skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The footnote touches on my biggest problem with keeping commitments: "There are times when you should not keep your commitments – especially when the conflict one another."

What happens when everyone expects you to make a commitment? And to keep it, because hey, you promised. What about all those times people think you've made a commitment, when in fact you only said you'd try to fit them in, then get really upset because you didn't do what you "promised" you would?

In general it seems people have a hard time grasping proritization ... everyone thinks they're your top priority.

edit: what about when commitments magically have a time limit you weren't aware of. People tend to ask me to commit to something, expect it to be done in half an hour and not tell me about this expectation ... again, a problem with thinking everyone is priority number one.
What changed in Lion? Are we talking about tools that worked on Snow Leopard and these changes to Lion break them? Or are you just not able to use Mac OS?
Real-time YouTube Converter
I like the fox more than the pokeball.
Rosetta Code's the one I was thinking of, but I really dislike their structure - I never want to see how to do something in dozens of languages, almost all of which aren't relevant to me.

What I would love to see is:

1) select language you want to learn

2) select languages you already know

3) you get a cheatsheet like the OP that goes through all the basics (and maybe even more detailed), and all the code samples are changeable ala MSDN where you click "C#" or "VB.NET" or whatever to see the code in that language: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.bitma...
>This is about as reliable as Phoronix's annual "Steam is coming to Linux and we can prove it this time!" story. Inside it reads: "We talked to someone at Valve and they said Steam is coming to Linux!!1"

There was actually a Linux binary that you could download from their servers and it would actually connect and download an update. Not that it would even launch a window, of course.
I enjoyed the article; a bit fluffy, but fun. However, oversee.net? The thing that comes to mind directly is "overseer", in the southern slaveocracy sense. (I say this as one who grew up in the southern US.) What an unfortunate name!
Reverse-engineering the script they want you to include and how they transform the code you pass through their proxy service reveals the following:

- It sends a good deal of information it can find out about the browser and where in the uncompressed code the error occured (it does this by you feeding it the original js file, unmodified, to their proxy service).

- Before minifying and compressing your scripts, it wraps every function it can find in a try/catch, and wraps the entire script's contents in a try/catch as well.

- As such, I don't believe it can correctly catch syntax errors.

I've done something similar that sends error logs to a Sentry error handler in my Django-based websites. It's definitely handy to be able to catch and fix javascript errors as they happen live, before clients even report or notice something is wrong. Quite a handy tool to have in addition to automated testing (with something like Qunit) and Selenium.
My point wasn't that they shouldn't fix bugs; it's that they shouldn't prioritize fixing OS-specific bugs that impact 0.2% of their users. It sounds like you are a Windows power user and I suggest you use IE9 instead.
Not sure about that, doesn't sound true.

It is certainly simpler to make a lot of money in the short term by focusing on one core business only. But diversification and redundancy are known survival techniques. Think IBM and Microsoft: both companies do a lot even if they have some sort of a core. But even the core is somehow intermingled with much of the else they do.

It's also not so simple to connect different dots if you only have one kind of dots. Google can combine stuff in novel ways because they're kind of a technological crossover. Not so easy if you've purged out all that clutter that doesn't fit in your core work.
What a joke. No wonder this game is taking so long to release. Creating a global marketplace like this is a serious development effort. This isn't a game anymore.
"New" ?? This was discussed 410 days ago:: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1437430

Also just recently re-submitted:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2833446

In particular, here's the WikiPedia article about the design:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverging_diamond_interchange
Ugh. I hate shapeshifting UIs. Muscle memory depends on stuff being fixed in space relative to other elements.
They do look a little worried watching it all go down:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/5680724572/
> The startup is so hot that it has attracted actor
> Ashton Kutcher as one of its investors.

But does Ashton Kutcher actually use the service? It's one thing to invest money for anticipated returns, but Airbnb would have a lot more credibility if Kutcher stopped staying in hotels plus started renting out his home through the site.
I didn't know about this; I agree that this is wrong.
Is it really necessary to upvote every single article about this EJ incident? I think we all know by now...
> on Facebook I'm being blindly targeted with adds where system thinks it knows what i want.

Actually, you aren't. I mean, you can be, but Facebook allows for highly targeted advertising. You can fine tune your ad to go out to a rather specific group of people. That you fall into that category means you might see those ads. Of course, some ads go out to as many people as possible.

As for how to put those ads on Facebook? It's easy. Go to to the bottom of the page on Facebook, and click on the Advertising link (https://www.facebook.com/ads/).

> If Advertisment works why I'm not being "connected" to what i want already.

That's a rather vague question. Advertising isn't just about connecting you with what you want. It's also about creating brand awareness. Advertising works. Just look at the world around you. Everytime a company reaches out with it's brand to the outside world, it's advertising. It's making to make it's message heard. How it's paying might be different, but it's looking to attract attention.

> And another thing; There is no need for Man in the Middle in advertising . All this can be automated by software and end peers.

I'm really not sure what you mean by man in the middle?
SEEKING FREELANCER (or perhaps a mentor)

This request is much more basic than many of the others, sorry if that offends anyone. If anyone has any interest in mentoring a newbie, please let me know. I'm willing to offer whatever I can in return.

I started learning how to code recently, and I'm trying to launch my first product, an online video-based GMAT prep tool. I've built the site using PHP, MySQL, and unlisted YouTube videos. It "works," in the sense that I can give someone a username/pw and they can access everything.

I need help going from a somewhat functional site to a site that can charge money for a product. This includes: improving the horrible "design" (using a template is fine for now), making the log-in more secure, finding a better way to host the videos (if you think a better way is necessary), and setting up a way to accept payment (PayPal is fine for now).

I'm in New York City, so it would be nice but not crucial to work with someone here. If you're interested, or if you have any advice for me, please let me know. Thanks.
It may be that Autodesk wants to be part of the personalized design/customization/fabrication movement. Earlier this year they released PhotoFly[1], a consumer-focused application that creates very impressive 3D models from photographs. They also work closely with Shapeways, which prints out 3D models at low prices.

1. http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/photo_scene_editor/
Thanks for this article it just made me feel happy. I so tired of flame wars regarding IOS x Android that I barely read Engadget anymore. Many people dont understand why I have a Macbook, an Android phone and an iPod, looks like you MUST took a side and be an evangelist.
What's the FSF copyleft equivalent of patents? Filing a patent and licensing it out to anyone who will agree to not use their patents offensively?
SEEKING WORK (REMOTE or Seattle, WA, USA).

Java developer working mainly with Groovy/Grails/Java and Android. Looking for short-term FT (3 months or less) or any PT work.

Email / XMPP: petedoyle@gmail.com.

http://about.me/petedoyle

resume: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18509454/persistent/hn/Resume-PeteDo...
Userscript Gives Chrome Speech Input
Evanston, IL

At Leapfrog Online we're looking for talented Software Engineers to do web and application development. We're a tightly knit group of software developers looking to add to our team. Our engineers perform a mix of Rails and Django development, and we're looking for candidates who have at least two years experience with either framework.

Leapfrog Online is the leading independent digital direct marketing firm in the country, developing programs for Fortune 500 marketers to find and convert the right customers. We feature a relaxed, collegial atmosphere, and in our engineering practices we emphasize Agile and Test-Driven Development. We focus a lot on career development here, and we make sure that all our engineers get continual opportunities to pick up new technologies.

If you enjoy using open source software to solve interesting problems, you are our kind of programmer, and we'd like to talk to you. You can find full job descriptions and contact information here: http://www.leapfrogonline.com/who/careers/
Well, this one's on a small publication called CNN, which you may have heard of (along with a very large percentage of the world).

The story is now international and utterly mainstream.
Other reports of this story:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2818847 : aptiquant.com <- This has all the comments

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822935 : conceivablytech.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822162 : mashable.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823776 : cnn.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823808 : msn.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823947 : pcworld.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823949 : theatlanticwire.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2827618 : killed

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2832782 : killed

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2832818 : pcmag.com

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2832948 : killed
The OP was attacking a strawman. The assertion that Google and Twitter and Facebook are not working for the betterment of humanity (or are not doing fulfilling work) because they sell ads is ridiculous. Those companies may not be working for the betterment of humanity, but the ad angle is irrelevant.

Take the following:

> Google+ isn’t about sharing cat pictures, it’s about serving ads. Twitter’s massive network of 140-character bits of information isn’t about connecting people across the globe or to view current trends in worldwide thinking, it’s about serving ads. Facebook isn’t about entertaining yourself with games or sharing interesting links, it’s about serving ads.

Replace every instance of "serving ads" with "making money", and the meaning is unchanged, but the naivete is more obvious. You can do that to the entire article.

Every business is about making money. Whether they make that money by selling ads, or selling a product, or selling a subscription, or whatever else is irrelevant. Making money doesn't mean that a business can't also be connecting people, or organizing the world's information, or curing cancer, or any other fulfilling goal.
Couldn't that be modelled as 4 bandits:

1. Original colour/Original text
2. Original colour/"Buy Now"
3. Black colour/Original Text
4. Black colour/"Buy Now"

A bit of a curse of dimensionality for anything except the simplest cases, but that is a different problem.
We're a payments company in disguise.
Delivering the Next Generation Product Catalog
In the 1st you could say I snuck JScheme in under the radar when I first introduced it.

For the 2nd I was actively recruited to the team. I personally believe that this was because I made a conscious effort in the fall of 2008 to start being much more active in the community at large. I started doing more visibile things on the internet: a blog, putting up a sandbox on github. I also started speaking at local user groups (god bless them for listening to my first talks and my horrible, horrendous presentation skills).

The 3rd (current) is a startup, where I was also actively recruited into, to join at the time the first technologist at the company. They subsequently left about 7wks later for another startup. Taking on the role as head of technology I became responsible. I mean that in all the gravity of what it implies: I chose Clojure and I am responsible for that - as part of such I must ensure that the organization can keep moving forward and has a plan if I am no longer part of it. To do that I've started a local Clojure group, we have meetings at our office and I ensure that the developers working on my team get every single ounce of technical experience I can transfer to them.

By 'recruited into' I mean that not in the sense that either side used a recruiter. I mean I was approached through my network because of the effort I put into building the netowrk and the effort I put into building a personal brand (as slimy as that sounds, it is working).

Actively working at networking has been wonderful. I can't recommend it enough. I was involved in starting a "tech breakfast" meeting that takes place 1x a month. The local groups (esp volunteering to speak), the breakfast sessions, and buying people lunch (an hour of interesting conversation is totally worth the $10, and every time it has come back to me) has gone a long way to building a local network.

Networking will help - you'll have access to more of the places that might be willing to use Clojure, and more places that would be willing to let you choose the stack.

Be happy to share more if you have more questions.

Regards,

Kyle
The wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermophotovoltaic) has some excellent applications for this technology including off-the-grid power generation from camp fires or earthen heat stores.
The only element that would shift is the awesome bar, and that's a pretty big target to miss.
Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2828122
It would be nice to have everything in SSL at some point, we just aren't there yet. We only auth across SSL right now.

You can use the site in always HTTPS mode with this url for the time being:

https://secure.loseit.com

To turn on nutrients go to Settings > Nutrient Preferences

Feel free to send any other feedback or bugs my way. brandon+hn@loseit.com
I was in total agreement up to this point:

there really is no 'right' formulation and no 'right' answer. These are problems that cannot be engineered.

On the contrary, engineering is 100% about addressing these kinds of problems (not all engineering problems match all 10 criteria, but most match at least some of them). Those people who think the engineering approach to problems is "define it, decompose and scope it, solve it, implement it" - or, as we call it, the Waterfall Method - have mistaken homework problems for engineering problems. They really have no idea what engineering is.

Then there's this:

our biggest challenges are ... issues of communication, coordination, and cooperation. These are, for the most part, well-studied problems that are not wicked.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Incidentally, although he inexplicably doesn't link to it, Ritter and Webber's original paper "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning" is quite readable and well worth the time:
http://www.uctc.net/mwebber/Rittel+Webber+Dilemmas+General_T...
As the author, I do appreciate that someone thinks I'm confused, but this sentence is hardly the point of my argument. My point is that large corporations are at an even larger advantage with this system and that it hurts entrepreneurs. What has already been a tilted playing field will become even more so.

The key with "First to Invent" is that someone could demonstrate that they had invented something but not actually patented it previously. For instance, if you came up with a novel software process, didn't patent it, and went about your business, it should theoretically be harder for another company to come along and patent your work. Since our patent system is broken, it hasn't always (maybe usually) worked that way. With "First to File" all you need to do is be first to file. And at a mere $15k to $50k to file, this is an undue burden on startups who are inventing things.
As the author, I do appreciate that someone thinks I'm confused, but this sentence is hardly the point of my argument. My point is that large corporations are at an even larger advantage with this system and that it hurts entrepreneurs. What has already been a tilted playing field will become even more so.

The key with "First to Invent" is that someone could demonstrate that they had invented something but not actually patented it previously. For instance, if you came up with a novel software process, didn't patent it, and went about your business, it should theoretically be harder for another company to come along and patent your work. Since our patent system is broken, it hasn't always (maybe usually) worked that way. With "First to File" all you need to do is be first to file. And at a mere $15k to $50k to file, this is an undue burden on startups who are inventing things.

edit: Because some people clearly don't want to understand the point here, there are several steps (lawyers, patent searches, etc.) that cost you money before you can file. This is included in the $15k to $50k I'm talking about.
If you leave your house, you're exposed to advertising. How do you even know about Whole Foods?

Amazon's entire site can be broadly categorized as advertising, some bits of it more easily than others. Companies pay for placement at retailers like Whole Foods and labels are generally exercises in advertising. Sometimes they're hilariously named, like the "No Ads" sunscreen I remember seeing a long time ago.
Uh yeah,

The US patent system will collapse under its own weight, about when the US health care system collapses under its own weight, the US education system collapses under its own weight, and while we're at it, the entire US collapses under its own weight.

I can imagine that but I don't think we should, uh wait, till then, considering doomed systems show a distressing ability to just keep going when people do nothing but wait for them to collapse...
It makes it easier when you own everything around it, yes. But being on Windows/OSX doesn't make the DRM unbeatable, just more difficult to break. DRM period doesn't work, but that's not going to stop them from wrapping everything they own in it.
Right, and there once was a time when voting was used that way, but that time has been gone for quite a while now.
New information from the article: "When asked how it screens renters and hosts, Airbnb spokeswoman Emily Joffrion would only say the company is working on a 'response to our community' that would be released Monday afternoon."

I'm sure many of us on HN will read that response closely.

Meanwhile, Wimdu thinks that it can beat Airbnb on customer service.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2829859

Maybe so. People who can't afford to lose the spaces they rent out will have to think twice about whether or not to participate on Airbnb.

After edit: blocking this story from the front page inconsistently with the number of comments and upvotes received doesn't seem explicable under any announced HN policy. This and another thread I mentioned recently

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823020

both seem rather puzzling as applications of HN policy. It would be kind for someone from site management to let us know what is going on.
Yes, a contract is a must, of course. I'm wondering if I'll need to add that step in myself via external communication (I'll send them a contract to sign and return.) Do these sites have this (i.e. a generic contract for services rendered with some kind of checkbox) built into their workflow already?
Well, he said major.
Most of the native Mac OS X applications are made using XCode which comes with the same basic default menu each time you start a new project. That is a guarantee that most apps are going to adhere as much as possible with the OS's conventions. There are exceptions, of course.

How many different IDEs/toolkits are available and used to develop Windows or "Linux" applications?
This may not be very helpful, but if you keep innovating and tying in the new products, then you would in theory pretty much stay ahead of the game completely.

That being said, there may be was to encode your resources using various Java obfuscation tools out there. I haven't looked into it too much. My graph theory application Edgy for Android has some nice code that I meant to get around to open-sourcing anyway, but I do understand that I don't have the creative investment it sounds like your project has.
None of these once up-and-comer's markets were properly established before their respective companies came along. AdWords is an established product in an established market-- Google's on the watch.
Introducing Google Tasks Porter
The problem lies in the fact that an inventor no longer has a recourse to contest a patent lawsuit against him by showing evidence that the patented idea was implemented prior to the patent filing date (or before the determined invention date). This exposes all inventors to having their ideas copied and patented by others, drastically increasing the incentive to patent their own ideas on a continual basis. This has the effect of significantly increasing the total number of patents being filed.
Now that the big news outlets are reporting on the incident, Airbnb's future growth might really suffer. You only get to make a first impression once and this is a big negative first impression. It's going take a lot of time and cost a fortune to undo the damage.

This hugely benefits their competition, now people know a service like this exists and might explore their options. But they will likely stay away from Airbnb. Never understood how they haven't offered insurance as an addition, it doesn't take that much work to create a policy with an outside firm or two.
i hope they roll this out gradually. one of the biggest things that makes people stick with old browser versions is a reluctance to move to a new UI. if they introduce a big change, we're going to see a whole bunch of people sticking with an old browser version for much longer than they should.

this is something that chrome is awesome for. they have changed the UI around a bit since v1, but each change has been so minimal that nobody has really noticed too much.
Anyone else interested in running or keeping commitments should definitely read Haruki Murakami's book 'What I talk about when I talk about running.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/030726...

Something about Murakami's writing style conveys great honesty.
Dulwich: Pure Python implementation of git
I imagine these sites would be more prone to this and that they would have a built in way to handle it already from being barraged with claims all day long. Not the case?
Agreed

As long as you can beat the game with normal sword on the ground, you don't need to buy $$$ items. While $$$ sword will make your life easier, you don't need it to quest with friends or beat the game.
Ruby and the MRI to lots-of-stuff and the JVM
Generally they have terms of service - designed to cover them - and maybe some dispute resolution stuff.