skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If they want to succeed:

1) Distance themselves from the "Windows" branding (like they did with the XBox) -- as most people just upon hearing "Windows" won't even wait for the "phone" part and will automatically associate it with a negative connotation, whether warranted or not, with the desktop OS and Windows Mobile.

2) First impressions are the most important, and while people might actually like it if they were forced to use/try it for a few days the most crucial thing is it appeals to the consumer during the first few mins in the store. Every time I've watched someone at the store play with a WP7 they just immediately move on to the more "glossier" home screens of iPhone/Android. If it requires them to add embellishments to the home screen for the sake of sales despite violating a Metro design principle then that's what needs to be done. You have to give people what they like/want and not be stubborn about sticking to certain principles and/or give options in addition to Metro if you're struggling and about to go down in flames.

3) Treat developers better. Right now there's so much uncertainty in the WP7 development ecosystem wrt Silverlight and XAML/C#. Personally I'm at stalemate on the platform as I don't know if it's a waste of time to focus on XAML/C# if Silverlight/WPF is going to die, and whether all of that is going to be replaced with HTML/JS and/or WinRT/C++. Maybe after a year or two the dust will settle and the messaging for what to use for development will become clearer. But that's a significant time of lost opportunity to market share as developers will just stick to Objective-C for iPhone or Java for Android to avoid wasting time throwing away XAML/C# code for later HTML/JS, WINRT/C++, etc...
9jalodge - Index
It does make a difference in that Japan could finance the public debt entirely by itself. The country has a trade account surplus, it's not them being indebted to others, but others are indebted to them.

That makes it unattractive for speculators to bet against the country. Countries like China or Germany are in a similar position.
It's all about context. While a candidate might have some code online, you save a lot of time by having some code that you're more familiar with and can utilize to see how they think about a problem.

Also it's good to see how someone reacts to digging around in an unfamiliar code base and see how they familiarize themselves.
I do too -- if you find it, leave a comment here please!
Well, GoodGuide is a bit like that, but they do it a product-by-product basis instead of judging the business as a whole.

Sorting by favorable or unfavorable politics is much harder, since politics is so relative. It could work though - the app could quiz you about your political opinions at the first launch and then display how well/bad a company's policies fit your political ideals.
It doesn't solve any problem, since the invalid html will still be in the wild and you still need to parse it. You just introduce a new parsing mode without graceful recovery.

Some authors might use the newhtml doctype (because they have read somewhere it is better) but only test in a browser which dont support newhtml mode, so they still don't discover that the html is invalid. So we are back to square one.
Rather, here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389678
Wired on Codeacademy
I wasn't trying to convince you; only point out that it might be the wrong tool for the job you are trying to accomplish.

> "The only reason I need binary encoding for JSON, is to be able to efficiently transfer binary fields"

That isn't the goal of the UBJSON project; it is to make a 1:1 compatible, efficient representation of JSON.

It sounds like you already have BSON working in every way you need it to though, so that is good news.

As for UBJSON implementations, there is already a Node.js implementation and as for in-browser support, I am specifically waiting for native binary data support in JavaScript (don't have the spec link handy) and then it will be possible.

I do appreciate the feedback though; knowing how people are wanting to use the spec or problems they are trying to solve is important and you gave me a good data point to consider.
Great advice! I love HN!
PIPA vs SOPA --Watch the hand..."this is not the bill you are looking for..."
Onemi: siniestros de La Araucanía y Biobío ya están controlados |
That's pretty much the same reason why Milton Friedman is against a minimum wage stipulated by state.
The probability the shot is fired is more and more important after each try for n>=2 (with n=1, the first try is the good one).

So now, the question is: is it best to go first?
In terms of probability, yes you have to go first.

But.

This is like going all-in in a tournament of poker: the winner is the last man, so you have to avoid at maximum each situation which can make you out even if the probability are in your favor: once you are out, you've loose. The simple fact of going all-in makes you far in danger: you are just playing your life. If you aren't all in, for the moment, you are not playing your life and if you are not playing your life, you can't loose it.

Knowing that you can't repeat the game infinitely, don't play first because the theory of probabilities become nul and void in this case: the bullet is in one chamber, the latest you press the trigger, the latest you die.
Ask HN: How many people here have done the 'missions' on hackthissite?
Because they're actually a great resource!
Online Jobs.Earn Rs.50000/month.Part time Data Entry Jobs.No Investment
Because we simply need to keep people busy "doing things"

I suppose we could employ people to dig holes and pay them for the job of digging holes for no purpose. That's not productive or is a good use of their time, unless it is spent digging useful holes. That's because we have a million other things that people could do help and help out. All we need to do is figure out how to employ people.

I ask why? What is the end result of growth that makes societies "better"?

Less time spent on farming, manufacturing, servicing, and generally working. More time for leisure and family, increased well being, increased lifespan(more is always better), supposedly.

However, we're not good at figuring out what we want in life and thus not spend time on leisure, family, hobbies, and things that are fun. Instead, we seeks certain job because they're prestigious, buy things merely for status symbol effect, and so on.
Just wanted to point one thing out: 1980-2012 = 32 years, not 22.
Boycott SOPA: boycotting SOPA-backing companies
What a hero.
A common data-based rebuttal to this is that...

What data would persuade you that future potential is not equal, if actual data on future (relative to the time of admission) performance does not?

I'm curious whether your beliefs are falsifiable.
I want to squeeze out maximum performance out of my network connection by keeping content in RAM. I don't think that Nginx does that out of the box.
This isn't really a question of probabilities: In classic Russian roulette, the single bullet is either going to be in an odd or even-numbered chamber with equal likelihood. Hence, the odds are the same for either player.
why isn't this a web app?
If you don't cherry-pick conditions like some are doing in stackexchange then it's best to go last. That is, assuming that it will go on until one player dies. This is a first-to-lose game and by the moment of expected outcome, the first player will have lost with higher probability than the second. That said, the difference is so small and the volatility so high (loss of everything including life) that it makes no sense to engage in such game unless you are willing to die.

EDIT: refer to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3439595 for further explanation before downvoting away rollseyes
Ask HN: Is there any work to disrupt HTTP and HTML?
All technology will get disrupted eventually. Is there any known work to disrupt HTTP and HTML? Is it at all possible since these are the backbone of Internet? Sorry if this is a stupid question.
Japanese debt is Yen denominated and, if they want, they can extinguish it by printing money. This option is not available to Greece/Italy/Spain/Portugal/Ireland.
Google are not fans of scraping and people running robots on their sites :-)
The $100 OLPC XO-3 Tablet To Make Its Debut At CES 2012
And what does this mean? "Gradiator was made on Windows
with proprietary software" ? It looks like it was made with Adobe AIR
Is this faster or the same speed? There is so much FUD around this topic that I've not been able to get through.
> What is the end result of growth that makes societies "better"?

The need for constant economic growth is just a side effect of how a capitalist economy works. That's why they all go into deep shit when growth slows down too much or stops. Nothing good or bad per so about it, in my opinion (although the improvement of productivity has obviously some positive effects).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_%28programming_language%29
Google is trying to replace HTTP with SPDY.

HTML 5 is arguably a disruption of HTML (more WHAT-WG -v- W3C, perhaps).

Phone/tablet apps are disrupting the web.
Sorry, it's actually dijit.Dialog({}). My bad.
ADHPMD – Attention Deficit Hyperactive Product Management Disorder
HTC Unlocks the Bootloaders of Wildfire, Salsa, Merge, and Desire
Actually the most difficult job by far is raising a human being, but today more and more people want to live for themselves.
> People make choices. My choice may be to work until I have enough money to where I can earn enough interest passively while I go to Africa and join Engineers without Borders. Or my choice might be to have children. Either way, my productivity, savings, and future goals need to be harmonized for my plans to come to fruition.
Most responsible, productive people find it very easy to return to the workforce. Sometimes they are a step down or two (as in the case of my mother, who was a former research manager at IBM before she had my brother and me) but if their skills haven't eroded, they quickly gain back, and even exceed their position (she's now fairly high up at AT&T managing the internet pipes between Asia and the Americas, as well as VPN services to huge companies like Siemens).

what you are saying here is that, although having children is typically something that two people do, the onus falls on the woman to bear the career hit, and have to run faster and harder to return to the same place.
Even the first google hit for "css3 gradient designer" seems to have more features, http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor/

Is this a joke?
in the link says

"FYI, the reason it misspells the word connection is so that the internet check-sum (a simple sum) still adds up, this way the change can occur at the packet level. If it completely removed the header, it would have to stall forwarding the response until the header was entirely read, so it could rewrite the headers, recompute the checksum and then send it along."

Wow, I am impressed. it is really a clever hack! Thanks for the link :)
Ask HN: RSS Feed for Jobs Pages
I've been checking up frequently on jobs pages for companies I want to work for (mainly start-ups).

Does anyone know if there is a tool that allows you to add the company/page to a feed that will notify you when new job postings are uploaded?
Missing closing tags may be noticed
This question reminded me of a sketch in an old Argentinean comedy TV show under the name "A morir por la casetera". The show was hosted by one of the most famous Argentinean comedians, Tato Bores.

The sketch consisted of two contestants playing Russian roulette in order to win a VCR recorder. But one of the contestants wants to commit suicide, but every week he cannot achieve his goal and wins the VCR recorder, and the other one gets killed.

I specially remember one time when the suicidal player triggers the gun five times without success and then the second player asks not to fire the gun, only to be coerced to fire by social pressure.

Sorry, I looked after videos of the sketch but a quick googling didn't show anything relevant.

PS: AFAIK, no person was actually killed while filming this.
> This isn't really a question of probabilities: …

Didn't you just solve this question using basic probability theory?
I am opposed to SOPA in the strongest sense possible coming from a nation where majority of internet users cannot afford content(music, software) at market prices let alone afford a good internet connection.

Was watching the president of the Motion Picture Association of America talk on Bloomberg West about their reasons for supporting SOPA and why SOPA is important and that guy(and those like him) is good at what he does. Those opposed to SOPA for now have confined the fight to blogs and videos on Youtube but we need to take the fight where it matters, to Washington and sway those who should be swayed to stop this thing.

Not an American citizen but american tech companies opposed to this should be talking to their lobbyists and not just posting statements on their sites
The numbers are arbitrary, so it would have been better for me to say "business models that produce nonzero revenues even when things go wrong are superior to business models that return nothing unless everything goes right, especially for bootstrapped companies".

The counter argument is that the latter kind of business models (e.g. social) have much higher potential payouts due to scale. But I believe one doesn't have to look too hard in the first category (e.g. SAAS) to find billion dollar opportunities that collapse into million dollar ones if the winds change.
Don't confuse "overall odds" with "initial advantage" in a game that can stop on the first move.

The game begins with player #1 pulling the trigger (1/6 chance dying), and player #2 waiting (0/6 chance dying).

So player #2 has the initial advantage (yet same overall odds) in this game.

It's best to be player #2.
Yes, every time you post something here, there would always be many people who care and know show up. HN is a great community.
But Oracle and Windows development then are issues, since last I checked much the Microsoft development stuff isn't free.
Employment, I ask why?

Seriously, full employment is a threat not a promise. Who wants to really work? For what?

Mandatory vacations, 6 months per year, 5 hour work day. Then we can have full employment.

As said in another comment, growth is required to spend more time with family, leisure and to do things that we really want. Well thats not the case, since no matter how much growth there is and how much an economy increases, leisure time, vacations and do what you want does not increase. Working more only produces growth so that a few people on this planet can do what they want, while all the others are still required to work more.
Startup with 2 non-technical co-founders
Hi All,

I've been working on a startup in the healthcare IT space for about 8-9 months. I started initially as a contracted developer, but over the last 2 months I was transitioned to be employee #1, on the payroll.

I was given a small portion of equity in the company (1.5%, plus an addtl 1.5% over the next 3 quarters, half of which should be vested by now), and I'm being paid a pretty nice salary for the work that I'm doing.

The thing is that based on the paper work that I signed I've been given the title of "VP in charge of technology development" when I feel like I have more of a CTO/Technical Co-founder role. I feel like upon launch if this service becomes successful that someone else will be hired for that position and will be given more of a stake in the company that I currently hold, even though I've been doing all the work in developing the product/platform from scratch.

Is this standard operating procedure? I know titles right now are irrelevant since we haven't yet launched publicly or even in a limited beta, but I want to make sure I don't get screwed out of a position that I feel I deserve. What is a standard stake of equity for employee #1 who happens to be the technical developer creating the product/service? I'm kind of naive when it comes to money and equity since I'm only 23 and this is my first startup, so I kind of just agreed with whatever was given, because up until now I had no past startup experience so I wasn't sure what to expect and figured anything was better than nothing.

Also to mention that we haven't yet raised any outside VC funding, it's all self-funded by the co-founders right now, but one of the co-founders has connections with VCs from his past job
It almost seems like a troll to me. It was written in Python.
I don't mean to say that you shouldn't be doing PR, Marketing and Social Media efforts; because you should. Yet, I don't think of press releases, making awesome products and participating on social networks to be SEO. But if you do them right, you'll get link backs as well.
Ive built the stack in LAMP- If anyone has any interest in contributing some code by all means ping me ( dan @ harknesslabs .com )
I doubt it, take a look at this,
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=japan+public+debt
change the time scale to 10 years, it looks pretty sustainable to me... It's close to the lowest it has been in 10 years.
Why Business Action Can Trump Thinking
The data[1] seems to suggest that Apache's market share is growing, not declining, and that IIS is infact, in decline. May have something to do with reverse http proxying, or perhaps people are just moving away from the .NET stack in general.

[1]http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2012/01/03/january-2012-we...
But by printing money they'd wipe out (or at least reduce) the real value of their peoples' savings - basically all those bonds the Japanese people bought. The consequences would be borne by their own people, not some foreign banks. This may be politically unpalatable.
Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2012 Goals
I agree too. Target all your marketing efforts on these cities. Don't even bother about tech news. If it gets popular Techcrunch will want to interview you. Buy ads in the local area, organise events and give out flyers in the city centre.

One company that has done a good job of this is Lovestruck in London. They are a dating site, which isn't really my thing, but in terms of getting their brand known they can't really do much better. They have adverts all over the tube, give out flyers at major transport interchanges, and even organise regular free events (which they need to advertise more IMO).
With this assumption, you are right. However in Russian Roulette you spin every turn, thus player 2 has an advantage.

First turn gets 1/6, second 1/6*5/6 and so on.
"Doing things" was mildly oversimplified.

That's because we have a million other things that people could do help and help out.

We do? Like what?
I stay away from probability questions as my mind is still a bit warped from reading about the Monty Hall problem[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_Problem
its a new email platform to rival gmail, but we're stealth still so i cant disclose much. we'll be starting a beta pretty soon and issue an official press release at that stage - make sure you request an invite in the meantime.
Looking at the parent site CaffeinatedCo.de (http://caffeinatedco.de), they're a new "web design and development company." Their portfolio is empty at the moment, but Pun-King (http://pun-king.com) seems to be their other website. It's basically just a list of puns with a submit feature.

Not much to look at, although Gradiator looks somewhat useful.

Edit: Here are the authors:

George Czabania: http://stayradiated.com/

Jono Cooper: http://jonocooper.com/ and https://twitter.com/consindo
That is pretty neat, I've noticed this before and like the OP just assumed it was a typo, nice to see the explanation. No matter how much you think you know, you don't know everything, that's what makes the IT field so interesting
Exactly the same move here. We created ~2 dozen drupal sites and went to node.js in early 2011. There was about 4-5 months of learning curve, where we almost went back to drupal. The low level of abstraction in node.js resulted in some loss of productivity during that time. But over that time we stitched together sufficient little pieces of CMS capability that we have now fully recovered. And the benefits of working with node.js and javascript over php is pretty huge.

Our only regret now is not having moved to node.js sooner.
Companies support SOPA based on that reasoning, it only seems consistent to say "by your own metric, you lost $XM of sales".
you can do it yourself.

For example: download the page every 24 hours into a Git-controlled folder, then commit and push onto Github. Then take the RRS feed off the Github commits page.

there are plenty of other possible scenarios
The real author is Anonymous
Here's something worth trying.

1. Look for existing businesses in your local area that already has a website, preferably a small site.

2. Go to http://www.howtogomo.com/en/

3. Run a report on their site. If their site looks terrible on mobile, that's the one you'd want to work on.

4. Email the report to them and tell them you can help them build a mobile version. Set your prices low at first. Say $150 for the first page, and $50 for each additional page. Tell them you will host it for them for free for the first year (tell them you normally charge $120 per year - you must do this. It is repeat revenue every year you see). Keep bumping up the rate until you get only 3 sites to do each week, otherwise your studies will suffer.

5. Use ZURB's Foundation template. It renders mobile pretty well.

You can host your stuff on a small vps. If you are dealing with static sites, I've a VPS at Linode. I'm ok with helping a student out - no charge. Contact me when you need it.

Regards.
Ask HN: What is the best Economics read?
Which books/online lectures etc would you recommend to understand detailed Economics like how it works locally/globally, GDP, debt, govt bonds etc
Design looks nice. Then I raised eyebrows when reading the description, it looks like its made to be read by a venture capitalist to determine if the project is worth investing in or not. Its not made for a participant... just something I noticed.

Care to share the code for it? Do you have it running somewhere?
> [...] but thats okay.

Agree to disagree, I suppose...

How do you do reverse search, though? Any replacement for ITerm's Ctrl-F?
Awesome, I will give this a try, thanks!
I love using terminal multiplexors, but prefer GNU Screen since it is almost always available wherever I need it. For those interested, I use the following to show a status line -- comes in handy when you want to name difference screens. You can always name a screen using "C-a A"

hardstatus alwayslastline "%?%{yk}%-Lw%?%{yk}%n*%f %t%?(%u)%?%?%{yk}%+Lw%?"
Both articles are actually by the same author. His blog is at http://www.fingleton.net/
Do you think this would be a good SaaS start-up? I'm non-technical and would not know how to do it myself. I imagine a lot of people are constantly rechecking the job listings for dream companies.
Didn't he take that over from someone else?

Edit: Yes, it was written by a guy named Carl Harris and ESR took it over when Harris no longer wished to maintain it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetchmail
Wolfram Alpha displays the debt in your local currency (SEK to me). Which currency did it show to you?

Look at this video and tell me how that is sustainable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-quUyId2WZ0#t=0m13s
With six months vacation per year, people would still complain about having to work too much.
There are limits to how much you can print without creating a currency crisis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation#Examples_of_hype...