skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So I really have none of the backstory when I walked into this thread, so not knowing the actors (or even what airbnb actually does), I have to say you post really just seems to be gearing up to defend them for sweeping something under the rug.

You sound a bit demanding with "I would like a simple Yes or No."

Oh no! Anything but asking for a straightforward answer. Trying to remove weasel room upfront is a horrible practice! Don't our precious startups deserve more room to act like pieces of shit?
I think I remember reading that pg had the same reaction, and was surprised at how many users they got, then decided to invest. I too thought it was a terrible idea, and was (and still am) surprised that people would want to do this.

I am not saying this single incident is proof either way, but that was my initial reaction to the idea.
If by 'illustrations' you mean the avatars... well, I'd argue that they are helping. Turntable seems deliberately colourful and kitchy to me. It's part of their image- if it was a Pandora-like page with a list of people's names it wouldn't be that interesting.
It doesn't have many listings, and their craigslist listings are incomplete and inaccurate.
This post is spot on and the fact that airbnb keeps tripping over this point is just baffling. Are they ignorant or evil? They have to be one or the other.

Isn't it common sense that asking someone "What can we do to help?" is about as useful as yelling "Someone call an ambulance!" to a crowd? Anyone with half a lick of sense says "Hey, YOU (Point), call an ambulance" or "Here's what we're going to do to help you..." (and then actually do it). How can you be the CEO of what is supposedly a billion+ dollar company without realizing these basic things?

Madness.
> they make it impossible for users to do it themselves

That seems like a fundamental problem with their business. I'm inclined to agree that unless they make a serious shift in the information they're providing to people providing rooms, their business isn't going to work much longer.

> locked it in a closet that the guests did not have access to

If it was the only locked closet in the house then it would have been rather obvious. You point is essentially valid though, hiding her stuff would not have prevented someone not interested in financial gain from destroying her house. However, not taking that basic step, irregardless of the intent of the strangers, seem to still lack "common sense".
Thanks - appreciated.
http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=financials&symbol=NASDAQ%...

24.4% for apple

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-sho...

2.4% for google
Wow. Not only did you manage to completely miss the point of that statement, but you cast it up as a hasty strawman to boot. I'm quite impressed.

The choice of fopen() and Oracle was meant to convey simplicity: SQLite solves problems on the simple end of the difficulty spectrum -- problems you would normally solve with fopen(). It is not for problems at the complex end, like Oracle. It's a simplified expression; reading it literally is foolish.
Yeah it would depend on the wording of the final decision. But courts aren't stupid, and criminals trying to alter behavior to side step a ruling is nothing new either. These cat and mouse games have been going on since laws started.
This is the reason why I'm long on GOOG. There's a huge world of revenue out there, and they just have to reach out and grab it.
That is a serious charge. Do you have any real evidence?
lion's the new vista
I think the take-home here is summarized here:

This imagined paradox is caused when the percentage is provided but not the ratio. In this example, if only the 90% in the first week for Bart was provided but not the ratio (9:10), it would distort the information causing the imagined paradox. Even though Bart's percentage is higher for the first and second week, when two weeks of articles is combined, overall Lisa had improved a greater proportion, 55% of the 110 total articles. Lisa's proportional total of articles improved exceeds Bart's total.

So it's important to not rely on percentage data alone, as it is a form of reduction. Rely instead on ratios, allowing you to see the validity of the percentage.

On Amazon and review sites, when I search by rating, I always look at the number of reviews and weight accordingly. I remember that IMDB (before it became an Amazon property) implemented a beyesian posterior mean to cull out the low-review anomolies: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Internet_Movi...

I wish other places like Amazon would implement similar weighting mechanisms to really allow a user to navigate by reviewed quality.
We don't have a lot of evidence, so it makes sense to be tentative.

But both sides are saying the same thing: she was offered, in her own words, "emotional and financial" support.

Yes, Airbnb needs to make changes, but focusing only on how they handle her individual case for the moment: how is this not an adequate response?

Clearly she isn't lying. I don't believe Airbnb is lying either. But there is a possibility she is framing her situation differently now that there is a near-religious fervor throughout the Internet. Now she's saying they aren't helping her, that they haven't been helpful. While in fact it's evidently true they haven't put her in a new apartment and furnished it as promised, do we know this is because they failed to make good on their promise or because she turned them down or never followed up with them on that offer? We can't know.
Just Stumbled - Zen Koans
The examples definitely help. The Civil Rights vote did it for me:

* The South voted against it overwhelmingly.

* Democrats voted for it (compared to Republicans)

* But, because the Democrats had the majority of the Southern seats their overall vote was against it. So, whichever party had the Southern seats was going to come out as voting against, compared to the other party
And thus has the editability of HN posts been exploited.

The GP post originally contained a claim that Android is "garbage", would persist on "feature phones", among other nonse belonging in Engadget comments.
I use minibufexpl[1] to list the open buffers at the top, and have the up/down arrows mapped to :bp/:bn

[1] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=159
Norton is not hard to remove??? Have things changed so much since I switched to Linux? I used to tell people they had to reinstall the OS to get rid of Norton.

I agree that unremoveable and unkillable apps are a huge problem with Android. This is why I switched to Linux in the first place and Google needs to fix it, ASAP.
Recently tried Zelda 3D and it nearly pushed me over the edge of insta-buy. Glad I waited.
Air France crash blamed on pilot error
Bah, hit the reply limit. I wasn't specifically thinking about US media- UK tabloids would have a field day with this, for one. AirBnb is a presence in Europe as well...
Not sure this adds anything to the discussion.
I wish I could upvote that comment multiple times.

That's true in general. Bootstrapped startups, as a whole, are generally built to be long-standing real businesses, and they treat the business as such. You don't sink tons of your own money into an effort if you dont truly believe in the profitability of the business (profitability of the business, not potential valuation or perceived growth). Neither myself nor any of my friends who are bootstrapping their own firms pursue growth in favor of customer support, security or aggressive valuation.
Do the same thing that is done in stackoverflow.com. Except that needs to be combined with fetching the title/basic info from the article and trying to combine it with recent articles from past couple of days.
It has aged and evolved well. A platform cannot both be weak and unsophisticated and show the world how a platform should be done.
Is it me, or does it take a significant amount of melodrama to negatively construe being asked to grab coffee with the cofounder of the company with whom you have some dispute as bad customer service (he didn't ask if she was alright? really?).

It is you. She objected to what he said, which she perceived as superficial and focussed on reducing their PR damage rather than helping her. Who it was does not matter one bit when it's not helpful.
That's interesting, but it's a very different approach to Pathogen, and it's very much a matter of taste IMHO. I prefer to use git submodules directly or through a general-purpose scripting language and just have the vim component load my plugins.
Apparently, neither of these guys paid attention in high school civics class. Slander involves oral, not written, communication. Libel (not "liable") is the term for a tort involving false and damaging written communication.
After losing a family member to Alzheimer's (a process which lasted almost a decade), most of my family appears to have independently decided that they would rather quietly off themselves (pills, etc.) than slowly have their brain melt away - myself included.

It's hard to describe unless you've watched a loved one go through it.
Researchers Say Vulnerabilities Could Let Hackers Spring Prisoners From Cells
Since I laughed out loud at this, perhaps I should explain the joke, since it's obvious that no one "got it."

You see, the original quote was "As a famous man once said: "Trust, but verify"."

Now, if you heed this advice in full, you can only trust that the famous man actually said "Trust, but verify" if you verify it first. A citation is simply a way to verify that a famous man actually said it.
Maybe I'm a bit too naive, but I think that if it was just about claiming credit for the compromise he could do that whether or not he takes his case to twitter.
http://paste.pocoo.org/show/449029/

As mentioned in the paste:

Please note that this is hacked Python SimpleFold. I don't know how much
of the original plugin the code share (as I hacked it loooong ago). Do
remember that it doesn't always work (but always do with my company's
coding conventiens; hear I have no intent to make it work for others).
Also, there is probably some useless crap laying around.

Edit: Judging by my English, I'm really tired. I leave it as-is for posterity and because it's the way it is in the paste.
I'm a little less worried about what the MSM will do here (editorialize and paint the hotel industry, as some other HNers have said as golden boys), I'm actually curious to see how someone up on Capitol Hill is going to react to this.
Seems inefficient to convert heat -> light -> electricity, though I freely admit to only having a cursory understanding here.
First thought is that people who don't understand technology shouldn't generally make rules about technology. Hire an aide who gets this stuff if you have to. One less donor's kid on the payroll shouldn't hurt you that much.

But really, they had no end of constituents willing to tell them why this is stupid. They just don't want to listen.
Everything about Redis 2.4
Just because many people say "there's no such thing as bad press," that doesn't make it true.

- former CEO of a startup that got some bad press
That's the wrong way of looking at the situation.

For many observers, airbnb debacle is the first exposure they have to the online personal rental market. Roomarama is trying to remind people that the industry as a whole is not broken (it's airbnb being screwy, not the entire business model). And if they get positive marketing from it, c'est la vie.

I would agree with that statement in a much more mature industry, but in this new area its easy for ill opinion of a firm to translate to ill opinion of the industry as a whole.
Can Your Startup Change the World? Enter the Startups for Good Challenge
I just meant in the general sense. Google needs to pay their taxes too, but tech companies aren't the only ones evading taxes and getting away with it. Specifically this tax? Maybe not. But that wasn't the point.
Doesn't seem to add up with their other claim that they offered to pay for everything from the beginning.

Except if they offered it and EJ declined, then she could be paying herself and not be lying.
This is about ISP's correct? The title made me think my employer would be forced to spy on me. (not that they already don't)

Either way I hope this isn't something that will happen silently, I want to know as soon as my internet history will be stored for an entire year by my ISP.
I use "vii" in normal mode to do that. It basically selects the block.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Indent_text_object
Digital cameras predicted to be the next casualty of smartphones and iPads
High Price of Living, Low Priced Deaths. | Human Victims Of Human
The rise and Fall of Palm (RIM you have to be aware)
Well-put!
If it can get better, I can't see it getting that much better. The net income chart on Mint let me compare actual values against my old-timey budget spreadsheet - and then Mint added budgeting functionality, so I don't even need that.

If one cannot wield Mint as a tool effectively at this point, I think the onus is not on Intuit, but on the user.
Proposal Writing and Government Contracting
An open letter to Ed Vaizey (Minister of Culture)
Taking pg's wonky comment (second-hand information, shifting blame on Arrington) as confirming the conspiracy theory is a "Because the bible tells me so". He's not your deus-ex-machina.

And the conspiracy theory camp keeps calling the woman the most terrible names, accusing her of over-dramatizing, how dare she! She's not one of us!

...and so on. I really didn't like that. I didn't down-vote you, but I would have if I could.
That's not entirely true. The effect you describe depends on loan growth. Money sitting in bank accounts isn't automatically funding anything. There has to be demand for loans and the banks have to be willing to lend, otherwise nothing happens.

In other words, there's a difference between capital being available and capital being put to use. Velocity of money is important.

Also, if I buy Apple stock today, Apple doesn't see a cent of it. Whether or not that money goes on to fund anything at all depends on what the person who sold me the stock does with the money.
Given how often major news outlets seem to jump on "THE INTERNET IS BAD LULZ" stories, I wouldn't be surprised to see this picked up and used as a reason to push that internet browsing history law [1], or some other net neutrality thing. Does it make sense? No. Will it help anything? No. But logic rarely matters when you're trying to be alarmist.

[1] http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110728/17280315306/house-...
So wait, this is just IP records.
He could do it without it, yes, but in the PR game every little bit helps.

The twitter thing creates a full-blown narrative with a media-friendly hook (the media will publish any BS involving the word "twitter" at the moment) and the conclusion "Barack Obama saves the day".

Look, the whole thing is, at this point, an incredibly complicated political dance, and I've lost track of exactly who is dry-humping whom. But it's far beyond the point where you can take anything that anybody says at face value.
Why aren't you focusing on the details?
This article is really light on detail. A quick search of DSpace, MIT's paper/thesis repository, brings up the following paper from Giuliano in 2009:

"Fully monolithic cellular buck converter design for 3-D power delivery"
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/61350

It's not clear that it's what they're trying to productize, but it's likely at least related.
Imagine the data center implications of this, and the implications for refrigeration in general.
I hope you see how

But logic rarely matters when you're trying to be alarmist.

is ironic when you're saying

I wouldn't be surprised to see this picked up and used as a reason to push that internet browsing history law [1], or some other net neutrality thing.
A Modest Proposal for CSS3 Animations - Snook.ca
20 of the most innovative Facebook campaigns
Yes, relatively speaking you are at a disadvantage. Absolutely, you are highly advantaged because you live in a prosperous country and attend an accredited university.
Perhaps you didn't read her first post, pg's comment is corroborated by EJ: she herself claims they offered her "emotional and financial"[1] support. There is no conspiracy. I believe she's telling the truth. But I don't believe Airbnb is some evil company blindly exploiting her.

[1] http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html "I would be remiss if I didn’t pause here to emphasize that the customer service team at airbnb.com has been wonderful, giving this crime their full attention. They have called often, expressing empathy, support, and genuine concern for my welfare. They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and are working with SFPD to track down these criminals."
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...

That said, there is zero chance of an epidemic of CJD being misdiagnosed as alzheimers.
We might guess those things, I suppose. I was wondering why specifically.

Are you saying you think it is mainly related to education, and education is correlated to high income, this that's the link and not something else?
From what I gather, by help you mean told her to take her post down as you were in round 2 funding? I sincerely hope that isn't true.
If AirBnB fails, it won't be because some competitor comes and takes the market, it will be because the whole model of renting apartments doesn't work. And given the success they've had in such a short time, safe the say the model DOES work. EVERY SINGLE COMPETITOR will face the same online/offline hurdles. Don't think AirBnB won't copy whatever their competitors do better in a second, and they'll still be recognized as the trail-blazers in this industry.
Don't they use, and have an agreement with MediaNet (http://www.mndigital.com/) which provides all the licensing they need (since MediaNet has deals in place with the record labels)?
Better playlist names for your music.
My understanding is that the average progression for variant CJD, from early symptoms until death, is just over a year.

For "regular" CJD it's closer to half that.

Long term progressions are known to happen but are rare even given the rareness of CJD, so your friend was quite the outlier.
Mobile developers find success in Mexican market
That is right, just hard work, very good people. Patience and persistance were the key. Want to know more, email me jaime@inodesoft.com. Have a very bright and awesome day!
Nintendo have two things going for them: quality products, and the willingness and ability to innovate. They could still be relevant. I hope so. I think they're a great company.
What's the problem? Co-founder wants to meet with person who was harmed by using his company's service? Or the fact that he didn't phrase his request for a meeting appropriately?

You must have a lot of trouble walking down the street if you find such trivial things staggering.
You're right, it is a step in the right direction but bad guys can still find a way through. This is true for many different scenarios, e.g. applies to car rentals, too, you can rent on a stolen license and wreck it.

What AirBnB and others should do is to gather statistical analysis on how often such things occur, what's the cost, etc. and make this widely known.

In fact this could be additional revenue for AirBnB: offer different levels of protection for $N extra (a la car rental companies, they love to sell you protection, or Best Buy, where the employees pester you continuously about protection.) When life gives you lemons, lick them, i.e. don;t run away, embrace the difficulty.

In the end bad things will always happen but you have to know that the company you use will protect you when it happens. No protection, no business.
Coffeescript, VowsJS, & Asynchronous Testing
That is exactly the article that I learned about this from! I wanted to cite it, but I couldn't find it again. Thanks! :)
Apple has more cash than the US Government
AT&T to throttle smartphone data starting October 1st
The only sane option is to root the phone

How about the only sane option is to not buy a phone with crapware on it? This is what markets are for - so that crappy products can die. If Verizon sells phones with crapware and T-Mobile sells phones without, choose T-Mobile.

Even better, if the US market finally wakes up to buying unlocked phones from electronics vendors rather than locked phones from carriers, you can actually choose between handset brands like consumer electronics is meant to work.

If I buy a digital camera, I have to do a bit of research to find out which one is good. If I'm not that demanding, then the extent of the research can be asking my friend who just bought a camera which one she bought. It would be an easier choice if only two companies made decent cameras and I just had to choose one or the other, but that's not how it is, and I suspect the camera market would also stagnate in that situation.
Then I can only be similarly baffled by your level of naivete, or..., and I suspect this is more likely; you're simply trolling, and actually are nowhere near as baffled as you say you are, and are just using hyperbole to make a point.
As someone who has submitted non-linkbait titles and had them edited to be less useful, I find this annoying. You should stop doing that.
None of your points rule out my first implication, and I don't believe the logic for your second point was part of Paul's statement. Despite YC companies being a small part of the world economy (or whatever), they are disproportionately mentioned on HN for obvious reasons.
There's no real security in the process described. If they stole a wallet with a credit card, they also have the ID. I'd categorize it as actually harmful because it gives more of an illusion of security.

Couchsurfing apparently has someone capable of logical thinking on staff. The round trip of verifying an address adds real security.
Yeah, I don't see how Paul can say "usually it's not a problem" when it happens extremely frequently with every major press release.
I have one of the Logitech units. If I could use it to access Hulu, I would use it almost every day. Since I can't, I'm considering unhooking it for the electricity savings.
AT&T verifies data throttling for top 5% of users
One could easily argue that Backbone is the controller. Or even the EventEmitter.

The View itself is a javascript object with certain behaviours, the HTML is merely the representation of said object ... or conversely, it could be thought of as yet another model, with CSS being the view and what JavaScript considers a View being the controller for the actual rendering.

... it gets complicated.
The data retention portion of the bill:

"`(h) Retention of Certain Records- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18 months the temporarily assigned network addresses the service assigns to each account, unless that address is transmitted by radio communication (as defined in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934).'"

EFF interpretation:
"The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized. Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans' expressive activities is simply un-American."

So they're wanting to mandate IP records from ISPs. How does that equate to treating people like criminals and threaten on-line privacy, etc. I thought the default notion was to treat the internet as if it was all out in the open for anyone to see and read.

I actually sympathize with them, but this is very hyperbolic and ridicules the argument, to me. Also, factually incorrect as it would also affect foreigners living in America, irrespective of whether they are in fact, American.
replace some instances of fopen(), not every instance of fopen()
How to work with me - a no BS approach