skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Website relaunch feedback
I just relaunched a website after a complete redesign and translation of almost 10 years of bad asp code. The original site goes back to 2000 and has been updated many times over the years but this current version contains the most dramatic changes. I'm a fully operational/profitable accommodation booking company based in Europe. I'm not looking for advice on how to make "idea" work or compete with the big players, as we already have a niche following and are pretty highly respected in the travel world, but I haven't received loads of feedback about the new design, and the feedback I have received is from people who were familiar with the old site and are commenting mainly on how much better it is now. I'd love to know what it looks like to an unfamiliar viewer and since I highly respect the HN readership I hoped to get some honest thoughts. Thanks in advance!

https://www.cross-pollinate.com
Er, OK, I find that much closer to "quart" than "lark". Maybe we're dealing with some sort of accent/dialect issue here, and/or people are hearing something far more subtle than I am.
Also look at the Sequoia's "Writing a Business Plan" page, it's the best "checklist" to keep in mind, even if you don't actually write a business plan:

http://www.sequoiacap.com/ideas
Common web IDE's all embed JSLint error reporting in the editor window while you're typing. I've used Aptana, Zend Studio and Jetbrains PHPStorm, and they all integrate jslint (though usually it's disabled by default). I've found phpstorm's check-while-you-type functionality is the most comprehensive, better than jslint.
As a math professor: why would you not formally enroll?

We have formal admissions procedures and the like, but this is not to screen out by arbitrary criteria. Grad applications are screened by math professors, not some stuffed suits somewhere who can't do trigonometry, and if you are well prepared for grad study then it will show and you will be admitted. And, typically, funded with a stipend (usually there are 10-20 hours of teaching a week you have to do, depending on institution).

I think most professors would be happy to let you sit in on an advanced class without enrolling. But doing a whole Ph.D. that way? Perhaps it is possible, but I can't imagine why anyone would, and I don't know of anyone that has.
Sorry for being a Chinese grammar nazi, but "可口" (ke kou) means tasty, and "口渴" (kou ke) means thirsty.
I'm from IL :) [1]

You're right about the י and ו replacing vowels much of the time. Inspired by this discussion, I went and read a little more about the history of Modern Hebrew, and stumbled on this page in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ktiv_male

The idea of writing vowel-like signs into the letters is called Nikkud. But apparently, since most people don't write Nikkud, the Academy of the Hebrew Language wrote a set of rules explaining how to exchange Nikkud for letters that will serve as vowels. I had no idea it was so deliberate, but this explains why there are many words which people here write differently.

I still think there is more ambiguity in Hebrew. Or, as you put it, less "error correction margin". Even with "Ktiv Male".

[1] I lived abroad for a few years, so I wasn't in Israel from the 2nd grade to the 7th. This means I missed a lot of the "traditional" learning process of learning about the language, grammar, etc. So I'm a native Hebrew speaker, but I have some gaps in my knowledge about the correct way to do things, etc.
i looked at the questions, and said to myself, "oh shoot, i dont know the answer to many of the questions!"

honest question, anyone care to share their answer especially for question:
why not sell your house, why you're better, what if somebody (startup/big guy) copy your idea with less price, why cant i pay somebody to do it (outsource), without sounding cliche or boasting?
Is there a list of functions and features that doesn't work with Hiphop?
One could say that computer science is a formal science[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science
> It strikes me as accurate. Google apps is better for mail, and Microsoft is the cats ass when it comes to calendaring. If you are the secretary who must schedule 20 execs for a meeting the first Wednesday of every month, then there is nothing better than Outlook/Exchange.

Really? A bunch of things about Outlook calendering drives me up the wall. I can't find a way to tell it that I've attended an event just dismissing the late notice. Also just the other day it prompted me with a late notice about a cancelled weekly meeting.
4kx4k textures can easily be displayed even on my Macbook Pro's 9400M card. It does cost a high amount of memory; depending on if and how it's compressed, if it has mipmaps, if it contains an alpha channel etc. it can be anywhere between ~16 and ~64 MBs, but is very doable.
Show HN: My first project, Music Snob
That's a common question on Dragons' Den (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons%27_Den#UK)

A common answer is "because we have a patent" which may be what they want to hear.
So, I just recently taught myself HTML & CSS, and this is my first project.

It's a simple site for people who like indie music--you can subscribe to a list for 16 bucks and get emailed a new artist everyday. I'm doing payments thru PayPal (I know, I know).

Any and all thoughts & criticism would be welcome. Thanks!
Exactly.

I weigh free time as FAR more important than money. As long as I'm over some threshold of income, time is by far the most important outcome. Spending all my time working on someone else's projects is simply not an option to me (unless some new maximum of income were to be reached, of course, but that would have to be some kind of in-the-realm-of-fantasy sum).

Maybe I'm being naive, but how exactly do people stomach spending so much time on someone else's goals, away from the ones they truly love and their true passions?
All New Local And General Insurance Quotes
Cloudability Raises $1.1M To Help Businesses Manage And Monitor Cloud Costs
Yes, congratulations! My wife and I just celebrated our 20th year anniversary, and it's been a blast.

Also, thanks for keeping us in the loop. I feel a little like a voyeur when I read your blogs, but I'm finding they are an excellent resource as I go through the stages of learning myself.

Best wishes for 2012!
Amazon Stops Hiding Competitors’ E-Reading Apps On The Kindle Fire
I see. My wife is practical too, which offsets my gadget-whoreishness somewhat. Sometimes she wins, sometimes I do. Mostly she's right, though.
The problem here is not the inappropriate behavior of one individual at a conference -- there will always be someone behaving badly. The problem is that when made statements like "all women who come to conferences should be available", that every other person at that table did not immediately speak up and say "Hey, shut up! You're behaving like an asshole and I won't have it!".
On Erlang's Syntax
> Its as if someone was standing at your thermostat 24/7 micromanaging your temperature.

That'd be my wife and 11 year old, and almost never towards the "save money" end of the continuum. ;-)
I'm looking forward to this. I've needed to embed a web app into outlook, and writing an outlook add-on to do that was an exercise in frustration. Not sure how much javascript can solve that, but I doubt it will make things worse.
In reference to #3, there are 2k and 4k video formats that will likely make the jump to consumer level soon. Saw an 80" LCD TV the other day that looked pixellated - higher res would help.
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ClearMetrix is contact center software & contact experience management solution for quality monitoring, quality workflow & reporting across the enterprise including both in-house and outsourced contact centers. Starting with recordings from any vendor platform, ClearMetrix automates the quality workflow of call evaluation, calibration, audit and web based reporting. It helps to improve contact effectiveness.
Namespaces don't work very well, all functions that create dynamic code (code that is not known at compile time) don't work (eval(), create_function(), preg_replace() with 'e' modifier).

Don't define constants where the name of the constant is a variable, as in "define($key, $value)"

Don't use "current($a)" to get the first element of an array $a, but use "reset($a)". current returns whatever element the internal array pointer points to, and PHP changes that pointer in crazy/undefined ways. Hiphop has a saner way to handle that pointer, but it's not the same as in PHP so your code might break if it's dependent on the specificities of PHP. In general use current only in case you are explicitly handling the internal pointer (that is, you are also calling reset/next).

Under the compiled version of hiphop, class_exists returns true for (almost) all the classes even if you haven't already included the file where they are defined, since they are all statically compiled.

Don't rely on destructors being called at the end of the requests: under hiphop they aren't. So either the object happens to be destructed during request execution (due to its reference count going to 0), in which case the destructor is called, or the object is garbage collected at the end of the request and its destructor is just ignored.

There are some differences in the handling of SOAP errors in Hiphop.

This will give a fatal error in Hiphop but not PHP: $z = null, $z[0] = "foo";

You can consult these Hiphop docs: https://github.com/facebook/hiphop-php/raw/master/doc/incons... and https://github.com/facebook/hiphop-php/raw/master/doc/incons... for a list of other inconsistencies between PHP and Hiphop.
The Vanity Fair article (which is great by the way) makes it very clear that, given policies in place on 9/11, there was very little chance of the military being able stop the hijackers even if the drill hadn't been scheduled for that day.

One major issue was the terrible communication between the FAA and the military. Not only did the FAA feed the military a lot of incorrect information (One example being the report that AA Flight 11 was heading towards DC after it had already hit the north tower), but they were extremely late in reporting the actual hijackings to the military.

It was only because an ID tech at NEADS (The Northeast Air Defense Sector which was in control of all the scrambled jets on the eastern seaboard) called the FAA's Washington Center trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the already crashed Flight 11 that the military even got wind of the AA 77 hijacking. NEADS also didn't receive any reports about the United 93 hijacking until 35 minutes after the FAA first suspected the hijacking was taking place and 4 minutes after the plane had already crashed into a Pennsylvanian field. Reports of the hijackings shot quickly up the FAA's chain of command, but they were not reported to the military in a timely manner.

Even when the military did get word of the hijackings in time to theoretically do something about it, they were unable to track the planes on their woefully antiquated radar. With so many planes in the air and the transponders on each of the hijacked planes disabled, NEADS old radar systems didn't stand a chance. The commanders at NEADS were unable to give their fighter pilots instructions any more specific than to head to Manhattan or to the White House. And even then, in the case of the White House, NEADS was unable to supply their fighter pilots accurate coordinates (which is amazing to me).

Lastly, even if the fighter pilots had been able to intercept any of the hijacked planes, they wouldn't have been allowed to shoot them down in the first place. It wasn't until 10:18, 15 minutes after the last hijacked plane crashed into a field, that President Bush gave the military authorization to fire on hijacked planes.

While having a drill scheduled for the same day certainly didn't help, I don't think there was any chance that "the terrible events of that day might have been limited to the air."
I'll copy below jashkenas' longer answer from the old github issue about this, https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/issues/712#issuec...

"""

Sorry, folks, but I'm afraid I disagree completely with this line of reasoning -- let me explain why:

Making assignment and declaration two different "things" is a huge mistake. It leads to the unexpected global problem in JavaScript, makes your code more verbose, is a huge source of confusion for beginners who don't understand well what the difference is, and is completely unnecessary in a language. As an existence proof, Ruby gets along just fine without it.

However, if you're not used to having a language without declarations, it seems scary, for the reasons outlined above: "what if someone uses my variable at the top of the file?". In reality, it's not a problem. Only the local variables in the current file can possibly be in scope, and well-factored code has very few variables in the top-level scope -- and they're all things like namespaces and class names, nothing that risks a clash.

And if they do clash, shadowing the variable is the wrong answer. It completely prevents you from making use of the original value for the remainder of the current scope. Shadowing doesn't fit well in languages with closures-by-default ... if you've closed over that variable, then you should always be able to refer to it.

The real solution to this is to keep your top-level scopes clean, and be aware of what's in your lexical scope. If you're creating a variable that's actually a different thing, you should give it a different name.

Closing as a wontfix, but this conversation is good to have on the record.

"""
Occupy Funds: How Protests Affect Small Business
i hated gnome3 at first. i even stayed on gnome2 for quite a while to avoid the upgrade.

as it seemed inevitable, i bit the bullet and upgraded. linux is my only OS so i use gnome3 all the time. i have grown quite fond of it. what's best is that it hides so many of the distracting ui elements (either on purpose or simply because so many widgets just don't work) that used to pull me away from my work that i feel i'm actually more productive now. plus i love that my windows key launches the lens (is it called that?).

i think gnome3 is much better than unity.
Tim Ferriss's startup Christmas deals
Higgs actually wanted to call it "the goddamn particle."
Then what do you suggest wantrepreneurs should study,if anything?I think this argument whether CS school is useless has been debated far too much.I do see value in developing the way of thinking and surrounding yourself with top people,considering you do manage to get in a top college.And this whole debate about the very high prices of the colleges is ridiculous,because even for a person coming from a really poor family like me,there are enough possibilities to get free or very cheap education in most of the world's top 20 CS schools,if they do believe you're worthy enough candidate.
The secret to enjoying Javascript is to stick to the non-brain-damaged subset identified by Crockford in his Javasript:The Good Parts. For example, if you always use the triple-equals comparison operator, you don't have to worry (as much) about implicit type coercion.
I wish people would stop citing their own anecdotal experiences as data. The article clearly states that studies have not supported your assertion that native Chinese speakers read faster than native English speakers or vice versa. If you have a contradictory study then cite that, but stop making anecdotal claims.
HN: Any Ideas On How We Can Make Kansas City A Better Place For Technology?
Really interesting app! So it's possible to read up to 1000 wpm using that, pretty incredible. I guess an implication there is that we should in theory be able to 'produce' a lot more wpm, using better tools than a keyboard. Do you know of any research in that area?
Are you calling it a "terrible article" because the author talks about other things than you would have, or because it's not rigorous? The first is not much of a criticism, and the second is rife in your comment.
> As the Chinese say, I have lived in interesting times.

Nitpick: this is not a Chinese saying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_tim...
That doesn't mean ext3 is unmaintained.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux%2Fkernel%2Fgit%2Ftorvalds%2Fl...
Yet another example of just how desperately our patent system needs reform.
Those kinds of services are mostly being written in Java these days, and everyone would aggree they constitute awesomer software than another Javascript blablabla library... so how can Java be dead? I should learn Java...
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Biowayre says next Dragon Age will draw from Skyrim
Iain M Banks also has the similar concept of "subliming" in several novels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sublimed
How Zaarly went from idea to Ashton Kutcher to $14M to Meg Whitman in 7 months
Rails master is now 4.0.0.beta; Ruby 1.8.7 support dropped
This is a spinoff from EXPE, so it can't easily be compared to other recent IPOs that are more greenfield development-ish. So if there is a trend, I wouldn't use this as a data point.

TRIP is 11 years old.
Webpages showing sharp growth in girth
The Struggle for the Occupy Wall Street Archives
and you forgot to mention most important, computer simulations witch are virtual but contributes to real. if you are going to send colonization probe to few ly distant planet you are have to have some badass simulation first.
Android did it first, so wtf prior art?
Actually it was Leon Lederman who wrote book "The God Particle".

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/30/higgs.boson.ce...
Is multitasking during video shooting covered by a separate patent? How about multitasking while heating food, for devices that do heat food?
Mac OS X: Using Command-Tab to Bring Back Minimized Windows
Server-Side JavaScript Injection in node.js [pdf]
The complete lack of coverage in the tech press (techcrunch, et al) certainly demonstrates their west coast myopia.
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I know a few people who switched from iPhone to Android (Galaxy II) and it is definitely not because of "price sensitivity" but rather lack of innovation and loss of marketing traction on Apple's side. An iPhone is just not that hip and not that much of a lifestyle object anymore. Also some waited for the iPhone five to come out but when that did not happen the went Android.
I am from Germany by the way, where Apple lost 5% market share.
The article talks about an included app that lets you remote-control the ball with your phone, while also enabling the phone's camera so you can film any pets' interactions with the ball.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sphero+cat&o... is the result on YouTube, focusing on cats for no particular reason other than that it reminded me of the classica application of laster pointer tech as a cat toy.

So far, the results are not very impressive. :)
- Why not sell your house?
-- "We're really focused on the business and are trying to limit outside distractions, like where is my family going to live, or how am I going to drive to meetings. But liquidating some assets is always an option"

- Why are you better?
-- This is going to be different in every situation, especially if you're entering a crowded market. This is your secret sauce. Ideally team expertise should be a part of your response as well.

- What if somebody copies you at half the price
-- "It's true others will always try to copy us if we are successful, but we have a 2-year product roadmap. If they do copy us, we will always be a step ahead in our roadmap. Our roadmap is so important because our team has "X" experience in "Y" customer pains." And if your product isn't core to the "Big Guys" business you could always mention that and say that they won't be able to focus on the specific problem the way you will.

- Why can't I outsource?
-- You should definitely boast about why you are the team to solve this problem. Investors are pretty optimistic and they get super excited about awesome teams. You want to give them reason to believe that you have experiences relating to the problem you're solving that others won't have. This will also allow them to boast to their friends/other investors about team/product they just invested in. And can help you round up others for your round.

Just a few examples.
Hope some of this helps!
Closer to 98%+ on DiabloMiner or newest phatk2 (now that phateus finally decided to catch up).
Personally, if you can get into one of the very top universities that have a track record for being the places where succesful startups come from then I'd strongly recommend it.
No, the Javascript model is "you name things with `var`, you mutate things with `=`".

If only it were that simple. It also has "you create thing with `var` and sometimes with `=`", plus it does not have block scope:

if( true)
{
var x = 1;
}
// x == 1 here.
可口 means tasty though.

Your example is not very good either, because 可口可樂 is an intentional translation aimed to invoke positive association by using existing words, it could totally go by sound and be 考卡考樂.

Similar effect can be achieved translating Chinese to English too, there are plenty spelling confusions for Chinese family names such as Wang, Dang etc.
Ditto - except it was extended basic on a TI 99/4a. Once I wrote a program of my own that actually worked I was hooked. PDP 11 Basic -> Pascal -> C -> Visual Basic -> C# and now Javascript. There was no going back.
Codea is on sale for 1 dollar, grab it and teach your child programming
Goodbye, Exercise Excuses
Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated at all with Codea, I just happen to like it and to think it is a very good thing for children.

iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8
I would argue with Mr Langewiesche that it's not at all useless for the pilot to understand that the top surface of the wing sucks air down. Ice doesn't cause plane crashes just due to adding extra weight. It also changes the shape of the wing, making the top surface less effective at sucking air down. That's very useful information for pilots.
I like it, really. I just want to give you some feedback from my experience. When I was a lot younger, I used to keep track of a lot data points to reach goals. It usually worked well. but at some point I stopped because most of these goals were not critical and the time spent tracking them would have been better invested doing those things. (But all of this was with pen and paper).

What I'd like would be to know that such a service would be in autopilot mode and how it take care of itself (ideally in a short video) before I sign up,

Hope it helps !!
When I worked at a consulting firm, I received a 20% bonus. It is great for retention. You are reluctant to leave in the 6 months leading up to your bonus. It's better for the employee to just get a bigger salary.
Bottle.js - javascript bottle making framework?
Ask HN: Using HN as a commenting engine?
Has anyone though of making a service that utilizes Hacker News as a commenting engine for a blog? E.g. as a plugin for Wordpress or something. The idea would be that all comments are visible and accessible from both places (the blog and the HN) at the same time.