skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It is innovative by definition, because nobody did it before.

If it's so simple, why didn't Samsung do it?

Paperclips seem like a obvious design that involves no innovation. Yet paperclips similar to what we use now weren't around until 1867, and the "modern" paperclip was patented in 1899 -- 30 years later.
What about the star trek padd?
http://www.inventinginteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/...
For example, link to their "Chief Software Architect" linkedin profile: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1613224
That's revenue, not profit. "Earned" is the wrong word to use.

How much is the profit margin per item sold in an Appple store? Even if it is 20%, that's still only about $96K per employee. And if all of this 20% profit was given to the employee, after various taxes and benefits, it would still amount to not much; around $48K in salary.
I am not saying it's true or not, but do you have data points?
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You can copy the design of a fake device just as easily as you can copy the design of a real device.
In a discussion about design it doesn't matter, does it? We aren't talking about utility patents where the actual functionality and method to achieve it has to be described.
If nothing else, a credit card gives you a month-long interest-free loan when used properly. That's money in your pocket if you keep the difference in an interest-bearing account. Why wouldn't you take advantage of this?

I'm not sure what hassle/risk you're talking about with a credit card. The hassle factor is the same (approximately none) and the risk is lower, not higher.
And the iPhone/iPod was just an improvement over Windows/Palm phones. I guess the article is echoing the sentiment that these "innovations" aren't worthy of a patent.
How does native client solve the ARM vs Intel issue? Can a fat binary be created so apps run on both an ARM Chromebook and an Intel PC? Finally, can native client be adopted by Opera and Apple for use in their browsers?
Issac Asimov described, in detail, humanoid and mechanical robots in books published 60 years ago.

So when somebody invents a similar robot, should they be unable to patent that invention?
He's referring to a special launcher for the installer that's used on Windows.
It's highly version controlled. Changing software versions on a plane usually means changing a lot of hardware too. After removing the boxes from the a/c, they can be returned to the manufacturer and the new software can be installed.

We test it in a ground-based simulator rig with the exact computers that would be on an a/c. If it gets approved, we put it on an airplane and we go fly the plane around a lot to make sure the software works.

A software upgrade almost always means switching out the hardware, because that's one way we ensure conformity.
Why is this relevant? They portray a probable usecase, which 20 years or so later seem to become reality. They also show us that the idea of a user inferface like that is not necessarily something "new", but that, maybe, the technology wasn't there at that time. Now it is.
I work with gamma as a UK telephone operator. The divsion of gamma that was involed with this was gamma international. Where as Gamma for UK is a pretty much a seperate company. One of those things where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

looking at their website, they dont seem linked in anyway :/ https://www.gammagroup.com/Default.aspx maybe they are not part of each other but just share a name.
Accessing this site from my work computer, I get "Access Denied: content categorization: Interactive Web Applications".

That ought to tell you a lot about my work environment!
If it's so simple, why didn't Samsung do it?

Because nobody wanted a tablet until Apple told them they did. When there's no market for a device, you don't make and sell one simply because you can. Unless you're Steve Jobs, that is.
For what it's worth, I understood the comment the way it was intended in the first place. SQLite is an example of a high-quality codebase, and is available on multiple platforms. He could just as well have said "what, like SQLite, postgresql, and numerous other projects?".

The keyword here is "What", which you conveniently left out of the quote. It demonstrates the author's confusion.

Having said that, (written) language is a very error prone method of communication, even more so on an internet forum .
It took my browser 20 seconds to render the text. I've no idea why he would load static content dynamically.
There's this thing called "Sarcasm".

Unfortunately, the grandparent forgot that Sarcasm Does Not Work On The Net (old timers would recognize the SDNWOTN acronym. It really should be known better).

Back in '94, most sarcastic posts would get this reply as a first reply, which also served as a hint to other readers whose sarcasm detector failed to be triggered.
Yeah... in enterprises. They are displacing big-iron Unix, just like I said.
Version Control: 53% use git, 31% svn, 3% beanstalk?

which of these is not like the other.
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I totally disagree as I work in a large enterprise that is a Microsoft shop and I would love to run Redis for some of our up and coming projects.
I think there's fear of legal retribution from CBS. Sure, you can hack something together for your own personal use, but don't even think about making any real money by selling an app that looks all LCARSy.
The physical design of a humanoid robot? No; Asimov's designs would constitute prior art (not to mention the existing real-world humanoid robots, or even humans themselves if you want to get existental). Any novel mechanical workings that make a humanoid robot possible would certainly be patentable, however.
Considering the failure rate of young companies, you have a strange definition of the word "common".

Even taking failures into account, multiple-hundred percent per year is still probably pretty common. If a company doubles its revenue in a year that's a 100% increase, and that's not exactly uncommon.

Strangely, investors attempt to pick the winners, not invest in random small companies.

They look at metrics like growth rate, earnings, and cost of customer acquisition to decide what to invest in.
Seems they've recently gone in a new direction in these regards: You can now make purchases yourself using your iphone and the app store app: "Apple Store" - where you can check yourself out with a purchase and walk out of the store.

http://itunes.com/apps/applestore

Here’s what you can do with the Apple Store app on your iPhone or iPod touch:
- Buy products on the go and pick them up at your favorite Apple Retail Store, or have  them shipped to your door.
- Personalize an iPad or an iPod with free engraving, plus get signature gift wrapping for  select Apple products.
- Buy an iPhone with just a few taps.*
- While in an Apple Store, quickly purchase accessories on your own with EasyPay  (requires iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S)
...
They're not grasping at straws, they're taking the opportunity the courts have (foolishly) provided them with and doing everything they can with it. It's absurd, but that's the (broken) system we have in place.
Its really not quite as bad as it looks at first glance.

Step 2: "we design an interactive prototype" allows them to get the feedback that really makes more agile methods work. You don't need to constantly iterate during development if you iterate properly during prototyping. I certainly wouldn't advocate this method but its not a vanilla waterfall method.
It depends on the person,

I got a nan, 96, walks to town 3 times a week, still rides her bike, been smoking 60 a day for 40 years, and recently cut back to 40. If i compare her to my other nan 86 frail and pretty much falling apart, now guess which one has had the better lifestyle? the second, very well off always comfortable.

At 96 i think she gets up to keep smoking, and if that keeps her alive then keep doing it.
Crowdfunding bill in congress.
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The author's framing of Apple's patent applications isn't congruent with the way Apple views touch. The W3C, and standards advocates, view touch events in the same way they do mouse clicks. They're interactions that should be standardized and incorporated in to an event model for use in web applications. Apple views toch events as a proprietary interaction that they pioneered. Their already granted pinch to zoom patents reflect this view.

So, to a standards body, Apple's actions are perceived as undermining standards. To Apple, they're perceived as an act to protect a R&D investment.
Buy frozen fruit, make smoothies for breakfast. Easy, tasty, and not particularly expensive.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/buff-smoothie...

Since going vegan, that's been my nightly ritual: throw frozen fruit, bananas (one large or two small), juice, and vanilla soy milk in the blender carafe and put it in the refrigerator. I like to add ground flaxseed for the ALA as well.
Not to mention reduction in heart disase, joint pain, shortness of breath and the quality of life.

Which is why so few people do it.
Yes, they certainly shouldn't! They can patent the inner working of the robot that they came up with, but they can't patent all possible humanoid robots, regardless of how they're implemented on the inside.
Dude has a six year gap in his resume where he goes from being a web designer to chief architect? That might explain why he thinks waterfall is new.
A good post, recommending the use of Scala. I do agree with his point about the differences between scala collections and java ones. Interfacing with java libs which return java collections often requires conversions to scala collections before I can use the full power of scala. That said I'd still pick Scala any day of the week. The Scala book he references is surprisingly good, I bought it recently.
OTOH, discounting tobacco, most cases of cancer (78%) are unrelated to lifestyle choices. I also have problems coming to terms with the idea that occupational hazards are lifestyle choices.
Yeah, not so much. In fact, the opposite is true. Check the PADD links in one of the other comments on this thread (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD) -- the PADD is chunky and exciting-looking for TV: non-symmetrical, off-center, with visually interesting buttons and do-dads. Looks more like an early Sony Reader or the 2005 Nokia tablet. Not at all minimalist, because that would look lame.
Hey, I bought this after the Ars review. Thank you for your work on it! I got well more than 99 cents of entertainment value out of it.

I'm curious: did you make the puzzles by hand or generate them algorithmically?
Love the idea. Simple solution that solves a problem. Just wondering how long did it take you to hash everything out?
With socialized medicine, these people are stealing from the state. Britain should outlaw smoking, drinking, and eating fatty foods. Two servings of vegetables per day is now compulsory, enforceable by a fine of 20 shillings.
This is a general point for all 3rd party code and has been on my mind for a while. What I'd really like are developer plugins that are documented not just functionally but architecturally.

Ideally they would be something you could pull off github, read the docs and understand the main architectural concepts involved (say, autocomplete) and then easily extend. This would be of far more value to me than a plug-in that try's to do everything under the sun for a mythical end user.
Opensource app saves your social network data in db and provides ui to access it
IE relies on mshtml which relies on COM which is basically, well, core Win32. IE is also the largest OLE container.
Agreed - this isn't as poisonous as the usual waterfall techniques are.

And frankly, if you're working on a massive project that has strict requirements (either regulatory or functional) then up-front analysis has a lot going for it.
Hoax. (Fairly obvious hoax too.)

(http://www.herald.ie/news/feckin-eejit-cloud-row-just-an-ela...)
Meh. This is hardly the most ridiculous thing I have seen on the internet. I am sure this methodology will work sometimes for some clients. Heck, I bet a lot of startups here on HackerNews are using similar methodologies - but without the early usability testing. If nothing else, at least this company are differentiating themselves. Haven't seen a lot of other consultancies get posted up here on HackerNews.

Every project is different. We should try and not be too dogmatic about these things.
There were tablet PCs earlier. Were they usable? No. The point is, minor usability improvements aren't worthy of a patent. Just look at how bad the patent situation is, and how much of that is due to ridiculously silly patents.
I've been looking for a good #5 for a while. Could you point me to one?
The sad part is, that most of their clients are probably buying into this and think what an excellent and innovative company they hired.
Reproduction is a key cause of cancer? WTF is that?
I have a lifestyle cancer: melanoma.

That said, I didn't realize "going outside with short hair and no hat" was a bad lifestyle choice until it was too late, so I'm posting here:

Hey fair skinned folks! Just wearing sunscreen IS NOT ENOUGH. Wear a hat if you're going to spend more than a short time outside! If you have a family history of skin cancer, ask your barber to keep an eye out for moles when you're getting your hair cut.
It's probably because these are easy to buy. The people making $1 iPod replacement cables must buy them somewhere, after all.

I have a Sansa music player that uses an iPod cable but with the wires hooked up differently for no apparent reason. It seems to be a pretty common thing.
This is probably the most stunning and powerful realization of this whole fiasco.
It doesn't matter if Samsung did it. It just matters if someone did it. The article clearly shows prior art for Apple's design patent.
Curious about the ability to put Android on one of these (in case WebOS ends up a dead end) - has anyone here tried it? How'd it go?
This is like saying the dangerousness of Russian roulette "depends on the person," because you have a grandmother who's played a bunch of times and didn't die.
It should be pointed out that "var a = a || someDefault;" can bite you when 0, "", or null are valid values for a. The empty string in particular can be surprising here at times.
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The author specifically mentions watching his sister trying to use Twitter. This isn't some broad-brushed sexism leveled against all middle aged, female Internet users.

His evaluation of the new interface is that it makes sense for people that are confounded by the fundamental rituals of Twitter. People like his sister. The article would have made just as much sense if he had written it about his computer illiterate brother.

Sexism abounds in this industry, there are plenty of real offenses to complain about. This just sounds like sour grapes for not getting an invite to the beta.
So it's not just me, then. IMO, writing `someThing ||= {}` is much more eloquent than `var someThing = someThing || {}`.

The first point he raises is a valid argument; CoffeeScript's intro does uglify the JS a little to make its point. But it doesn't take much.

> ...merely inaccurate due to a lack of knowledge on JavaScript...

Kinda think the opposite idea was how CoffeeScript came into being, amirite? It was written to make JavaScript look AND act better. It wasn't developed by people that had no idea how to use JavaScript, and it certainly isn't used exclusively by people who don't know how to use JavaScript, too.
Marketing is even harder!

Although not an iPhone app, we've spent a lot of time in both developing and marketing our iPad game. But the revenue doesn't justify building another game which we would've loved to do. Developing an app is only half the battle, the other half is marketing it and as developers we are very bad at marketing.

Our criteria for a success was: Polished Graphics, Engaging Gameplay, Sense of Humor and a Cool Trailer.

Paddle Battle for iPad:

http://paddle-battle.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP2gnq6z3Fc

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paddle-battle/id415463249?mt=...
Unfortunately, this misses the point.

Apple's argument is based on the design patents (and "Trade Dress") they have. Design patents aren't like normal patents, nor like trademarks.

They are more typically used to protect something like a car or dress design, and the test for infringement is "would this other product be mistaken for the subject by a normal person"

It's things like the radius of the rounded corners, the location of the button, and the width of the bevel that will be argued here, not how obvious the design is.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analys... explains this pretty well.

(IANAL, and I think design patents are stupid, but this is the law as I understand it. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent#Comparison_to_uti... for more).
Shoot them down.

The reason countries don't do it is because they can't get away with it.
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Two of my previous phones, the Sony Ericsson p800 and p900 both pre-date the iPhone. The former was launched in 2002.

They were truly innovative imo (although probably something similar pre-dates them that I just don't know about), but as a smartphone with a single front screen, and nothing else (the keypad was detachable), they were a first for me.

The evolution from a p800/p900 form factor, to the iphone, is a natural progression as engineering techniques improve. Couple that progression, with Apple's iOS, and you have the iPhone.

My point is, where has it been shown that the iPhone design was the first in any case?

Personally, I think Apple's argument is weak. Either way, Apple will continue to dominate the market regardless of competitors - I just hope they fail so we can see some fair competition.
Just to clear one thing up -- Oscar writes:

> The examples on the CoffeeScript site are purposely written
> to be ugly to make CoffeeScript look even prettier.

... not at all. The side-by-side examples on CoffeeScript.org are showing you the compiled output. The point is to demonstrate -- although it's certainly far from perfect -- how CoffeeScript features can be compiled into clean JavaScript. Really, our goal is to make the JS look as nice as possible.
Or they should drop socialized medicine so that people can do whatever they want.
1) MS is still a dominant company

2) The people working there are _taking orders_ from the executive office. You can be completely sure, especially in Microsoft, that this was cleared with the executive and legal time before anything was uploaded (not doing so is grounds for termination), and you can be quite sure that even if this is an "grass-root" initiative inside microsoft, it was discussed and authorized with management before the 3rd hour was spent.

More likely, someone in sales asked a customer "Why are you using Linux here instead of Windows?" and the response was "We need Redis" - prompting this work.
I can see how loop indexes (i) etc are nice to be short, but I don't see how the other stuff is valid, as opposed to a personal preference.

Why is maxval a better name than MaximumValueUntilOverflow?

The first lacks some extra information that I need to keep in mind every time I re-read that part of the code.

And while the potential of overflow might be obvious, how about:

minValueForTemperature instead of minval?
JavaScript can be pretty too and the examples on the CoffeeScript site are purposely written to be ugly to make CoffeeScript look even prettier.

I'm not sure how many times this will have to be clarified, but the JS code on the CoffeeScript site are not examples, but the compiled JS. Even so, it's in many cases prettier than Oscar Godson's "eloquent" JS, IMHO.
> So, really, what he offers IS a viable solution for windows developers. Really. Try it before you consider it "narrow minded". You might find the narrow mindedness was not where you expected.

I believe that thought is narrow-minded because you are not thinking in terms of enterprise. This would probably work in a startup, or maybe even in a mid-size business. But in an enterprise, going to your manager and asking to fire up a linux VM in a Microsoft shop will probably get you reprimanded (or laughed at). I would love to use linux all day, but we can't do it as there is no freedom to. With a Windows port, I could create a business case for it and get a VM provisioned with Windows Server on it within a short period of time. Honestly, as bad as this sounds, money for small things like Windows licenses is not an issue when it comes to enterprise.
I agree. In any case if you're skilled enough to roll your own, you'll be skilled enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.
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I'm actually glad this terrible site is gone and makes room for something better. Now delete the rest of jquery.com, please!

Don't get me wrong, I love jquery. Just the website is an abomination...

Curiously a large portion of their target audience consists of web-designers.
Has really nobody offered to replace that mess with something good?
Curious if git is commonly used in companies over 100 people.
I never defend Apple, but they aren't grasping at straws.

They own design patents on those things, and that gives them protection against things that could be reasonably mistaken for them. Arguments about obviousness are irrelevant under design patent law.

See http://www.theverge.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analys...
If you don't think Apple innovates on 'thin' designs, I don't know what to tell you. And if a tablet came out that looked like the iPad before the iPad, I don't think we would see the iPad as it is today, and everyone would be copying what ever design Apple did do.
Watch out, Haavard is at it again!
I look around at my colleagues and see apparent misuse of the body. Carbs and fat for lunch every day, smoking, no exercise, sitting in a chair all day long, buckets of coffee, stress, poor posture and body alignment, doing the same shit every day, poor outlook on life, no sunshine on you during half of the year, etc. Of course this is going to wreck a person.

Yet no one seems to even be conscious of the wrongness of this.