skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
You should be so lucky as to have to take something to Twitter-scale.

I worry that if they went hand-rolled assembly, everyone would be jumping in that bandwagon.
I agree, the 37 Signals page doesn't disprove the value of the top fold. The argument for content above the fold was never entirely about people not reading below it (even for newspapers). It's about above the first impression you give to a user and enticing her to stay engaged. There's definitely benefit to getting certain information across in that first impression when they land on your page.
Do you have any references for this, my good man? I don't mean to question your comment; I want to learn more about how this has been established and the nature of it.
Mozilla Releasing Firefox 8.0.1 To Fix Browser Crash Issues
The person speaking now has pointed out that there are 5 people in favor of the bill and only 1 speaking against it. She also lamented the fact that there are zero technical experts speaking.
A Google Domination Strategy
Well, I think we're going to find out as TSA plans to do exactly that.
That's not the madness of the legislative process.

You'll witness the madness play out when the legislators, having given the plebes their "voice", ignore every single one of them and proceed with graduating the bill to a full vote. Which will likely pass.
One way to Innovate: Follow User Behavior
Social Media & User Generated Content Best Practics From a Lawyer’s Perspective
What do you think of PlainSite?

http://www.plainsite.org

It's not done yet but we're working on it.

Do you think a site like this is even theoretically capable of catching the attention of people in Washington?
Thanks for saying so.

For the record, my CS undergrad had similar attrition, but it was during the dot-com boom. I was a freshmen in '99 and there were 500 other CS freshmen. The typical number of students at a given level is, I think, roughly 1/5 of that now.
Adobe's view on how and when HTML5 will succeed Flex (see update)
FoxyProxy!
Overcoming Bias : Fear Causes Trust, Blindness
I have worked with (and for) many people who considered themselves "reasonable" and did. Vociferously. Ten years ago the web was awash with articles claiming that no-one would read anything under the fold.

Thankfully, in this age, evidence-based testing has triumphed.
And it was quite successful, the law was basically mothballed.
The x-rays don't pass through the entire body. They go only into the skin. That's actually what's most concerning about them. Because they don't pass through the body, they are concentrated entirely in one layer which receives a much higher dose.
But the tiny danger from terrorists is unaffected by the machines so we have that anyway. The machine is just extra risk for no gain.
"I object to this bill in its current form because I believe it fails to use existing tools [injunctive relief] and does a worse job than those existing tools at solving this problem." - Mr. Issa (for the micro-win)

Unclear whether Mr. Issa's alternative bill (yet to be seen, focused on empowering the FTC to issue injuctions) would allow for DNS-based remedies, whether the injunctions would take more traditional forms like fines/C+D/damages, etc.
"...protect American jobs..."

"...innocent civilians and American soldiers at risk..."

Who would have thought BitTorrent was such a threat to American civilisation?
Look down the list an their are a couple that work on USB without external power. This one http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRSSBD6X/ was tested on a MacBook Air by http://www.macnews.com/2011/10/21/blu-ray-player-owc-drive-l...
http://boingboing.net/?p=129579

Check out the logos at the bottom.
Students should learn everyday math the way they learn to play an instrument
Its there in the left too -- just very soft.
Tumblr censors it's dashboard to educate about the proposed SOPA bill.
Tumblr censors it's dashboard to educate about the proposed SOPA bill.
If it does pass, there is still a chance (however small and expensive) that it will be ruled against in the courts. The judiciary seems like the branch least impacted by the influence of big-media.
Thanks for this list.

We've been building our own load testing tools on python, and it will be quite helpful to learn from the implementation of locust.
If you feel that strongly about this, you can learn how to configure a router or you can find someone to do it for you. If you don't want to do either, it doesn't seem like this is terribly high on your list of priorities.
Building Your MLM Business Should Not be Random or Accidental
Yeah. Torx drivers. If those don't say user-friendly servicing, I don't know what does.
Saints Row 3 Key
Agnes, the App Engine Agony Aunt answers your questions
EG: https://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/buzz/status/13684610262749...
" Apple does the same thing. So does Skyhook (which is suing Google for ditching their location database to build their own). So do others. It’s a good idea. And it makes locations services much better."

versus

"The solution is a joke."

Then he rants about how opt-out is bad and opt-in doesn't work. So what is it?

If someone cares enough to opt-out then he'll be able to change his SSID. Be happy that Google doesn't let you register your access point with Google and opt-in/out there (and while doing that mapping your identity to your accesspoint and location).

I don't see an easier way of opt-out. And i understand that opt-in is not feasible.

By the way, you have to explicitly enable this data gathering while setting up your phone (on android), so part of the data gathering is to blame for the user that enabled it, i guess. ;)
"""The huge difference is the fact that by purchasing this you have a right to ask for support and if it doesn't work out maybe even sue them."""

Yeah, that would work...

Like when AWS or GAE are down, and we sue and get our money back.
Yeah, I can't believe JPA/most ORMs don't maintain both sides of a relationship. That sort of stuff should just work.

I implemented my own ORM (http://joist.ws) a few years ago to solve this and my other JPA/Hibernate annoyances. It works really well, modulo the fact that I suck at docs/promotion/etc. so it doesn't have many users (working on that).

Also note that, specific for the playframework, someone seems to have implemented the necessary magic in a plugin:

http://www.playframework.org/modules/associations

Which is nifty, other than I'm slightly wary of the "magic that happens via runtime class rewriting" that seems to be Play's standard way of doing things. The results are admittedly impressive, but it seems like you're coupling yourself to yet-another-runtime-environment/container for things to work right.
They used SuperOneClick, which is a pretty much standard way of rooting Android devices.

Some sources:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1348830

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803682
Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself
Enterprise adopting Apple products as company becomes 'easier to work with'
How unfortunate.
Ms. Jackson-Lee seems to have fallen for the fallacious argument that every file that was downloaded would have otherwise been bought if piracy wasn't a viable option. This does not bode well for the future...
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Lacie/301486/

Looks like this one does it with two usb ports.
I think that with a modern database like SQL Server, the old-school "high priest" DBA is obsolete.

But... if you don't have someone dedicated to thinking about database issues, you need to treat database changes just like your code. It needs to be in a repository, it needs to be reviewed, and you need a change management regime.

From a anecdotal POV, I've noticed that many folks have a good process (or at least a consensus approach) to managing their code... but the database is often a red-headed stepchild that doesn't get the attention it deserves.
Could we not turn HN into an activist site? Thanks.
My white 2006 iMac also has an eject button at the top right of the keyboard. Every Mac I've used since then has had one too.
Education is broken. Everyone is different, and meant to excel at one thing they do well to make a difference, yet the standardized education forces people to be indifferent. It also keeps you locked in an idealized world of grades and exams delaying your chance to become street-smart for a mere 15 years. We then end up with people in their 30s having their first born children, whereas the biological clock for this kicks at teen ages.
That's just laziness on your part.

Do you expect them to explain all the concepts and underlying code in one video?

Also, the click+fix it thing actually showcases a very helpful IDE feature.
Very true. People wonder why enterprise software takes a lot of developers and long periods of time, and it's because of things like this.
I completely agree. Mr. Watts was embarrassing to watch -- his slanted opinion and childish domination of the dialogue was less than coy. I grew sick to my stomach listening to him constantly derail Oyama's statements. He kept demanding terse answers to questions that hardly had any relevance to the matter at hand and only served to make her seem clueluess.

Lofgren came on like a breath of fresh air. Not only did she actually seem INFORMED on the matter, but she did well to reveal that the opposition to this bill is not comprised of greedy tech companies who fear they would lose business, but all walks of Americans who are afraid that this would negatively impact our lives and our economy.

*edits for clarity
Agreed, I'm not going to say Java syntax is awesome (it's not), but I think the "over-architecting" attitude you mention has done far more to drive people away from Java (e.g. the great Ruby exodus) than the syntax itself.
Why is it that people have so many diverse opinions that aren't fully informed when it comes to energy??

It may have one benefit, but 30 seconds on wikipedia informs me that it requires 5 times the mass and 20 times the volume of lithium ion to give equal energy output. Which makes it a complete non starter for anything mobile.
I've been using Readability legacy bookmarklet, but was never happy being redirected to their domain. Thanks for link to Readable.
This article is working ME too hard in order to read a dark grey font on a darker grey background
How Khoi Vinh, former Design Director at NYTimes, reads the news
You've got a pretty good pattern-matcher between your ears. Staffers have them too, they can note "hey we got a bunch of calls about this issue" at the end of the day.
Surely the software can detect anything strange just as well as (or better than) a human could.
Is there a chat room we can go to discuss the stream live so we aren't increasing the signal to noise ratio here?
I don't think it's just an issue of people wanting a "now" solution as the article suggests. Whenever I spend time with semantic web stuff it always reeks of the problematic "over-engineered solution in search of a problem". For instance OWL starts off by defining a computationally intractable model for reasoning. That would be fine if you wanted to use it as a framework for abstractly reasoning about a subject, but no one trying to solve an actual problem starts this way.

The other major warning sign (and indication of over-engineering on it's way) is a complete lack of historical context. For example rdf triples are a more verbose, and yet limited form of Prolog clauses (in a similar way that XML is essentially verbose, restricted s-exps), yet, in my experience, the vast majority of rdf 'experts' have never written a single line of Prolog, or are even loosely familiar with the idea of logic programming. Additionally if you were really trying to solve a problem you'd already have a working prototype kludged together with something that looked a lot like Prolog.

The combination of a general ignorance of the problem space (knowledge representation and reasoning, logic programming etc) and a poorly defined problem imho can lead to absolutely no good, and are pretty strong evidence that most semantic web project will go nowhere.
Droid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Open Sourced
5 Lessons Learned at The Onion About Internet Censorship
The other way that people have been thinking about this is through the lens of pain points and inefficiencies. Any time you can disintermediate you're probably creating something more useful.
Wow, I get down voted for presenting scientific data? Nice!
Womens Ladies
In the past I would have agreed. But I've seen the "imagine the outcry" argument brought up, the thing is later implemented, there is brief murmering, police crack down on the few hard core dissenters, then the masses begin to chant "Well of course we have to xray everyone getting on the subway, it's the only way we can be safe."
UK StartupBootCamp Grad Disrupts Rental Car Market
- Things you take for granted here in the US are still dicey back there. Transportation, timings around food, general work hours, weekend relaxation etc. It's a different lifestyle so change as soon as possible.

- Employee behavior is different due to the context there. For most survival is still the key vs. US. You will find very few engaged people who have laser like focus (blame the service industry for this) because of the sheer number of distractions.

- Learn subtle gestures asap. No one ever says NO so be careful of your expectations when you get a yes.

- Everyone there has a story and unlike in the US, its not always sexy or straight forward. Don't judge or figure everything out.

- Be constantly amazed at the sense of humor!
Programming Startup Smackdown: Treehouse vs. Codecademy
Insurance Websites
Insurance Website Builder, the premier insurance agency website, was designed with the needs of the independent insurance agent in mind. Our customer service modules include forms that can be submitted for quotes, endorsements, ID card and declaration page requests, and claim forms. Websites created using Insurance Websites Builder allow agencies to compete on the internet, which is crucial to keeping up with the internet savvy consumer.
"stealing our nation's genius"

FAIL. Genius, like digital bits, are not zero sum. This isn't digital Highlander; a kid pirating a film does not magically soak up (and away) the genius of the auteur.
Is there anyone liveblogging the proceedings?
There's too much flawed logic in this guy's arguments. The most convincing argument could be made by showing, either via heat map software or eye tracking analysis, that a vast majority of people who arrive at 37 Signals' landing page make it to the bottom of the page. I think if he did this, he would actually make the opposite conclusion as I've seen almost every time in the dozens of tests I've run in the industry. This does not mean that long landing pages aren't effective (they can be very effective), just that he's wrong in that most people read beyond the top fold; there's can definitely be a significant and often precipitous drop-off.
There is a huge difference in the dose even from properly certified medical X-rays, depending on how old the machine is, the maintenance, the settings and the method selected http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/ct-scan-radiation...
1. How will you overcome the chicken and egg problem and attract users who have read the books?

A. I was going to start out in a niche that I have familiarity with, IT certifications. I would like to reach out to three primary IT certification forums where users ask for advice about which books they should read to obtain a specific certification. I could use them as a test and pivot as needed depending on the outcome.

2. How will you screen users to determine that they have the necessary domain expertise to determine "knowledge maximization?"

A. Screening is going to be done through voting on the list. So there would be one list per subject, then users can vote up or down on any book in the list to change it's ranking.

3. How can a generic list of materials be assumed to apply to individuals with diverse backgrounds?

A. They can't. The hope is that the list will give the user a better idea of what to buy/read.

The reason I want to do this is because it is a problem I face all the time. When I want to learn a new subject such as Malware analysis. I search Amazon and get a fairly large list of books to choose from. Now I try to choose them by basing my decision on the amount of customer reviews, ratings and comments. What if we could simplify that and allow those same users to rank the books so you wont have to make a determination based on looking at three meterics for every book you want to take into consideration?

4. Finally, as soon as you see reading two books on the same topic as a problem, you have somewhat divorced yourself from the kind of people who typically read books - particularly readers in pursuit of technical expertise.

A. I don't see reading of two books on the same topic as a problem but the problem lies in the materials within the book. For example chapter 1-3 in one book and chapters 4-6 in another book might be the same material, so I want to avoid that. So I want to minimize the material you read within the books.
Mr. Ross's "I think simply" folksy routine makes me want to slap a bitch.
New series about Silicon Valley
Link to the original source: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/1...
Insurance Software
India Art Collective may be the most promising online art commerce venture yet
That requires someone to bring a relevant legal case to an appropriately positioned judicial body, which requires a great deal of money, and two sides willing to take it that far.
Anyone object to me using this comments thread to do that?
Great new shape features in Google Maps API
This opt-in/opt-out is a false dichotomy in my opinion, because probably 90% of the population don't know this issue at all. So it doesn't seem to matter much, how difficult the opt-out mechanism is. Likewise, if you use an opt-in mechanism, practically nobody will opt-in, although if everybody could weigh the cost/benefits the result might be different.

Which is fine, it would be a huge price on society if everybody had to educate themselves on these small issues all the time.
This is an area where regulation is the best choice. As long as there is no law against it, I can't see how it google is in the wrong here?
In two full days of effort, I couldn't get a simple set of pages done. I found Play! right after that, and finished the pages completely painlessly in roughly no time.

I would chalk it up to terrible terrible documentation, and being unable to read the example code that I did find due to the Scala practice of using random characters as method names. e.g. something = x % y %% z ||| a

The documentation was really the worst, though. Maybe it's improved in the last year.
Got any room on your side of the pond?
If he can't say that it's easy to measure whether someone is 10x more productive than the average programmer then how can he say they are 10x more effective?
Also I work at 200 person game company and there is no programmer that even performs close to that level. Maybe 2 to 3x the average for absolutely exceptional programmers. But your average would have to be pretty fucking crappy to get anything more than that (and even very talented programmers aren't more than 2x the average).
One thing that is needed for startups and to achieve 'lots of innovation' is a market where wealth is well distributed.
Where wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, fewer decisions are made about how to spend it.
In a 'healthy' economy where the wealth is well distributed, lots of differing decisions are made about where to spend it and there is room for lots of small companies doing many different things.
Once wealth is concentrated, and fewer people are spending it there are less decisions being made and there is less room for lots of small companies.

One of the great harms caused by an economy where the government and just a few big players are doing the spending is that innovative small companies depend entirely on partnership with large companies to get past the gatekeepers and do well.
Freenode: #startups ?

Or could always make a #sopa on freenode.
"They both vary tremendously depending on the problem, but on the whole, 'javascript widgets' trumps 'business logic' hands down."

If you believe this then perhaps you have never developed anything complicated at all.

"The fact that most business logic is simple is why you can glue things together so fast in Rails."

If it is this simple one must question why the work is done by a developer at all. Why are users not using some sort of web-based MS Access?
Everything you need to learn about Entrepreneurship
> the reps asking questions seem legitimately interested in making the bill suck a lot less

That seems like a large part of the problem; they treat it as a foregone conclusion that the bill will pass, perhaps with a bit of tweaking. This bill needs to die. All bills should have the presumption of failure, with a very high bar to get them to pass, not the other way around.
This is the official launch of the project - there was a previous thread where I was gathering stories for the project here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3220610
Did Mr. Ross just equate government censorship with corporate page takedowns? The difference: one is prohibited by the Constitution, one is not.
My superdrive has been collecting dust on a shelf for 6 months now, with a DVD stuck inside…
But how many Little People (i.e. those who can't afford to pay a defense lawyer) will have to roll over and pay up before a court actually gets a chance to strike at the law? That kind of injustice should be stifled before the law ever passes. Should
This Is Your Time To Work From Home UK
They need to chill with drawing parallels between child porn and copyrighted movies. It's technically distinct and morally distinct. Just...no.
Holy Crap  The NYC Startup Scene
Not entirely. Cf. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Unfortunately, your car is already being tracked. A lot parking garages, and toll roads are doing exactly this.
Founding partner Rich Ziade says the company is still "figuring out" their business model.

That sounds ominous.

But the parser Readability created under the Apache license is being used by Apple and Amazon in millions of devices, neither of which pays a dime in licensing fees to this small startup.

Yup. That is what the Apache license is for. I'm a huge fan of open source but when you choose a license like that you should prepare yourself for the possibility that most people will use your code in the most unhelpful and exploitative way possible.

I'm using something called "Enjoy Reading" for Firefox (which also uses readability's code) since I'd rather have the formatting all happen in javascript without trying to access a remote server. It's quicker and I don't have to worry about whether or not they are logging every article I read.
Do you have a source for that info? A quick Google search turns up nothing on Microsoft's stance on SOPA.
A group of partners that I had in one of my start-ups where guys that I though that I could trust, many of us had worked together before and I was young and not very experienced in these matters. I was diluted out of everything and ended up walking out of a 90 million dollar exit with less than 100k. I learned a valuable lesson then and there and that is when real money is involved people change. Get it in writing it you may end up regretting the fact that you did not.
The power of ionizing radiation being absorbed entirely at the skin (not the entire body mass) is also my concern. Those figures of the radiation being equal to "just a few minutes of flying in the plane" are totally inaccurate.

I am also notably concerned about that ionizing radiation being absorbed by my open eyes and also down below.. not to be crude.
Mr Rogs(Ross?) statements are ridiculous and he's not giving the female (lawyer?) a chance to respond and fully explain what he's asking -- and then he switches to CP as a defense in eliminating our free speech on the internet