skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Perl's still used plenty of places, like here at blip.tv, although it may not be as hip as the more modern scripting languages.

Java can come close to the performance of C, C++ and is taught in most universities these days. The inclusion of the language is appropriate.

I will say that I respect the guys that do the C, C++ and even Java more than maybe what I do day in and day out. I've got a pretty damn good grasp on JavaScript, but I'd need a few hours to brush up on pointer and memory management. I just feel like C, C++, Java are a waste of my time. But I do understand the need for the Neckbeards. It's much easier for Sir Neckbeard to jump up to a higher-level language than it would be for me to write performant C code, or even code that simply doesn't segfault on execution. And that is where their power is derived from.

I can kid myself all day long that I am great at JavaScript, but I am nothing without the engineers that write the V8 engine in Chrome. They should be compensated accordingly.
Is this how business people look at the people who actually make things? It's pretty unsettling.

Also, it's pretty ignorant: Anyone who's been to a Google office or to Twitter's or Facebook's office can tell you that what someone wears or what their BMI is has nothing to do with what makes a company scale.

At Google where you have 24,000 -- a significant number of which are engineers, you have old engineers, young engineers, engineers who have beards, engineers who happen to not even be male -- even engineers who wear skinny jeans and live in the mission.

The engineers I know at Apple are really well put together and make excellent software.
I think a lot of it has to do with how the decision was... presented?

1. HP tablet sales fail.
2. HP warns of low earnings, then announces them.
3. Promise to make announcement only after market closes on the 18th.
4. Rumors that they are spinning Compaq back out.
5. Changes mind and makes announcement.
6. They are buying Autonomy (enterprise/IBM space)
7. They are shooting the mobile device effort in the face.

That is... a lot of change to suddenly announce, especially given that the Palm/WebOS aqusition[1] not more than a year ago was the big new vision for the company.

They made one product and couldn't sell it[2] and pulled the plug on the entire vision while at the same time announcing a huge corporate shift.

Busy day for HP.

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/

[2] http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad-best-buy-sitting-on-a...
Let's remove the emotional out of the equation (jealousy, envy, etc).

Groupon has had success (I won't say massive b/c I can't quantify massive). The reason people are poking holes in their business viability is strictly due to their recent SEC filings for an upcoming IPO. Companies that do well on the stock exchange are those that are able to show profitability. Do some business on the exchange miss on earnings/profit margins? 100%. It is probably a 50/50 coin flip on whether or not a company is going to hit their earnings reports.

Why people are "attacking" Groupon is because of their somewhat odd use of CSOI (which is vastly different from adjusted CSOI).

To run a business that is publicly traded, you have to show that costs are in order so that you can reach probability. Groupon has had somewhat exploding costs to grow quicker than their competitors (fine by me). But using history as an indicator of profitability in the future is what has everyone in a tizzy about Groupon's business viability.
Prediction: within 5 years, the term "functional programming" will be almost meaningless.
I bet the one with the title "Email confirmation" was going to spam folders ... I've seen a lot of spam with that exact title when I'm cleaning out my gmail spam folder
I would choose an arena with higher barriers to entry. Why wouldn't Foursquare copy your key feature?
If the designs are so similar - and I am one of the few who really thinks they are - then Apple would have no need to scale the Samsung device in order to highlight the similarities. There's no excusing this. Once was terrible, twice is just incomprehensible. Incredibly unprofessional no matter how this came to be.
Barron's nails it:

a) "decision to cease all webOS devices (including the TouchPad) a mere 48 days after the launch" - Leadership doesn't know what they're doing w/acquisitions.

b) "expensive acquisition of Autonomy" - $10b to jump into a new market via acquisition which we just proved we're not good at.

c) "material layoffs" and "talent drain over the next 12-24 months' - I believe this. Current talent bails. Changing focus means new recruiting, years of training / efficiency building.

As a shareholder, ouch.

via:

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/08/19/hp-drops...
I like the Kindle (and the new Nook, not the old ones) for two reason:

1. the e-ink is easy on my eyes when reading for hours; I would never seriously read on a backlit tablet device.

2. The devices really are ONLY for reading. I spend my entire day in front of a full-blown computer, so when I have a break I don't want another full-blown computer in front of me. I want a book or a reading device. This is the same reason why I don't own a smartphone. I think I'm in the minority of geeks, but in the majority of regular people when I say this. I think most people would say, "Why would I want to check my email on my book?"

From that perspective I think they're hugely different markets than the iPad. It bummed me out to hear that Amazon is jumping on the tablet bandwagon with their unreleased Kindle, because like I said in another thread (and like this article says), people don't care about tablets, they care about iPads. I'd bet that any tablet not made by Apple is doomed to failure for at least the next 5 years, because only Apple knows how to put together such a slick and seamless user experience.
Objective-C: Rubyist's Insight
The autonomy acquisition seems to be the sore point. The reduced forecasts also seem to be a factor.
Just published an article: http://goshakkk.name/blog/2011/08/19/objective-c-rubyists-in...
Exactly my reaction. While I'm very impressed by the tool, my main impression was that the language should have constructs allowing one to as expressive as possible, at the appropriate level of abstraction.
"This is the coveted currency that companies like foursquare can offer."

s/can/can't/
Why You Must Code
Among the more unique and impressive products are a set of route/path optimizers. They make constant speed, latency, congestion, and reliability measurements from thousands of points across the internet and use that data to send content through the most efficient paths possible.

Also, these services aren't just blanket across your domain or account - you can configure exactly what content gets what treatment based on literally hundreds of different variables. Furthermore, there are ways of having your origin servers send info to Akamai's edge caches that can then be used to make even smarter decisions, per-request.

I agree with other posters - it's expensive overkill for small sites or sites with modest needs, but for those who need maximum control, reliability and performance, I don't think there's any other company that provides it.
How To: Get Out of Working Rut
His writing style is annoying with it's 'Apple holier than though' attitude. But I think you've missed the overall point of the article.

If you can ignore such pedantic arguments as the beta names, he actually makes one good point. At the same time, I think he completely misses the fact that it isn't the hardware manufacturers that will differentiate, it's the OSs. The hardware difference between the iPad and other tablets is minimal at best, which is why Apple is suing Samsung for copying the design.
If it's not relevant than Apple had no reason to resize it.

By resizing they indicate that the devices are more similar than they actually are. I don't even think a note that says the Samsung device is resized would be acceptable, they should simply make a fair comparison.

I have been defending Apple on this till now even after the first doctored photo debacle. No more, no way. They are in the wrong without question.
If the charge is that Samsung hardware is so close to Apple's that it would fool a normal reasonable person, isn't doctoring images sort of a tacit admission that it's not? I mean, if you really believed it to be true, why would you bother altering the images?

I'm kind of confused about why this affects the patent lawsuit, though. I understand the German trademark dispute, but is the visual look of the iPhone included in the patent?
This article is bullshit.

I'm sorry but it really, truly is. I've noticed a trend here on HN that more and more of these inane articles are appearing, labelling some group and then stereotypically applying properties to the people in them.

This one is the worst. Every line is a blatant lie, pulled from thin air or just a single experience the author once had. It's obvious that he has no clue.

Why does the article get 50 points? It should be flagged.
I agree. I've found the links to dupes extremely useful, because usually people will only comment in one such thread and without the links, I'd have no easy way of 1) knowing that there already was a discussion and 2) finding the discussion.
There is actually a very active start-up scene in Rochester fueled by all the former Kodak folks who lost their jobs.
War on PC gamers continues: Ubisoft misled on From Dust DRM
Well it's probably not interested in copying all the Filmaster features as it's not a movie service but a location-based recommendations service. So one of the ways to differentiate is to, as I mentioned in the blog post, provide a broader range of movie recommendations, not just in local cinemas (this is where Foursquare is also strong) but also on TV, Netflix and elsewhere - that's the next feature we're finishing now and releasing in September.
The Dollar-Store Economy: How the lowest end of American retail does business
What about Windows versions? Windows XP still works perfectly, but that didn't prevent people from buying Windows Vista or Windows 7 because of the innovations...
Data Insecurity is a Systemic Threat
Me too. I'd disagree with #2 and #4. It takes a lot more than "hours" for resources outside of the affected area to arrive. I've seen plenty of asshole activities during a disaster - including someone stealing a water trailer at gunpoint from a USAR staging area.

The technology generally isn't the issue - it's funding and having trained people available to deploy the gear. Florida's Division of Emergency Management (where FEMA's Craig Fugate came from) has a decent handle on this:
http://www.floridadisaster.org/CIEM/2006/Slides/09%20-%20Int...
My wife is from Rochester so I end up there a couple times a year. It's pretty incredible what the decline of Kodak has done to the city. It's something everyone talks about.

I think the challenge is people worked at Kodak because it was in their town. And, IMO, a lot of these people remain jobless because they don't want to leave Rochester. Accessing this talent-base would require a company making an investment in not only the people but the city. In my opinion, the potential reward doesn't justify the risk.
The software is claimed to only require WiFi hardware, so should be available to loads of people.

The code is here apparently https://github.com/hrushim/LifeNet
"If you divide 480 by 44 you get a remain­der of 20. Divide by 11 and you get a remain­der of 9"
Isn't it 40 and 7 respectively?
edit: I think the author meant 460, which is 480px - 20px for the status bar
Lots of things are obvious in retrospect or when pointed out but opaque before then.

And some things are obvious to you and amazing to others http://sivers.org/obvious
He used the extreme value theorem. The theorem asserts that a continuous function on a compact set (for our purposes closed and bounded set) has a maximum (and a minimum). In this case the the closed and bounded set is the sphere of all possible orientations for solar panels. The theorem is mentioned in most introductory calculus courses, but the proof is definitely not 'trivial'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_value_theorem
Namespaced Constants and Functions in C and Objective-C
Kogeto, a small NYC start-up, is already investing there. I can imagine a very productive corridor opening up between software companies funded and headquartered in NYC and manufacturing/hardware in Rochester.
The filing has lots of pictures and information, among them the dimensions of the different devices. There needs to be a graphic that illustrates that the proportions and relative button placement is copied; this is that graphic.
Underage Girls Can Now Legally Take Sl00ty Pictures
Apple has to get this under control. They're burning good will like crazy here. Tech devices have been cloned since the dawn of the industry. They're not meaningfully going to stop this, and this kind of game just makes them look petty and insecure.
Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations
Looks like Apple may have shrunk the Galaxy S as well.
W3 Total Cache Screws Up WordPress 301 Redirects
Wow, if you're not a fanboi, that was really tough to get through. But what the author fails to realize is that it isn't about hardware. If Tim Cook had truly 'locked up' the components channel, competitors wouldn't be flooding the market (which they are).

I agree with the author that this market already needs to be revolutionized. Google and Microsoft aren't just playing copycat. The Kinect isn't the only technology coming out of Microsoft that truly changes the game. http://www.conceivablytech.com/8886/business/beyond-windows-...
It's hard for you to be wrong. If someone with zero programming talent does become really good, you could just say that they did have talent after all.
This post is so clueless I almost wonder if it's some kind of in-joke. He mentions Foursquare, which is exactly the wrong company to use as an example of "fat guys who know C++".

One of their top engineers is well known as an expert Java and Scala programmer, but also has a user picture of himself sporting pink-tinted glasses and artfully mussed hair. And I guarantee he had more fun last weekend than you did.
Node's analogy in Python isn't PyPy, but Twisted, which has been in production since, oh, 2002 or so.
Friends with Benefits season 1 episode 5
The gang go to Louisiana to support Sara while she attends her sister's baby shower following an argument. Elsewhere, an intoxicated Aaron gets separated from the group during Mardi Gras celebrations and finds the courage to try something new.
Nice! It would definitely be great if that type of productive corridor opened up. Did Kogeto setup their own team there, or did they partner with a Rochester-based hardware supplier?
This always bothered me about SEOmoz's new public analytics button on all their blog updates.

The button says "Post Analytics". That makes me think "send analytic to SEOmoz". But what they really mean is "view this blog post's analytics".
This was perhaps a good plan delivered with the poorest tact. The reality distortion field seems to be working in reverse for Leo & Co.

Moving toward an enterprise only strategy could make HP healthier and more profitable in the long run. It may even reap additional benefits from a consolidation of vision.

The PSG offers less and less synergy with the rest of the company with each passing year. Especially if WebOS is dead, which everyone knew but nobody wanted to admit.

The problem is HP could have kept webOS in zombie mode and discretely shopped around the company under the guise of licensing talks. Maybe HP already did that and its last option walked out the door.

And the same with the PSG. HP could have kept that under wraps and saved the news until the transition was nearly complete. "By the way, PSG, the #1 PC maker in the world, is doing great and we think it will do even better as an autonomous company which will happen as soon as the SEC allows it starting from today."

Instead HP delivered an abortion of bad news with little to no concern how it would be received. It's like Apotheker thought to himself, "this is clearly the best solution" and therefore it requires absolutely no explanation. Everyone should just "get it" like he does.
Veer can be overclocked.

Along with patches, it is quite smooth indeed. Of course, the argument can and should be made that it should have shipped this way.

It is possible to set up Google Apps and personal Gmail on the same phone. Simply select GMail and enter email addresses with full domain i.e. you@work.com and you@gmail.com

Viola.
Also a reason why pro baseball players are usually born in January.
The hardest part of learning to program for me (thinking back many many years to THINK C) was learning the environment and what all the terms and messages meant.

I think basic programming is actually conceptually easy. I remember being frustrated by not understanding the lingo and I think that's where a lot of people starting off get hung up, too. What's the difference between a syntax error and a runtime error? Or an exception? What happens when the compiler spits out some gobbletygook, and now I'm digging through a manual written for people who already know how to program.

In this sense the Codeacademy poses similar hurdles. It will report an Error, without giving more context. Why is it an error? Did I quote something I shouldn't have? What does unexpected token mean? OH, I left off a quote.

i.e. instead of "Error: Unexpected token ILLEGAL", a better message (perhaps linked from the strict message) would be "The program interpreter couldn't understand what you meant because it was expecting to see some syntax or punctuation that didn't exist. Common reasons are unpaired quotes, braces or parentheses"

Because the environment is already somewhat controlled, the helpful messages can have a narrower, clearer scope. Overall Codeacademy is great; I'm recommending it to a lot of people.
I really like the detailed analysis of the existing interface proportions; the irregularity is definitely something people can feel but most won't be able to pin down.

There really isn't too much for me to argue with here, actually. My only concern is whether or not a 4px rhythm is, perhaps, too flexible. While I certainly haven't tested to the extent Aen has, I'm wondering if using 8px as a minimum for the rhythm would be better read by the eye as having some consistency, or if it would simply require too much change from the existing interface? (i.e., the status bar would need to go from 20 to 24px)
Pypy 1.6 Released: Alternative Implementation of Python 2.7.1
"The hackers found and immediately posted e-mail addresses, passwords, and physical addresses of 205 O'Reilly site members paying $5 a month to hear Bill's wisdom"

It's funny how a group that claims to be so good..is nothing but evil. This is why I can no longer support them.
Realize that a different CEO was in charge at HP when the acquisition of Palm occurred and the new CEO came from an enterprise software company (SAP) and seems intent on turning HP into a company he knows how to run, rather than running HP as the company it is. Someone (maybe at precentral.com) likened it to when a sports team gets a new coach he recruits players for his style of game instead of building with the talent at hand, AKA "a rebuilding year".

I really, really hope they license WebOS to a good phone manufacture, The only real problem with the touchpad was underpowered hardware. I read somewhere that they got WebOS running once on iPad hardware for testing purposes and it rocked. WebOS on a dual core tablet has the potential to be really cool.
Startups Hindered by Software Patents
Feel free to contact me if you need any help / info on VS integration, mail in profile. I don't work on the editor team, which is probably where the bulk of your work will be, but I know some people there so I can point in the general direction.
Wasn't it all said in '91? http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/int-p...
> While it might seem odd that patents on vintage cameras could be valuable in the age of Instagram, when it comes to defending a patent in court, the more prior art a company can own, the better

This sentence seems wrong to me.

If I want to invalidate a patent does it matter who owns the prior art? Isn't all that's needed an example that someone, event the patent holder had disclosed the invention before it was patented? Shouldn't it be irrelevant who "owns" the prior art?
You forgot the "we're refocusing ourselves to our core competency as a software company". HP hasn't had competent software for years since HPUX and even then, it's questionable. They are a hardware/printer company so this is going to be a painful transition for them.
Resumes are a conversation starter.
>Krul said that litigating parties are required by Dutch law to provide "complete and truthful" evidence to the judge.

Apple: But ours was just 6% away from the complete truth!

What are the chances of that flying with the judge?
Since the link on that page is broken, here's the full interview:

http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/mike/transcripts/mcilroy.htm
Shopping for health plans should be trivial in the info age (and why it isn't)
There are some SEOs that do extraordinarily well for themselves. Think of an industry awash with cash, like say consumer finance. Does there exist an affiliate program in consumer finance? Does there exist advertising in consumer finance? If so, is there any space for a new entrant in this field? If yes, there exists at least a few SEOs who are probably doing pretty well for themselves.

There are many reasons why someone who is really good at SEO might not be rich. That goes for any white collar profession, like say lawyering. See that unrich lawyer, what's wrong with him? Maybe he's not good at lawyering, but is good at writing about lawyering or playing a lawyer on a social network, which describes quite a few SEO "experts." Maybe he's good at lawyering but not good at extracting value from it. Maybe he works in a sector where money does not naturally concentrate, like public interest law. Maybe he doesn't really care for money. Maybe he's rich and doesn't feel like talking about it. Maybe he's playing a different game or one with different time horizons.

As to whether you can make a full-time living doing SEO: yes. People do. Nota bene: most of the SEOs I know have diverse skill sets -- some understand broader marketing well, some have deeper technical abilities, some have ready access to capital, some have domain expertise or industry connections, etc etc. The field is quite like programming in that regard.
Apotheker is taking the pain upfront, and undoing the damage wrought by Fiorina and Hurd over the last decade. He only took over in November 2010, and had to take some time to look at the business, and give the WebOS launches a chance.
But he's basically unwinding Fiorina's Compaq acquisition (as Michael Dell implied in his tweet yesterday), and Hurd's Palm/WebOS acquisition.
HP used to have a core value of only being in businesses where it could be at the leading edge technologically. Tablets, smartphones and PCs are areas where it's been a copycat.
Plus, Apotheker has likely identified as part of his review since starting (at the end of 2010) that consumer technologies aren't an area that it has a competitively differentiated core competence.
[EDIT for typos/clarity]
4. version-controlled snippets so you can know if there are improvements / errors

add that, and we're golden. But stale copy/paste code is flat-out dangerous, and that's all this really is from a code standpoint, with a bit of magic and discovery. Not that I'm downplaying the tool - I think it looks really good. Just that using community-generated code is dangerous unless you either carefully curate it, or understand everything it does.
SpiderWeb is the only CRPG developer that doesn't just throw in experience points and swords and calls it a day.
Developers do things for two reasons: to get laid, or get paid
Woah... why am I at -1? A knee-jerk reaction of some sort?