skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Completing a project without a contract is begging to get shafted. It sets up an incentive for the client to demand extensive modifications and long-term support --- things you'd otherwise be charging for --- or even invites them to take your work and hand it to another contractor as a starting point.

Message board cynicism is a poor excuse for bad business practices.
More places are picking up electricity all the time. Oddly enough, the very solar panels and wind generators that are still seen as too expensive in e.g. the US can be a HUGE help in getting electricity to remote areas.

A typical cell phone battery stores 5-7 watt hours. With good sunlight, one 30-watt solar panel might provide full charges for 15+ phones in a day. Maybe add $10-20 to the cost of each phone to get a solar charging station set up in a village?

That wouldn't be so bad, all things considered.
Sure they do. A chain link connects two physical items, such as chain links or a chandelier or a bicycle lock. A hyperlink connects two web pages. The metaphor is sound and doesn't depend on English, albeit that the hyperlink is unidirectional.
I'm only a single data point, but I'd rather see data like this in a non-prose format, preferably in tables -- the way SEC documents are served up from EDGAR.
I think if they bottled the water and called is 'Dasani' it would be acceptable to the public :-)

As a resident of California, and an engineer, I to find this discussion difficult to fathom. The notion of 'contagion thinking' was probably the best thing in that article. By having the water 'touch' something good it can become 'good.' NASA has a vested interest in such systems [1] for things like the space station. No doubt a lunar colony would have a similar system.

[1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=nasa-all-...
>everyone in the world has the right has to be parents

are you sure? For example, the freedom of speech is in US Constitution, while reproductive freedom isn't there. Btw, the conservative right (churches, hillbilly morons, their elected representatives,...) wouldn't be that successful in limiting the reproductive freedom (in particular access to contraception and abortion and sexed (as education about a specific freedom is the key to advancing of the freedom)) if it were among the basic freedoms.
A patent holder is not required to license their patent. If found valid by the court, they are free to enjoin others from using their technology for the duration of the patent period.
Firefox for Android shows the future of mobile browsers
This ensures that the coder gets some benefit from the code. At the very least he or she can use the code as example/demo code to show future clients. Yeah, its definitely not as good as monetary compensation, but its better than nothing.
"Guided instruction" and "direct instruction" aren't the same thing at all.

Guided instruction: "Have you thought about this? What would change if you did that?"

Direct instruction: 2+2 = 4. 2+2 = 4. 2+2=4. 2+2=4. (repeat until the student exhibits the desired response to the stimulus).

Direct instruction is indeed effective if what you're after is a set response to a given stimulus. Some would question, though, whether this is sufficient to produce an individual capable of autonomous thinking. Behaviorism is awesome if you want an animal to press a bar on cuee, less effective if what you're after is (e.g.) a person capable of evaluating the claims of politicians and making the most desirable choice (for that person) in the voting booth.

Your paper hit pretty hard on the applicability of direct instructions for simple, algorithmic tasks (e.g., the number of arithmetic problems solved per minute), precisely the type of task where memorization and regurgitation is a valid strategy.
It isn't a smartphone, it's a computer. This is the real "one laptop per child".

It is truly disruptive: in 1.5 years (Feb 2013), that $80 will buy twice the RAM, processing power, flash etc (or sooner, as they may well beat Moore's law via economies of scale).

Wow, I got shivers up and down my spine at the Medkenya: as usual, disruptive platforms carry disruptive applications atop. This can really change the world. All the great things that computers can do, these "smartphones" can do - not just angry birds.

Apple can't compete here, because they are only interested in cutting-edge technology that will not work unless it is put together with great ingenuity. It's essential that someone lights the way as Apple does; but it does mean that they have to keep inventing the next new thing to remain viable.

EDIT oddly, they are priced $176-249 here in Australia (our AUD is currently worth 5% more than the USD). Guess it's priced by market. And of course, you still need to pay for connectivity (I wonder how much that costs in Kenya?). A review and specs: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/mobile_phones/huawei/id...
HTC attempts serious patent play against Apple in federal court
If your client ends up not using your work product, either because their business falters or because they reject your work, you stand a good chance of not getting paid --- contract or no contract. That's life in the big leagues.

If your client ends up using your work, your contract is going to end up plenty enforceable.

If your client ends up using your work and you don't have a contract, don't expect to get paid this year, and expect a painful obstacle course of unreasonable support demands. They'll pay you eventually, but since you've reduced the worst case outcome to "amount we agreed on" from "treble damages and site downtime", they have every incentive to drag things out.
Attention Developers: Tag and Prioritize Bugs in under 10 Seconds with BugHerd
How do you tell a file from a directory without stat()ing it? The d_type field is not portable. Since find and other tools like it need to recursively descend a directory tree, a stat() for each file to determine its type is unavoidable.
Haha. It's not the first time I've been told this. I hear he plays a nice fellow on TV, though, which is nice.
Tornado 'helps' Joplin resident downsize
Iframe Vulnerability in Google App Engine (Appspot
Filter Marco Arment? Yes, let's definitely hide stories from a sole proprietor of a mobile software company who's making enough money on one app to afford an NYC mortgage because he makes you feel bad about your choice of mobile operating systems. It's not like anyone on HN might want insight into that kind of person. Solo founder? Nah. Apple fanboy.

Criminy. Do I need better evidence for why we should avoid discussing Daring Fireball posts than a comment like this?
This is more a myth than reality.

It's definitely not a compatible environment, but I'd argue with "next to nothing". Android shares the same kernel, is built with the same toolchain, has the same underlying POSIX environment (albeit a reimplemented one, not the GNU software itself), uses most of the same base library set (libjpeg, zlib, etc...), uses most of the same middleware components (bluez, wpa_supplicant, etc...).

The one big architectural difference is that they ripped out the X server and replaced it with their own minimal window system. But even then the rendering API (OpenGL ES) is an existing standard from the desktop world. And the only hugely different component is the API: they wrote an app framework in Java and run it on their own VM. But that's just the skin. Underneath it's all still linux.

To someone who does nothing but write apps using top-level frameworks, Android looks "next to nothing" like "Linux". To someone who actually knows linux, it's all the same stuff.
Just have Barack drink it on TV.
I've been interacting quite a bit with with Microsoft people in the last couple of years.

I was shocked to meet a bunch of people within Microsoft that have recently migrated there from Sun. Joel Franusic, the BizSpark evangelist for Silicon Valley has roots as a php/perl/linux Admin, and has been a Super Happy Dev House organizer since the early days.

They are working really hard to change Microsoft's attitude towards open source and *nix in general. They are trying to change the attitude from one of competition to that of cooperation. And, I believe that's why you see things like Microsoft joining the Apache foundation, Microsoft contributing a lot of patches to Linux, funding the port of Node.js to Windows, etc...

So, perhaps the change in wording is a hall mark of a change in attitude, rather than a declaration of victory. I could be wrong.

The crew at BizSpark Silicon Valley have been the biggest supporters of our Hackers & Founders tag line of the "Linux of Incubators." http://angel.co/hackers_and_founders

<full disclosure>
Microsoft BizSpark sponsors a number of Hackers & Founders events in Silicon Valley[1]. I don't make any money from them, however. They cover the costs for some of the events that we hold to help startups and founders.
</full disclosure>

ref:

[1] http://hackersandfounders.tv
TechCrunch have 3 New Relic pro accounts to give away
Simple solution: don't use the words 'sewer' or 'reused' anywhere near the promotional materials for this product. Call it 'filtered water' or some other safe euphemism.
Shameless 500startups plug:

500startups is having their demo day today including BugHerd. http://livestream.com/500startups
This is a bad example, as those scientist are still part of the collaboration. (I was one of them.) The key part of outsourcing is that it is work done in exchange for money. And it's an exchange between two independent parties which are each self interested.

Otherwise, every time a business split up a project between multiple people or departments it would be "outsourcing".
Space elevator not going to happen anytime soon..
What harm did _why's behavior cause?
i don't think you can really make an argument that the GDP graph given in the google link is applicable to what i said. but if you can, i'd be interested to hear it.
Netflix Launches 'Netflix for Kids," for... Kids
And so continues HN's recapitulation of Reddit
Well, I don't have any problem with a romantic name, but there should at least be a clear description somewhere.
>The iPad's non-obvious innovation was essentially to roll back PC innovations: they massively pared down the operating system, stripped out the legacy overhead and focused applications on small, tightly controlled and limited, optimized binaries, so they could scale back the hardware to the point where the battery could last more than 20 minutes.

>And let's not forget that what looks obvious now, looked like a failure to most industry observers in 2009.

All well and good, but what does that make the Crunchpad? Chopped liver? Imagine if they had the backing of a multibillion dollar company or weren't ripped off by their partner with the JooJoo.

http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/original/0004/6593/4...

Is it just me or is there some selective amnesia bordering on revisionist history going on all the iPad stories and comments?

http://techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-t...
That's actually not true. See ATCA.
_why isn't a recluse. I thought he just didn't want strangers poking around his private life, and quit when people wouldn't stop prying. That's not really like Hughes, or Salinger, or even Bill Watterson.
Agreed, this is potentially huge.

Can you imagine the effect of getting one billion of these to people? It's possible. Even if every one were paid for by charity, it'd be just $80 billion. That's a small fraction of the charitable giving in the world every year.

Even the stingy US foreign aid budget was over $45 billion in 2009.
Be aware that if you client has more than ~50 employees, you are very unlikely to end up working under your MSA. By all means try, but be ready to have your lawyer review their MSA, because their MSA is going to be the basis for your project.

You might almost be better off trying to sneak in under the MSA with the "simplest contract that could possibly work" than you'd be by formalizing the relationship with an MSA. It is very possible to get a one-off contract executed, especially for one-off services. On the other hand, if you ignite the "MSA" neuroreceptors, you may find yourself far worse off than if you had simply gotten a Nolo-style work-for-hire contract signed; for instance, it's the MSA that's going to have IP clauses, noncompetes, insurance requirements, and things like that.

Be careful and don't wave things like "MSA"s around just because they seem like best practices. They are, for a company like ours or like Hashrockets; we're set up to negotiate and review MSA change bars. You on the other hand may not want to round trip with a lawyer several times just to do an $8000 PHP contract.
The Forgotten Churchill
Crunchpad http://www.crunchbase.com/assets/images/original/0004/6593/4...
thanks for your response - do you have a link to any data that shows the outcome of holding the basket of goods fixed? i will try to find some as well, just thought you might have some data handy.
Yahoo, Facebook test “six degrees of separation” idea
When I was travelling in Scotland I bought ZTE smartphone android 2.2 for 50 pounds without a contract just to use Google maps instead of paying expensive 10 pounds per day rental GPS. The touchscreen is horrible but the phone itself is pretty responsive ,Skype worked fine.
Basically throw away smartphone for two weeks of vacation.
Gruber's head is going to asplode when he tries to write the article on how patent litigation is now evil.
It's akin to how attracted the opposite gender would be to you, if they knew you (however justly) burnt down a (bad) ex's house.

I have seen a friend of mine retaliating on her blogs against clients who didn't pay on time, etc.

And I also know at least 4 prospective clients (honest ones, they always paid in full and on time to their contractors) who got discouraged because they had witnessed the "worst" of this friend when things might not work out between her and the clients.
F*ck You. Pay Me. Lessons For Designers.
Are you saying that you had you stayed you might have benefited somehow? Were you in the 'mobility' division? Did you leave stock options?
Super rich people should also pay up 30% in taxes instead of 17%. Just taking money from warren buffet is not going to solve any problem. The tax should be for all the rich guys. I dont think the policy is fair which supports rich getting richer and poor getting even poorer.
Justin.tv/TwitchTV hiring talented engineers to build the future of gaming
Not necessary. If you had the source code to FaceBook, most likely you won't be able to do much of it.

The one who is focused on running a business on it - yes, would make a lot of it. Irrespective of who else has the raw code.
The problem is the start. Self taught folks usually find it hard to break into the mainstream, unless they have already done stuff on their own (startup) or are known in the open source community. The CS degree guarantees a channel to enter a company.
I was reading a related article from Prof. Vivek Wadhwa about this (his take on students dropping out to do startups), and he encourages going to school (any school).
Though, there is some truth I think in school providing a bigger picture/research that is hard to for some self taught folks to get to.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlrhIlMeu6...
You could have auctioned the project's code.
Even on HN.
PowerInbox: Apps in your email intro video
Zend Framework (1.x), and Symfony2
We're a small company relative to the kinds of companies who usually contract out dev or tech work, and we will pay something up front. Probably closer to 25% than 50%, but we wouldn't get mad if you asked 50%.

I'm saying this as a data point for people just getting started who might be nervous about asking for payment up front. If we'll do it, I'm sure many other people will too. It's a reasonable request.

On the other hand, just so you know: we never ask for payment up front for our services, ever. That's because we'd almost never get it. Most companies with in-house finance and/or counsel aren't going to pay you anything in advance.

If I were freelancing, I'd ask for up-front payment, but I'd let the issue drop for any company I knew was large/established enough to pay me; if I was in a relationship with such a company and doubted the project really had legs, I'd just walk from the project.
What about the fallibility of the system?

If there's a set of processes feeding into each other taking sewage and producing clean drinking water, I feel that there's a much higher possibility of a failure causing contamination to the drinking water. Engineers can be complacent about fail-safes and politics may compromise good engineering.

If there's a river in the way, then although the water must be processed again, this apparent wastefulness also has the effect of preventing engineers (or their managers) from taking shortcuts.
DoD Grant Solicitation: Weapons supply chain security
Develop and demonstrate innovative tools, techniques or decision support frameworks for the identification, tracking, and mitigation of risks associated with malicious attacks on critical embedded information and communications technology (ICT) within a weapon system supply chain lifecycle.
That is certainly not the case at GitHub. We don't care where or when you work as long as the work gets done. If you're being guilted into staying later, then the hours aren't actually flexible.
I wonder if he has the rights to use the code himself and/or allow others to use the code. The code is likely a product of a combination of specs, discussions, and his own work.
the 3GS is only $45 on AT&T. Some carriers overseas are offering the iPhone 3GS/4 for free (with a contract of course).

Not to diss Android, but iOS devices have better apps, better battery life, etc.
PowerInbox Raises $1.1 Million to Launch App Platform for Email
My next startup is going to be Heroku meets Angie's List for Telephone Sanitizers.
FounderLY interview with Chris McCann of StartupDigest
Or any company large enough to have a purchasing department or in-house counsel. I'm just saying, be careful with black-and-white stuff like this. Your rule of thumb will serve you in good stead with small local clients, or fledgeling startups. It's a lot sketchier with BigCos. BigCos don't dick around with payables; it costs them more not to pay you than it does just to respond to the damn invoice. They may take forever+30 to pay you, but they will pay you, and they know it, and so they're a lot less likely to go through the contortions they need to go through to pay you anything up front.
In Kenya, in areas where people don't have electricity, there are usually phone charging kiosks with large banks of car batteries.

And if you think about the amazing stuff, like the M-Pesa mobile payment system, that they were able to build up with dumbphones (M-Pesa is something like 40% of transactions there), just think what they can do with relatively open and cheap smartphones.
Apple releases OS X Lion 10.7.1
Even as a passionate Ubuntu follower, I don't see the possibility of Ubuntu going main-stream. The OS may match or even exceed the capabilities of Windows, but it is more important to have a diverse number of generally used apps. I feel Chrome OS has a very good chance of getting mainstream popularity. It does what it intends to do pretty well.
Do Barcelona really want independence?
Do Catalans really want Catalonia to be an independent state in Europe? What do recent surveys say?
This is a huge F-U move... and what a non-paying (deadbeat) client deserves.
Not exactly a plugin but Fiddler ( http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/ )'s request builder can do this and you can drag & drop existing requests to request builder and modify as you like.
I don't think he meant it as an optimization. It's easy to understand as 5 * 2^20, and quicker to type.
> But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

I'm pretty sure that he's wrong about their tax rates (or is using numbers that can't be compared to the rate he quotes for him).

From http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/08inratesharesnap.pdf .

"For returns reporting positive adjusted gross income, the top 1 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 23.3 percent; the top 10 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 18.7 percent; and the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers had an average tax rate of 2.6 percent."

Supporting data is at http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=96679,... .
Advance of the Data Civilization: A Timeline
HN study group?

=]
This post has convinced me to take the time and try to learn at least a few bits of clojure. Thank you!
I wonder how many people who paraphrase Taylor's "Principles of Scientific Management" have carefully read it. Taylor exposes several insights that are antithetical to the commonly paraphrased version "Faster is better. More hours are better."

At least in the context of moving pig iron slabs, he observed that highly-qualified (for the job) and better-paid workers produced better results working fewer hours than less qualified workers working longer hours.

This point is perhaps better paraphrased as "better management, better workers, fewer hours, and higher pay produce measurable improvements in output."
Motorola is counter-suing Apple, though. Without knowing exactly what patents each party is saying the other is infringing on, I would wager that the endgame for both companies is now a cross-license agreement more than an injunction against the other's products.
That Sherlock Holmes line is interesting. It's false, arrogant, and dangerous.
Better insolation and no need to run wires to a village make solar panels a no-brainer in a lot of places.

Some entrepreneurs are already renting access to a charger. It'd be cool to get micro-loans for them to buy solar panels.
People who don't realize this should not bother commenting on the smartphone/tablet market. Not only are there enormously disruptive and empowering aspects to mobile platforms, especially in the developing world, but those aspects will also make such platforms enormously desirable. The potential worldwide market for mobile devices is staggering, even in the short-term. As poorer countries develop that market will just get larger, establishing a presence and a brand reputation today will pay huge dividends down the road.

Selling smartphones to rich people in rich countries today is certainly a good business, but ultimately it's the worldwide business and the volume business which will bring in the biggest share of revenue.

Meanwhile, imagine how these devices will change the world? How many people in the world have never made even a single phone call? How many people are illiterate? How will things change when they have the access to devices which are powerful portable computers, communication devices, and libraries? We think ebooks are important to us in the developed world, imagine how transformative they will be in a country without much pre-existing book ownership?
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOOGLE-MOTOROLA DEAL: It Could End Up Being A Disaster
The Dutch seem to be the leaders in high-tech food production. I've read somewhere that they are net exporters of food.
there is no shame in trying to change the world by innovating!
Rejecting cleaned sewer water would seem to be a logical consequence of accepting homeopathic theory.
A Patent on Making Toast [2000]
A personal history of the Mac—and why the iPad will win in the end
Pretty cool - a nice plus would be the ability to post files.
I've said it before, but I'll repeat myself: Android will be the dominant OS of this decade (found in phones, tablets, netbooks and other devices) because it is the only OS that is both fully modern and flexible enough to be adapted to whatever needs people have.

One thing I'd love to see from Google is more support for "platform developers" - docs, examples, tutorials and tools to help anyone get Android up and running on different devices.
Command-Q
Apple Released Mac OS X Lion 10.7.1 Update