skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It does make you a product. Google can take the millions of you searching for that term and say "hey you people related to that term", and sell them based on the fact that you searched for it an a small percentage of you will click that advertisments. I almost feel that we are lucky that advertisements are more profitable when they are more useful to us, god forbid if A/B testing showed that FULL PAGE FLASHING BANNERS somehow brought in more revenue.

No one is ignoring advertising revenue, harvesting millions of users in order to bring in said advertising revenue is the problem.
Figured there was a good chance you'd already know whether that has been patched and only gives results for non-private photos or not, so seemed a potentially easier option :)
I installed this on Mac 10.7.2, previously using Google DNS.

It works fine when I have the "use OpenDNS servers" box checked, but the moment I click the "use encrypted OpenDNS severs" box my internet connection doesn't resolve anything.

I tried to send them feedback but the form doesn't appear to submit. (Hardly reassuring.)
Hacker Beats – Music to Code To
Ask HN: Java or PHP internship?
I am 17 years old, and was recently confronted with a choice between:

A java internship- this would entail hardcore "real" programming and would build up my algorithmic and smart way of programming. I would be given a teacher who will basically guide me and take me under his wing.

A PHP internship- this would be an internship at a company that helps startups with web design and development.

java- It will be more company oriented

php- It will be me and one other guy working in a basement.

thanks for your input!!
Perhaps thats a sign the webapp-for-things-that-don't-need-to-be-webapps model has flaws.

Nahhh. That can't be it.
Hey, congratulations on not taking the advice of others, and going with your heart - The project looks fantastic, and I'm really excited to migrate my photos!
Clearly Google is going to get bought out by somebody any day now and we can kiss those searching, mapping, and mail services goodbye. As are Facebook and Twitter--better find someone that you can pay for your social networking, stat!

And obviously Hacker News isn't going to be around for long...
IEDM: UCB reports printed MEMS switches
A team of researchers from the University of California Berkeley has a paper at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM)that describes how to use an inkjet printer to print microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches and proposes their use for flexible display backplanes.
A lot of the focus of Sony's stores seemed to be on the showroom aspect though I haven't been in since the one in the Metreon in SF closed. And I imagine it worked better for Sony when they were better regarded as a style and technology trendsetter. In general, a consumer electronics manufacturer would be more presumably be more than happy to sell you something at the showroom--especially at full list price. There's no real reason not to. (If they discount they could get into conflicts with their distributors but that's not much of an issue so long as you're not discounting.)
Ask HN: Need an opinion on the iPhone app idea
The idea is to write a Web proxy app for the iPhone and configure the phone to channel all traffic through it (by configuring proxied network access in Settings). This is with the purpose of monitoring the traffic that goes to/from the phone and with the potential of blocking some of it (i.e. ads and invasive tracking).

I am a programmer, but I am not familiar with AppStore guidelines/restrictions, nor do I know if all apps are required to go to the Internet through the proxy when one is configured at the system level.

Can anyone comment on the feasibility of the idea from both angles?
PayPal is just as likely to hold funds for 6+ months if you're not selling a product if using "Buy Now."
I don't disagree with OP's point, but I don't think he does a good job at making it. He name-drops several popular startups that were bought out then implies they wouldn't be bought if they were making more money.

Etherpad, for example, charged for it's product. You could use it for free, but if you wanted private pads and custom domains/urls you could upgrade to Pro. I don't see how "doesn't have a business model" applies to that.
at this time is this basically just a prettier s3 console/dropbox, interface ?

edit: honest question cause I can't use the service.
He was probably doing this:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/10/confes...
I'm now following you so I can read it later.
Recently, I've come to know "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software"[1], and I really enjoyed it. I don't think it's necessarily the first book every programmer should read, but I do think it's a book every programmer should read. It's an easy read, it's fun, and really does provide what it promises. Highly recommended.

1. http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...
how about paying real money as points. money has been shown to motivate students to learn. gamification is not a gimmick, it is a rephrasing of an old idea - feedback. all animals operate on instant/constant feedback. it's only in humans that the ability to operate without this is present, and it's a mistake to force everyone, including to children to operate in this feedbackless manner.
Nope. I'm often surprised and thankful about how tolerant they are of bugs.
Slate ran an interesting article last year about this aspect of the used book market: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2010/10/confes...
Of course, the "free shipping" takes a lot longer (sometimes a week longer) than even their standard shipping. If you want free shipping that takes place reliably quickly, you have to sign up for Amazon Prime, at which point free shipping is no longer free.
Tubular: Youtube videos as background images via Jquery
> No one is ignoring advertising revenue, harvesting millions of users in order to bring in said advertising revenue is the problem.

Why is it a problem? So they show me a few adverts... big whoop. I can just ignore them.

The issue is, the vast majority of people will never pay for access to online websites/apps (Me included). If you restrict yourself to the business model "charge users", then you've just got rid of 99% of the online population.

Advertising means that everyone gets what they want (Apart from the very very small but overly vocal minority that don't like adverts or have privacy concerns).
My New Favorite Meme: Shady Scotty - Would You Trust This Man?
Custom Aweber Form
I suggest you backup your bookmarks on a regular basis using the handy export page http://pinboard.in/export/

You might also want to tone down the snark.
How many people who use Amazon frequently work at home or have a spouse/partner at home during the day? I would love to use Amazon for the bulk of my purchases, but I can't take delivery at work and there is no one to receive packages at my home during the day. It's completely infeasible for me to use Amazon except for occaisonal orders where it is worth taking time to stay home or visit the UPS depot to actually receive my orders.

Until Amazon solves this problem, they're not a serious competitor to traditional retail.
It's interesting that it's hard to explain, because the fingers will play the chord by themselves and I need to stop and think to know what I am actually typing.

C-x r k to cut a rectangle, and C-x r t to add one filled with, for example, the comment symbol:

(C-space)this

to comment

C-x r t #

#this

#to comment
I found that having kids, and wife accelerated my progress on projects by making the time I did have mater more.

http://alexkessinger.net/2010/06/13/two-kids-in-two-years-be...
The terminology is not good.

"Free website" often means "hugely profitable website"
Janki Method: Learn To Program With Spaced Repetition Systems
Or perform MitM on the raw IP packets without modifying the IP addresses at all. (Like your ISP or any other router along the path.)
> figure out what the top-performing countries are doing and then, by capitalizing on our unique strengths, develop a strategy to do it even better.

The top performing countries' strategy is to have mostly Asian or Northern European students, and very few of third/second world extraction.
Tell HN: Recruiters and Bizarre Skillsets
HN'ers, this is from a real email I was sent by a recruiter. What you you think if you received such a set of potential positions?

Position: .NET Developer
Must Have Skills: .NET, C#, SQL Server 2005 (2005 or better), OOP/OOD.
Preferred: WCF, workflow, messaging
Wish List: Mono or MonoTouch , Erlang, Scala, F#, RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ, Redis, Couchbase, Raven DB
Years experience: 5

Position: Web Developer
Must Have Skills: .NET, C#, Javascript, HTML5, Jquery, SQL Server 2005 (2005 or better), OOP/OOD.
Preferred: WCF, workflow, messaging, MVC, Mono or MonoTouch.
Wish List: Erlang, Scala, F#, Rabbit MQ, Zebra MQ, REtis, Couch Base, Raven DB
Years experience: 5

Position: Mobile Developer (Android)
Must Have Skills: .NET, C#, SQL Server (2005 or better), Java, OOP/OOD.
Preferred: Mono for Android
Wishlist: Erlang, Scala, F#, Rabbit MQ, Zebra MQ, REtis, Couch Base, Raven DB
Years experience: 5

Position: Mobile Developer (iOS)
Must Have Skills: .NET, C#, SQL Server (2005 or better), OOP/OOD, Objective C
Preferred: C++, Mono or MonoTouch, SQL Light, IOS 4 (or better), Core Data, Smalltalk
Wishlist: Erlang, Scala, F#, Rabbit MQ, Zebra MQ, REtis, Couch Base, Raven DB

What are your thoughts?
let us all acknowledge that HN front page is the new, uncorrupted BBB - it gets shit done.
Thanks. It is a bit of a wall of text, but I felt it best to offer a more complete picture over the simplification that some make of, "People go to school for stupid majors and take a ton of loans, then complain because they are stupid since they didn't go to school for engineering|law|cs"
I am the 1% of Student Loan Debt
If you amortize it over a year, compare it to the cost of driving to a store and include the cost of free streaming videos then Prime is virtually free.
I plug in my Samsung E4GT into my TV to stream netflix, watch videos, and listen to music.

Works well as a "HTPC". Although I haven't found a solution for a remote yet so it's like the good old days when the remote to the tv was physically tethered with a long cord.
This is not the case with all state schools. Mine, for example, was contrary to that. Different colleges in the University had different tuition. Obviously Art, Theater, Music, and Engineering have different costs -- why should they all pay flat rates?

On top of that, majoring in something technical will also likely require more fees -- lab fees, computer fees, etc.

Oh, and your book costs will be higher. Textbook prices have tripled in the last ten years, so now an English Major is paying what I paid for Computer Engineering back in 2000.
I'd like to learn SAP. Where should I begin? what streams are available for me (a beginner with zero knowledge)?

SAP ERP? CRM? NetWeaver?
Opinion: The thing that has saved the American school system is that everyone around the world has fully copied the deeply flawed Prussian schooling model, and in many cases has doubled down on the flaws. Higher performing schools are often "teaching to the test" even worse than we are, which is how they get measured as "higher performing" in the first place.

If the Prussian model is soooo spectacularly wonderful, then you have nothing to fear from it being exposed to a competitive environment. It'll win. No worries.

On the other hand, if the Prussian model is, shall we say, less than optimal for the 21st century, the fastest way to find out is free market experimentation, and rather than giving ourselves the same cultural shackles that everybody else has, the American exceptionalism that will justify our salaries will be our willingness to experiment, learn, and refine from there where everybody else insists on the Prussian model. Unless, of course, a 19th century schooling model is just so damned perfect that it will admit of no significant improvement. In which case we'll still find that out pretty quickly. The maximum downside is sharply bounded and the upside of cracking open the monopoly on education is hard to bound. (I can't call it "unbounded" with a straight face, that's hard to justify, but it really is hard to know how much better truly 21st schooling could be.) Failing to at least try some innovation isn't even remotely justified with a cost/benefit risk profile like that.

Had some other country beat us to the punch and exposed their schooling system to free market competition before us, we really would be up the creek without a paddle.
Maybe nothing should be web apps... maybe the pipe is for content and services, and native code is for layout and interaction...
Tesco tried out a grocery store version of this:
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/15557/tesco-vir...

It seems like most shoppers want the immediate gratification of getting their stuff right away so I think it is hard to find the right mix of products.
Lobby Stripe to go international.

https://stripe.com/
Instagram's secrets to lighting fast mobile design
There have been some efforts by manufacturers to have product specialists in individual stores. It's never taken off on a large scale; I'm guessing the economics don't work. With cameras, at a store like B&H, you do see employees who are at least nominally more knowledgable about specific brands and won't, in fact, give you opinions between brands. And large photo stores often have days when manufacturers' reps are on hand to answer questions. Of course, this sort of model is far more the exception than the rule. Sales specialists are expensive and it's hard to justify them on low-margin consumer items.
I'm all but certain that's not the case. Obviously the US has higher immigration rates and higher poverty rates. But almost all studies of educational achievement correct for this. US students perform poorly in comparison to the rest of the world across income levels and ethnicities.
http://consumerist.com/2011/09/amazon-testing-locker-system-...
> This seems inaccurate to me.

The article is talking about debt after graduation, not total cost of the degree.

There are many ways to lower that debt, mostly by paying it off before graduating with: student's money, parent's money, government financial aid, school financial aid, school scholarships academic or otherwise, 3rd party scholarships, etc.
Knowing about your special page for reporting privacy holes would not change my decision to post it here. I think more good will come when media picks it up and some Facebook users realize that a company with your record of terrible privacy decisions and incompetence should not be used for posting anything private or even at all. If you were a startup stretched for resources or if this hole could've been exploited to install malware, I'd of course attempt to contact you first. $500 for reporting security holes for a company of your size is also insulting, BTW.
With regards to python, the low hanging fruit out there is just a few lines/hundred lines of python away. If everyone out there thought and acted like a programmer, so much inefficiency would be squeezed out that it would be equivalent to another industrial revolution.
The reactions I'm seeing are mostly people zeroing in on the "paid services sometimes shut down" counterargument. And, yeah, that's true.

But I don't think charging your customers for your service means that you will never consider being acquired; I think it means that your exit strategy is to serve your customers with this great service you've built. It's the difference between a long-term strategy of "God I hope we get acquired" versus one of sustainability.

Sites that don't charge are floating on investor money, and investor money would really like to get oodles of money back eventually, instead of slowly growing a modest business that comfortably supports one or two people.

I don't have the link anymore, but there's an excellent essay that says exactly this using a metaphor about strip mining versus farming.
Sure, happens to everybody.

Losing your job unexpectedly does funny things to your emotions - it can create feelings of panic, and lead to rash decisions in your rush to get back to a steady income.

Assuming you've got marketable skills and you're not broke, you'll be just fine - but it takes a few days for your emotional, non-rational side to realize this. So don't make any rash decisions until you've calmed down.

Go for walks, do something you find fun, try to put looking for a job out of your mind until the initial shock wears off and you're thinking clearly again. Then and only then should you resume your normal job search.

That's how you keep yourself from foolishly joining 'a random company' - you give yourself time to cope with the shock you've just had.
Higgs probably found at ~125 GeV
As Expected, SOPA Supporters Hate More Reasonable Alternative
Check the "DNSCrypt over TCP" box and see if it starts working. If so, something on your network is intercepting DNS queries.
The ultimate gaming experience
Who's Hiring Interns (Summer 2012)? 
Hey HN,

Lots of students read HN, and are looking for internships. Lots of students (myself included) want to find and get connected with startups. If you're looking for interns this summer, post where you are, what you do, and how to get in touch. Like "Who's Hiring", but for internships.
Came here to say this. http://imgur.com/Z8fXM
A Website That Decides If Links You Share Are Dead or Mad Fresh
In my experience with this business model, I started with a free archive of the magazine with previous essays for people to look at. Then I use a formula to determine the ransom price.

All my ransom are met, because I didn't have an extreme expectation that I was going to raise hundred of dollars at the beginning of the publication.

Compared to advertising, it performs far better in term of revenues. More importantly, it doesn't uglify your site or make your site worse unlike what advertising usually does.

How much better? I would need to perform manual collection to get these figures. With automation, I would be able to tell you, right down to 8 digit place.

The problem with this business model is that people doesn't do the work that allows them to reach their goal, or they have an extreme expectation of how much money they are going to raise. If you don't have the fanbase, you ain't going to raise much money.

It's not that it might work with a very small probability. It will works, to varying degree of success, depending on the popularity, how loyal your fans are, and so on.

I seen a writer who done the exact same thing, but I don't have the link handy. So, I know it works.

The more interesting question is how it will perform compared to other business models such as advertising, selling in dead tree format, merchandising, live performance, and so on, depending on the relevancy of each business model for particular industries. Like I said, advertising earn me money, but it perform terribly to how much money I can get by ransoming contents.
Have you browsed Flippa website?
I am just surprised by the type of websites listed on flippa for sale and the revenue they generate.

Most sites there are sites that you would accidentally land from a search result and quickly hit the back button.

But the revenue they generate was an eye opener... Thoughts?
Delicious, for all intents and purposes, WAS shut down, and a new, barely related site was put up in its place.

I was a Delicious user for years, with thousands of links tagged, and I continued using it for as long as I could stand under Avos, but the features that they cut and/or broke in the transition finally made me throw up my hands, give up, and switch...first to Trunk.ly, which Avos then bought and shut down (oops), and then to Pinboard.

I for one welcome my new Pinboard masters, especially if they're willing to fight to keep the service alive. :)
I understand and you are of course right. Here's the question, though: what if everyone does what I do, i.e. look at the store and then buy from Amazon, etc? Isn't this the tragedy of the commons? Then BB will close (like Borders) or would have to radically adapt (like B&N, who currently carry half books half toys in most stores).

Luckily for all of us who enjoy perusing BB, they are (currently at least) avoiding both fates since (i) they are pretty much the monopoly in electronics stores and (ii) there are a lot of customers lazy or clueless enough to just buy their stuff there rather than online.
No. I went to school with someone who now works at Facebook. To describe him as "most talented" at anything would be a mistake. However, he did have no regard for others or their work.
Unloading a security you think will go down in value is not fraud, nor is it dishonest. It's merely speculation.
I'll have to check it out again but when this first came out there were far too many Self-Extracting ZIPs and Excel files for me to make much use of it.
What I dislike are companies that don't start with a business model and still don't have one after some time of operation. Makes it feel like hey are being built to flip or are trying to be the next Twitter and not many have been able to pull that off.

Sure ads don't always look the best but put say one small one and get some revenue started. Offer a premium account, even if the value proposition isn't great, even if it's just a cool badge for your use to say they are supporting the product, the users who love your product will probably take it up.
It's a full fledged photo platform for S3/Dropbox/etc. In addition to displaying your photos nicely (and in a themeable manner) the platform provides exif extraction for tags, title, geo location, etc. All of that information then becomes searchable via the API.

There are plugins, webhooks, etc. At the risk of sounding arrogant it's pretty awesome what the community has built.
Cash isn't the only way to pay for a product. Notice in TFA he mentions ads as a perfectly legitimate source of income.
Canadian Songwriters Want to Legalize File-Sharing
Wrote this up last night: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/05/99-chinese-tablet-is-mips-b...

I thought it was interesting for a couple reasons, though of course at a hundred bucks you're not going to get an impressive device, merely functional. It's running a MIPS-compatible processor, which was what caught my eye.
You know, that is exactly the point here, isn't it? Why wasn't PayPal already aware of it? Clearly, the answer is simple: why should they be? Until somebody important gets in touch with somebody important, nothing has happened.
Depends where you live. With rare exceptions, for better of worse, shippers just leave packages at my door. (Or in the case of USPS hanging from my mailbox because the carrier doesn't want to take the time to drive down my driveway---grr.) Sometimes I have to sign a signature release form left on my door. But very rarely do I have to go to the post office or UPS depot, which I agree would be a real pain if I had to do it for every mail order purchase.
Mass Vision Wholesale Sunglasses
Have a look inside
And it works... I just updated my Wallet account with my new credit card number. It's been months that I was like "Oh... no I'm not buying that 2$ app... I'm to lazy to update my credit card". And well, now I have 10 new great apps I bought for 1$ ! And ready to buy more.

Damn... I'm being manipulated and actually liking it :-).
Right on. I would add that after the new job is landed prepare for it to happen again by keeping your professional network fresh and up-to-date. Most importantly be ready to look for the signs before the shit hits the fan. There are always pre-indicators when things aren't going well in an organization. It is always much better to jump ship before the thing sinks if you can do it.
Seemed pretty clear to me that I was saying revenues would have risen more if I had kept hungry. The supporting fact is that I'm writing about my experience which, is, you know, what happened.

You're missing a lot -- I just don't think what you're missing relates to my post :-)