's highlight + right-click + actions, obvious hotkeys, developer tools, and many other intricacies that Opera misses or handles poorly (for instance I cannot even stretch out a textarea in Opera).

I use Opera, Chrome and Firefox equally. I use every other browser too for testing.
Apple pride themselves on making the iPhone simple, and not fragmented. I can't see how they can do that and still release the iPhones in different styles, unless we're talking nothing more than different covers.

The massive market growth in smartphones is being caused by the smartphone becoming cheaper - if they want more of the market then they have to enter that area.
Shuffler.fm, hypem.com and ext.fm
Ultrabooks to start arriving in September, more expensive than expected
It's pretty iteresting in what direction google is pushing.

Since all the requests are handled by google (you have to change the dns servers to point to google), this will give them complete website profiles, on what surfers visit and how they can rank websites better. They could even adapt their crawling on that No need to crawl websites which a human has never visited before.

I would also consider that they might evaluate the logs from their open dns servers to rank websites and decide what's important and what not.

It's like having a cookie in adsense or analytics, just nobody noticing it.
Apple's flash-buying clout seen as huge advantage
From the article, HTC's market share growth in the given interval was 4%, compared to Apple's 3%. Considering they achieved that growth on significantly lower margins than Apple (and consequently much less revenue growth), I don't think it's reasonable to claim HTC are riding the smartphone market growth much better than Apple.

Samsungs 10% growth is more impressive, but again was achieved with much lower margins. Apple could afford to cut their margin significantly if competitive pressure forces their hand, and unlike RIM they have a product which is high demand.
Alibaba launches its own Mobile Cloud OS
The mobile version of opera on android is actually very, very good. I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't.
And i'm not an opera desktop user.
Absolutely not a failure. You almost surely gained knowledge through the process of developing the app and that knowledge is an intangible asset that will contribute to every future project you work on.
State of the PC in 2015: An Ars Technica Quarterly Report