skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So much cheerleading. So much schadenfreude.

I understand preferring a company's products to another, and I understand that a brand is shorthand. I don't understand the self-identification with brand. But then, I also don't understand the phenomenon of following/identifying with sports teams/players.

Except brand cheerleading seems a bit weirder to me, because, well, for example when Apple users cheer Apple profits, isn't that a financial loss for the user that he's cheering? Why would you cheer record profits of a company whose products you buy? I think it would make me feel like I paid too much.

What are the underlying pychological mechanisms? John Siracusa once described the Apple community in particular as having survived a horrible dark time as a persecuted minority, with Apple's success now being pure vindication. But there's an implicit assumption of identification with the brand there already. Where does that come from?
Dropbox have nothing to worry about from apple thus far. Yeah icloud may be good for people that have their entire lives in apple products. But those people are relatively few. The vast majority of people use different platforms and do not want to be tied down to a single vendor.

As long as Apple continue their tradition of (i) completely ignoring linux and (ii) making some of the worst windows software ever made, Dropbox have nothing to worry about.

Facebook is a non factor. Given Facebooks innovative stands on privacy I doubt anyone sane would let facebook keep their files.

Google would be a much bigger concern, but thus far Google have been extremely slow on this front, they seem to be tied up in some grand strategy/architecture dreaming, so they have been a non-factor thus far. I would say Dropbox's future depends mostly on Google's ability to get their heads out of the clouds forget all their grand world domination strategies and build something that works right now.

So yes there are a lot of potential competitors but each one of them carries a lot of architectural and strategy baggage and the entire point of dropbox is to avoid all of that stuff. So I think their chances of success are not bad at all.
Columnar MPP-database used by Zynga and Groupon now has free Community Edition.
>Why is nobody complaining about NTFS or ext3/4 not actually zeroing out the file space when you delete something, and instead just 'marking it deleted' or 'removing the pointer in the inode'?

you have obviously never dealt with DoD or anybody close to it or even just with a serious enterprise/bank.
Amazing Facts About India's Oldest Tribal Life
@guan_yu: I definitely see music as art and not just a part of the IP/brand. But not all developers see music the same way, so I was just trying to appeal to their business sense--if not to their artistic sense too.

Music is part of the game, not a window dressing. But some of that music would never have been known without the game too--there's so many orchestral composers in the world, what are the odds that we'd really get to know one guy from Japan if it wasn't for Final Fantasy? And didn't he create the 'sound' of FF while at it? That's probably why I never really liked the FF series after Uematsu went over to Mistwalker.
Will be really interesting to see what comes of this but I can't help but think back to http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2010/12/the-free-...
No BlackBerrys = Less Traffic Accidents in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
for that you can right-click an app once launched and select "keep in launcher", or you can define custom ones by hand. I did that last install, haven't tried it yet for this one, but this was the guide I used: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1578379 (not sure if it still works in this version of unity, but it's worth a shot).
Ask HN: What should people know about OOP and program design?
I'm helping to teach a university course called Advanced Programming for Biologists. This is the second of a two part course that teaches grad students (and some faculty members) enough of a programming foundation to be able to hack together solutions to problems. We're using Python. The first class covered the basics (data types, functions, etc.) So far we've covered debugging, SQL with sqlite, and version control, among other things.

I'll be covering Object Oriented Programming one week and "program design" the next, but I have a lot of latitude in what to present. As hackers, what do you feel would be most important to cover in a setting like this? Any resources you would recommend?
It's a start. It does not include pokes, events threads, posting on other peoples profiles, etc: lots of the stuff that it sounds like these Europeans get.
It's well known the iPhone 4 has the highest margin so selling fewer of those could account for the lower gross margin overall. [edit]Things like exchange rates can factor in as well.[/edit]

I'd also caution against reading too much into "demand waning" for the sales drop. Apple switched a lot of iphone 4 production to iphone 4S production to stockpile millions for the launch.
Taste Twins are better than Friends for Social Media Discovery
Facebook could make data removable by users if they engineered their site to allow that. The problem is that they haven't, and it appears they've in fact done the opposite. We need data protection laws like this to put the onus on the service providers to make giving users control of their data a priority.
Do they know how frustrating this is for some people?

> A particular word might not appear on a page in your results if there is sufficient other evidence that the page is relevant. The evidence might come from language analysis that Google has done or many other sources. For example, the query [ overhead view of the bellagio pool ] will give you nice overhead pictures from pages that do not include the word 'overhead.'

The title of the parent is not quite accurate either. Quoting a single word has been there for a while, and has always meant "Do not substitute this word; search for this word exactly". Where + meant "always include this word in the results".

I really wish Google had an options page for less 'clever' searching: I want +, I want to "quote phrases", it'd be great if I could bracket some terms, and I don't want any substitutions. And I really don't want any of my terms silently dropped or subbed.
I was in exactly the same position as you a few years ago (I am 38). However in the last two years I have embraced OSS technologies and have not looked back. I feel like I wasted too much time in .NET land, and the best bit is that programming is actually more fun for me now.
This is a standard customer service trick - externalize the cost (time) and minimize business losses (disclosure of data). Make an action difficult enough to discourage more casual users but stay within the legal limit.

This is why checks take up to 14 business days to clear (to make a quick buck in those days), why you have to wait 30 minutes on hold "for the next available representative" (to discourage you calling in), and why most rebates are mail-in (in hopes that you will forget).
From the URLs, it looks like a prequel.
Show HN: Easily monitor your Google Analytics metrics with Leftronic
That's not always accurate, Apple's Q4 2011 and Q3 2011 are fine to compare here, the product mix particularly phones and ipads shipped are much closer then Q4 2011 and Q4 2010.
>All countries (except Somalia) regulate their markets.

if you know anybody who's worked in Somalia, you'd know about regulations there. It is just a little bit faster and less traditional when cease-and-desist is delivered using AK-47, and regulations change frequently as one "General" is replaced by another.
The Hitler things are just (inappropriately) funny art, I've never seen an attacking one.
I don't think comparing copyright enforcement, and companies offering a service targeted to citizens of foreign countries is really relevant.

As far as I know, what matters is that Facebook targets EU citizens (by having subsidiaries in the EU, by running ads, by explicitly accepting users from abroad etc.)

I think you'll find some pointers at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_laws
Can you provide more detail? Is this when entering URLs directly? Have you tried going through j.mp or bitly.com and shortening the URL, then bookmarking that version?
Electronic Cigarette And Safety Issues
Sure, might as well: http://db.tt/iEWlOKY
Just to add: Windows x64 is LLP, int = 4, long = 4, long long = 8, void* = 8
Finally: Will Smith Among Philadelphia 76ers New Owners
Very cool. How long did it take you to build that?
Are you referring to Facebook wanting to operate under US laws in other countries?
But if you, as a customer of those websites, agree to them knowing you are there, and they chose to share that with others, what right does the government have to prevent that?

Why is this not a 'just don't use the service if you don't like it' deal?

Credit bureaus are significantly different - you have literally no choice in that manner; Facebook isn't providing data to be used in that type of decision though. If some secret, 'I cant see it but they show my boss' data existed, and that was used when applying for a job or something, I could understand that perspective.

This, however, is no more than a guy standing outside a row of stores, taking notes during the day of what people go in what stores, and how big their bags are when they come out. Is that illegal in Europe as well?

Edit because I can't seem to reply to comments below:
That's fascinating. If even that sort of behavior is illegal in Europe, it makes the outcry against what Facebook is doing make more sense.
I'd say it looks even less stable. Adjusted for inflation, the dips and spikes are much deeper, and people who bought gold in 1980 still haven't made their money back.

Not that it really matters. Right now, people aren't buying it because it's stable. Quite the opposite: People are buying it because the price has been increasing rapidly, and this world is sadly full of individuals who confuse what a thing costs with what a thing is worth, and who have neither the imagination to contemplate the possibility that whatever is happening right now might not keep happening indefinitely, nor the attention span to remember just how quickly and radically it can fail to keep happening indefinitely.

Consider this: just a few short years ago, people were arguing that real estate was a very sound investment. They did so on the grounds that the price of real estate had been increasing rapidly for years, and that everyone else was buying it too.
It doesn't have to be a physical presence. Some EU countries block gambling sites without a physical presence (for example, a court can decide that the french law applies, depending on a number of parameters, like among others the availability of translations)
مشاهدة مباراة الزمالك وغزل المحله اليوم بث مباشر 19/10/2011 الدوري المصري
True. I totally forgot about that.
Are you doing anything funky with the file or the file system? Windows, Linux or Mac OS? There should be no need to do what you are saying.

Perhaps you are trying to run "./manage.py runserver" without calling python? In this case you'd be right that you need to have "./" as part of the command call, but you still would have to add the shebang to manage.py and make it executable.
And part of that education is determining exactly what the privacy implications actually are.
Yahoo's Tim Morse On CEO Search: It Is What It Is
Semantics here - if they aren't abiding, you are right, it is illegal. But I'm asking more along the lines of 'why' is that illegal.

Is that data privacy an inalienable, non-contract-surrendable right? That seems ridiculously draconian.
Batman: Arkham City - Robin Gameplay
Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher
VC firm to contribute to $150k Y Combinator fund
Elevation Group
December 21, 2010 was our start date, so approaching a year now.
Bullshit, it is not "completely voluntary". When everyone is using a communication service and there is no alternative. They claim to have a billion users.

Short it is a monopoly, they have a lot of power and when you start to abuse it, like forcing users to accept your unfair terms of service, the government comes into play.

I never heard that Google doesn't remove stuff when you remove them inside your service. They advertise the huge space on Gmail by "never have to delete anything", that is completely different.

> Why is nobody complaining about NTFS or ext3/4 not actually zeroing out the file space?

I normally don't reply to such a stupid argument, but i have a related video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SCZzgfdTBo#t=3m20s
Getting ROI on your social media efforts
Dispatch.io promises to become your front door to the cloud
also you have to write:
from lxml import html
to import the html-parser
this article is fluff

the conclusions are probably correct (we'll find out soon), but the title is sensationalist
Each class and student deserves unique, custom education, and that's what the current system provides.

With class sizes of 30 to 40 students with radically different motivation and comprehension levels, it is impossible to provide each student unique, customized education. The obvious (and economically infeasible) way to solve this without the parents of lagging students getting upset that their kid was put in the "dumb class" is to have class sizes of one (i.e. private tutoring). The next best thing, IMO, to a private tutor is access to engaging and entertaining learning software that adapts to the student's needs. Once the students are brought close enough to the same level they can efficiently learn as a group in a classroom.
Actually, I have.
Shredding, NIST, the whole nine. Facebook isn't protecting classified nuclear secrets, or the keys to the financial kingdom, it's protecting pictures of cats and drunk college parties. And outside of a few special places, such as the DoD, NOBODY CARES about the file system issues.
Yip - email me too!
Show HN: occupyrealtime: a real-time stream of occupywallstreet photos
timing of product launches doesn't matter. In finance investors always compare year over year to evaluate the performance of their investments.
Rules for a loving couple who write (or build a startup) at home
Wonder if tech companies will start to think twice about that particular tax dodge, given the subjecting-yourself-to-EU-jurisdiction tradeoff it involves.
Sure, but how many offer a simple API for flinging email programmatically?
Lock in. If they become the platform of choice, they would be better off than a bit more server costs in the short term.
That makes perfect sense, thanks.

I'd be surprised to learn that the iPhone 4 was supply constrained over the last several months -- keep in mind that they're still selling the thing. I think it's been in stock pretty much the entire time.

(edit: meant to say supply constrained)
Hey guys -- add a link back to your main site from your blog. I literally had to type the URL in because I couldn't find it anywhere. You should be showcasing your main site via the blog, not hiding it!
How 1 HN post compelled me to leave Intuit and create a new startup for startups
Mental Disorders List
Furthermore is there a threshold or is is the magnet slowly falling due to gravity?
http://www.dropbox.com/developers_beta
http://db.tt/KyYhdto
thanks mate !
At Flickr, we recently added some real-time features to our API, so I built a little page that simply streams every single of our photos that is tagged with #occupywallstreet.

I used node.js -- mainly socket.io (what a great little module) and flickr-conduit (link: https://github.com/mncaudill/flickr-conduit) that I wrote to make using the real-time stuff easier.
That's true of revenue, but as far as I know there's not as much annual cyclicity for margins.
a) Facebook is creating shadow profiles of people who don't use it and definitely in no was agreed to that.
b) Same thing with EULA's that go "too far" and other things. Countries make laws to decide what is reasonable. Same with the work force. Thankfully there are things like minimum wage laws that prevent people from getting work for next to no money etc. Sometimes things need regulation.
c) Especially with regards to the part about holding onto "deleted data" it means once something is on facebook you can never get rid of it. It has a chance of getting leaked or hacked/stolen or requested by the government etc. Also there are laws about what data can be used about you opt ins and opt outs for people's safety which facebook may be violating
Anyone can do this business. Only 4 spots available
This is brilliant! I write and work from home with my hubby, who also works from home. Couldn't be a more perfect - and true - post for us.
I'd love to see the actual question answered.
A nice start, IF you're doing client-side Javascript applications. If you care at all about Progressive Enhancement, Accessibility, and wide browser and device support, this resource center will send you down the wrong path.
Viacom tells appeals court YouTube profited from infringement, so no Safe Harbor
That was exactly my goal when I first experiment with the concepts [1][2]. As far I as I'm concerned, I think this design strategies is just the next logical step. New javascript frameworks [2] [3] geared toward this paradigm are now getting out of their infancy and are fun to work with.

[1] http://blog.rassemblr.com/2011/05/on-client-side-templating-...

[2] http://blog.rassemblr.com/2011/04/on-client-side-templating/

[3] backbone http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/

[4] sammy http://sammyjs.org/
@phil it's true for all numbers.
I wonder if this data will be available in the $100k+ a year Google Analytics Premium product they announced a couple weeks ago. http://analytics.blogspot.com/2011/09/introducing-google-ana...
I disagree. As others have pointed out, some of the code has undefined behaviour, yet the article suggests otherwise.
> Is that illegal in Europe as well?

Yes. Usually, you cannot build a database (digital or paper) about people without their permission, and without allowing people to get access to their records, and allowing them to get their records deleted.

Then there are exceptions (e.g. you have implicit permission to build a database of the members of an association, or you have a contract with the person and what you record is "adequate"), or cases where you need to get an extra authorization from the data protection authority for example if what you record is sensitive (political affiliations, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, etc.).
To respond to the last sentence : Yes, things like that can be illegal. As an example, in France it is forbidden to count the number of people who get in & out of a subway at a given station.

I guess it's really a strong difference of culture between Europe and America : laws are made in Europe to make sure that people should not have to make the effort of guessing if a company will mess with their data or not. The company has to make that effort.
I don't understand WHY Facebook chose to not reveal the rest of the data on the first attempt. Let it be a sign of good faith! FB is not alone in this, obviously sites that I visit track usage and what not.

If its a best practices for business thing (do not bend over more than you have too) then C'MONNN! This is the post baby boomers age, bro - the digital age. Get with the show, be good.

Why would they delay sending others the data? In fact, I would use this opportunity to gain the trust that left the building with the long lost battle about privacy (settings)

Of course I presume all the data they collect is within the bounds of legal and ethical lines.
فاتورة التليفون
Ask HN: Is the whole Internet slow nowadays?
It seems to me that over the past few weeks/months that the Internet has really been bogging down on a site-by-site basis. 3rd party APIs for modules and logging, heavy client-side JS, cloud latency...it seems to me that all of these trends have conspired to make the web slower than browsing on a Treo 680. I routinely get mid-pageload hangs on sites of all levels of popularity and prominence, delayed/dropped clicks, and scrolling problems.

It seems to me that there are some bad architecture decisions gaining currency as standards.
What I don't understand is, how does it send the information it gathers back to its operators? I thought that these industrial facilities weren't usually connected to the internet, and that a worm had to get lucky with a thumb drive to get inside.

How do you run that backwards to get data out? Surely not thumb drives again?
Is there any way to get an iPad sim without having a 3G iPad?
Three more feet
A music synth in 140 bytes of JavaScript
For fun, some tagline ideas:

TouchBase - powerful scheduling

TouchBase - intelligent scheduling

TouchBase - schedule like a pro

TouchBase - control your calendar

TouchBase - command your calendar

TouchBase - calendar command center
They gather data on non-customers, too. People who have never agreed to anything at all. That's complaint #2 as listed on the website.

http://europe-v-facebook.org/Compalint_02_Shadow_Profiles.pd...
Anecdotes aren't evidence but I've noticed a subject, steady degradation as well over the "months" end of that time scale.
People say if you don't want facebook to know anything about you, then you shouldn't post there.
So others reply that it doesn't matter that you didn't give the data to facebook, one of your friends might.

So now the statement is that if you don't want facebook to know anything about you, then you shouldn't tell your friends, colleagues, etc. anything - after all, they may enter it on facebook.

</quote> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2481922&cid=37750358

If you visit pages that might contain Like button then facebook will know about you even without your acquaintances.
just looks like "this" needs to be properly disambiguated :)
Mark Zuckerberg to speak at Startup School 2011
Relax, Apple will more than make up lost iPhone sales next quarter
Next iPhone to come with A6 chip
What this all information is gathered for? One of main known goals is "personalized shopping experience" in marketing speak. For some people to be presented while shopping with prices 50% higher than they would be otherwise just because analysis of the information gathered about them would show that they would buy at this price would be equivalent to losing the keys to their personal financial kingdom.
Inherently Unequal by Goldstone Lawrence – Book Review
The very human story of how and why this happened make Inherently Unequal as important as it is provocative. Examining both celebrated decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson and those often overlooked, Goldstone demonstrates how the Supreme Court turned a blind eye to the obvious reality of racism, defending instead the business establishment and status quo–thereby legalizing the brutal prejudice that came to definite the Jim Crow era.
you don't get it, right? You already ARE a customer even BEFORE you agree to something which they don't abide. They use YOU even if you don't like it ..
I really hope that nobody here is actually surprised that that is the true purpose of the 'like' button.

After all, the users get just about nothing out of it, if you like something that much an email will do just as well (to the select number of people that you think your liking a particular subject will appeal to).

The main winners are the publishers (they hope for some more traffic) and facebook (by extending your profile, not just by being able to count the 'likes' but also by the lesser value of those sites that you simply visit).

Like buttons and other third party javascript are a huge vector for privacy violations, basically any website that places any kind of third party javascript on their pages is giving full control over the privacy of their users to the party that hosts the javascript component.

If that party also happens to host a service that a large number of people have signed up for at some point in the past, and that they are possibly signed in to right this minute the potential for abuse is staggering.