skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If Google launched a web-based Notepad clone and pushed it like they push Google+, it'd probably get just as many users. More importantly, the users might actually find the app useful.
I'm actually amazed at all the things that Gmail doesn't do after all these years:

- It doesn't let me search for untagged messages.

- It doesn't let me search or auto-tag by contact.

- It doesn't let me view messages in a fully-threaded, rather than flat-threaded format.

- It doesn't let me read my mail in a two-pane format, where headers are in on pane and the body of a message is in the other.

- There's a lot of functionality for which there is no keyboard shortcut. E.g., displaying inline images.

- The built-in GUI editor often doesn't do the right thing. I.e., it routinely just does weird stuff.

I guess, overall I'd say that Gmail is the worst web-based email client -- except for all the others.
So taking a few sites down for a short while is counterproductive, but completely destroying a business without due process is the normal civilized legal procedure?

It's time we realized that we are no longer in the warm embrace of freedom and democracy here. Sure, it's throwing stones while the other party is using heavy artillery, but that's how uneven struggles start.

If anything, this Megaupload episode shows (and not for the first time) that SOPA and PIPA are just a distraction, and there are no real gains to be made here. We've already lost, they already have all the power they need. Megaupload is gone, complete with the data (and personal information) of thousands of users worldwide. Any actual trial that may follow is just for show, just like the whole SOPA debate.
> With Git you can write shell scripts and tools that wrap git, but that isn't quite the same thing as an extension

Git itself is a bunch of scripts that wrap (lower-level) git tools. For example git's "native" `git rebase` command is a shell script:

https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/git-rebase.sh

You can create your own commands simply by putting a script called `git-whatever.sh` in your path, e.g. git svn-abandon:

https://github.com/nothingmuch/git-svn-abandon

I don't know hg's extensions, so perhaps I don't know what I'm missing, but I have no complaints about git's extensibility. It allows editing of its entire database and all branches (I've been able to convert SVN repo and re-create all merges, change authorship and dates of commits) and has hook scripts that can intercept and customize important actions in the workflow (I've been able to build non-trivial website deployment automation using git as a base).
Vook: iBooks Author has limited appeal for writers, readers
Do we want textbooks to live in Apple’s walled garden?
I wonder which product is really driving G+ adoption. If Google+ is opted in by default on Android now* that would account for almost all of the growth in G+.

* I think this is the case with ICS, less sure if it's the case for the Gingerbread phones that form the vast majority of Android devices sold.
Logged into 4 accounts right now.
shameless plug I created http://flyerme.info as a tool to create simple posters with QR codes in them.

I'd have advertised it more aggressively / put it on better infrastructure but AdSense declared it unfit for ads.
Can Carl Icahn pick up the pieces of LightSquared?
How management has failed at RIM
The Magistrates' Court decision that originally approved the extradition seems to state that it would be strictly harder:

> If Mr Assange is surrendered to Sweden and a request is made to Sweden for his extradition to the United States of America, then article 28 of the framework decision applies. In such an event the consent of the Secretary of State in this country will be required, in accordance with section 58 of the Extradition Act 2003, before Sweden can order Mr Assange’s extradition to a third State. The Secretary of State is required to give notice to Mr Assange unless it is impracticable to do so. Mr Assange would have the protection of the courts in Sweden and, as the Secretary of State’s decision can be reviewed, he would have the protection of the English courts also.

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgment... , page 28
Well, I am sure that some will disagree, but what I've seen, most of what is in self-help books is common sense, although the best wrap it in amusing or counter-intuitive anecdotes. I think self-help allows people to convince themselves that there's formulae to life, when it's really just a matter of doing things in earnest and learning as you go.

So, basically I see self-help books as a sign that someone over-values impersonal advice. Not a sign of confidence, IMHO.
Sweater Letters For Winters
In winters I looked for some creative and different typography particularly suitable for this season. I got lots of inspirations and finally decided to go with embroidered sweater textured typography. Behance.net won the race and inspired my aesthetic sense with "Handsome Sweater Letters as Wintertime Inspiration"
Wow. In that case, it seems like it ought to be tempting to double the cost of Visual Studio and give non-business copies of Windows away.
Did it stop working internally? Do Google employees still get to use it?
Seems like the default should be linear runtime and you should have to explicitly ask for the richer feature set (and opt into the assertion that you trust the input not to DOS your process).

Could easily be added as a modifier (see `man perlre`), but should be implemented as two to enable explicit behavior and toggling the default. Randomly picking the letter N:

/(\w+) \1/n # Error: look-behind is incompatible with linear runtime RE engine
/(\w+) \1/N # Works!
/(\w+) \1/ # Preferable works for backwards compat, maybe overridden by an ENV var
Ron is also against SOPA, which is the house bill, which he is able to vote on.

Rand is able to filibuster PIPA, the senate bill, where he is a member.
Anonymous operative Barrett Brown
So that guy still goes around pretending he is some Anonymous official?
What a weird character:
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2011/April/How_Barr...
I did, in fact, change my registration to vote in the KY Senate primary. But you are not off in pointing out the confusion often seen in discussing Rand and Ron.
Apple didn't "use the police and FBI" - the police and FBI investigated crimes that are under their legal purview. Theft and corporate espionage are serious crimes and they are seriously investigated by both local police and the FBI. This is totally normal.

My mother once casually knew a guy who ended up stealing a bunch of computers from a company he consulted for. Because they had sensitive data on them, the FBI visited us.

Why? Because that's a crime the FBI covers.

There was nothing wrong, no extension of corporate powers, no overreach, no special treatment at work with the stolen iPhone prototype whatsoever.
I think they're called "guidelines" for a reason, and nowhere in them is the word "prohibited" used.
Ask HN: How do I build apps with APIs?
This is the one part of Web Development so far that has me completely stumped me.

For example I go to the API section of a site. I see the url that I need to use and the parameters. I play around with it a bit in my address bar and I get the data I want. Great! But how do I take this information and build something out of it then render in html/css?

I have tried looking up tutorials and things but there seems to many different ways to go about this and it confuses me even more.
just something we felt the interblag was missing. still working out some kinks but let us know your thinkings.
Indeed. There are very few sites that can hold up to even a blunt hammer like LOIC.
Computers Aren’t So Smart, After All (1974)
Jsonip.com updates: CORS, parameter requests, /about info
Isn't the other side that it supports why SOPA isn't fair in seeing how a GOV site was taken down without due process?
Blaming the decline in Windows revenue on the floods? Priceless. You can't get around the fact that they're facing their first real competition in the consumer PC space and that for a lot of consumer use cases, the average $500 Windows laptop compares pretty poorly to a tablet.
Just donated $ to him.
Good stuff - I added http://szeliski.org/Book/ to my reading list, thanks for sharing the link. There's a huge overlap for certain classes of problems. CV in many ways resembles the same problems with large online data streams, noisy, time critical, huge volumes of data - feature extraction is problematic. Hybrid solutions usually required.

I've found that reading books from other ML domains helps out in understanding the application and getting ideas on how to approach the problem.
"manifestations of intellectual curiosity"

Exactly. A person who is constantly reverse engineering business, peoples behavior and life in general.

Curiosity is a big thing. Before I wrote this reply I clicked your handle to see what you did and who you are. I guess that's fairly common on HN but there are people that I know in the local area who still haven't visited my website and have no idea what I do. They just aren't curious in the least.
Very subtle presentation that MegaUpload accounts for .0019% of corporate bandwidth usage (20.4GB of 10.9 Petabytes). Instead they prominently throw around the MegaUpload traffic was on 57% of corporate networks -- whoopee!

Pick any random website and I'm sure given enough time you could find a similarly high number of 'usage' across corporate networks - at approximately 4 Million users traffic being analyzed, how difficult is it for random web browsing to come across an ad, errant search result click, etc. for any particular domain name?
Microsoft's Windows falls 6% on slow PC sales
"I told them I was ready to make a decision and didn't have time. That I had met someone else and had an offer on the table. That only got them more interested."

It probably goes without saying, but this tactic should be employed only if it's true. One should never gamble his long-term reputation on a short-term bluff.
If the cost of using the software is giving up clear title to your work, then it's a very high cost indeed. A deal that big needs to be advertised - boldly - up front, not buried in the ELUA, then popping up after you've committed time and effort to a work.

I can understand them saying that wanting to use the Apple store means giving them the same 30% cut that they charge for in-app subscriptions, and demanding that you adjust your prices on all other platforms to remain competitive. That's hardball, to be sure, but it respects the integrity of ownership.

This, on the other hand, is the same pattern that gets people hauled in on anti-trust charges. They're not a monopoly (yet), but I have a hard time seeing how this extraordinary claim of ownership in the work of others is anything less than the type of platform-abuse the anti-trust law specifically bans.
Cool. I figured that was possible, but I've seen a number of people get confused, so I wanted to make sure.

It's also easy to mis-read while skimming. ;)
Meanwhile, Ron Paul is battling the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA in the House.

http://www.youtube.com/watchfeature=player_embedded&v=tg...
And politicians always follow through on their promises
If you'd read the indictment you'd know this has nothing to do with the government monitoring the Internet.

Sadly you were too busy comparing the enforcement of long existing laws to creeping genocide to read the actual case.
> 1) It may be possible to do this with reflog. I don't know for sure because I haven't needed to do this yet. (I think the main problem is that by default reflog purges old history at some point)

I've done this when I was submitting patches to a large git based project (perl5). The trick is to to the rebase and then re-tag your old branch. That way the old work is there if you need to reference it. Since it has a real live tag, it will not get garbage collected.
Amazon's DynamoDB
Suppose I create a Javascript library. I own the copyright, yes? No one can use it without my permission, yes? Now suppose I say in the license "Anyone can use this for free, but you have to include a link to my website". There are tons of libraries and code snippets with this restriction.

What you, and others, are claiming is that this type of license has no legal effect. That's clearly wrong.

Let's not confuse the two issues of whether it's a good idea for Apple to do this (it isn't) and whether they're legally allowed to do it (they clearly are).
You are grossly misconstruing the nature of the emails whilst avoiding the other points entirely.

Read the indictment.
Did you read the indictment before attempting to "analyze the propaganda"? Unless you believe the FBI's evidence is manufactured, then some of your rebuttals are already known to be false. The owners of the site were uploading DVD rips and music albums to the site, not just users.
That link was giving me an error. This one works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg69QM1yXQQ
Don't rule out a cyber-false-flag designed to raise the profile of "hackers" and build public demand for SOPA and friends.
(Video) Mark Suster’s Advice To Emerging Entrepreneurs – “Start Young”
This article at the NZ herald is a good source:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obj...
I have most certainly used megaupload for "non piracy" purposes.
Mozilla’s Anti-SOPA Message Reached 40 Million People
Well, in this case it was. But the "come to me", well I could have easily went to them truthfully. But I knew it would make it seem more urgent and make me appear more independent.

But in the end a gamble is a gamble and much of business is made up of chances where you bet correctly. Of course there is a risk. On the other side you can be totally honest and that has it's own problems, right?

Telling someone that "I had met someone else and had an offer on the table" isn't really concrete enough to be called a liar. Deals fall through all the time for many reasons.
- Dont' forget Gmail's inability to sort email by anything other than the received date.
- You can't see -and therefore sort or search- by message size either, making cleaning up your account of large messages unnecessarily difficult to achieve.
- Oh, and you can't add labels to a message you are composing so it can be found quickly again later (tedious workaround is to save your message, go to the draft box, open it, apply the labels you want, then send it...)
I’m wondering how much this will alter http://experts-exchange.com 's rank. Although the questions are above the fold the vast majority of the content is well under the fold (for the purpose of hiding it, and getting you to pay.)

It seems like this change is directly aimed at eliminating that tactic...
Much of what you mention is for advanced users. What surprises me is that you can't sort your messages in Gmail.
> As for "unfair", it seems that you're the one who is being unfair. You are taking the position that they should provide you tools for free to do what you want in any way you want.

I don't read it that way at all. I think they want to be properly informed (fine print not counting as "properly"), because they intend to avoid any platform that does this entirely.
Are not all the people who choose to download content without payment already carrying out a form of deafacto boycott?
I "like" how the news is plastered all over the Internet that the "government" has taken down Megaupload. Like small children, fascinated by the sock puppet, forgetting the hand that actually moves it.

It's very clear now, we live in a plutocracy. Big corporations are above the law in every single way that matters.
The Gaming Community and the E3 boycott, ESA support PIPA/SOPA
You're saying that it's harder to tap once to make a bookmark, twice to bring up the table of contents and once to select a new page than it is to stick your finger in a book, use the rest of your fingers to flip until you find the table of contents, note the page number and then flip through again without moving the finger you're holding in the book until you find the page you were looking for? I don't know what to say except that is very much not my experience.
EU Politicians Send Letter To US Congress Regarding SOPA and PIPA
Megaupload taken down by the FBI
Android ROMs from XDA-developers are often distributed there.

E.g. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=957652
I can't find any source for this, but it seems more likely MM is an abbreviation of "mille mille."

MM in Roman numerals would just be 2000. 1 million would be written as M with a bar over it. [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals#Large_numbers
I took the 'every' portion to mean that every screen locker is affected on the vulnerable versions of Xorg server, not that every version of Xorg is affected.

Meaning that any version of any of Gnome/KDE/XFCE/etc's screen lockers will be defeated by this exploit if they are running in this version of Xorg.

As far as I can tell this is probably true, unless someone knows a locker that uses an alternative method of locking out all keyboard/mouse input?
No, changing that option doesn't really affect anything.
Ah yes, I misread your post. The trouble with that approach is that you have to enumerate the dangerous params, and if the actual page URL needs a private parameter to work, you can't get rid of it.
You might want to separate the right to copy and the obligation to give attribution. I know of no one who would support the abolition of mandatory attribution. But abolishing the restrictions on copying itself doesn't seem so unreasonable once I say "but you would still have to name the original author!".

To me, a reasonable system would be to authorize everything, provided you give proper attribution. You can copy, but name the author. You can parody or plagiarize, but you have to say so. That way, we keep a right to recognition, at nearly zero cost to society. I think this is both morally acceptable, and economically feasible.
It doesn't matter if it was a corporation, actions can be prevented from occurring via injunction even when the actor is an independent person. Example: gag orders in slander cases.
Black March
justice.gov is intermittent at best, not entirely "down".

Just timed out on the first try, and loaded on the second.
They are. The Justice Department apparently is trying to argue that they aren't following the DMCA.
I wish companies would let the current version continue to hum along until the new version w/ integration were done.
Here you can sign the online petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-esa-petition-and-bo...
Wordpress Introduces WP-centric Feed Reader
The value claimed for the software looks specious. The article states the the software cost $9.5 million to develop, which is not the same thing as its "value".
>> It went to extraordinary lengths to hide the identity of its operators.

> How many legitimate business don't have their owners wrapped in layers of corporations strewn around the globe? Nothing particularly unique or illegal here.

I might be slightly off-topic here, but I think this is a good opportunity to point out the danger of falling for a "Halo or Horns" fallacy.

Wikipedia doesn't compare the Halo effect with the Horns effect but it does have an article about the Halo effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

Simply put, if you believe one aspect of a person (or thing) to be bad, you're more likely to judge its other aspects in a negative light. Similarly, one good characteristic can make you more likely to judge the other aspects in a better light.

You can see examples of Halo vs Horns all the time if you look for it. It's very common when mob psychology comes into play, and often causes a change in the status quo.
At the same time, some positions are clearly less informed than others. And there seem to a fair number of mindless idiots on either side, serving no purpose aside from getting the mindless idiots on the other side so riled up that the screaming din makes intelligent debate exceedingly difficult in any remotely public setting.

The reality is that copyright law evolved over the course of three centuries during which the ability to duplicate and distribute was exceedingly capital-intensive, and therefor, practiced only on an industrial scale, by well capitalized industrialists. Not surprisingly, the law became industrial law, with all the trappings (like expensive corporate lawyers) that are par for the course at that level, but entirely out of reach for independent citizens.

Regardless of your position, we can all agree that if the power to duplicate and widely distribute HAD been available to independent citizens for the last 300 years, then the contours of copyright law (if there even were such a thing) would look VERY different today.

In truth, copyright law - as it exists - is fundamentally and irredeemably incompatible with a democratic society in which citizens have the power to duplicate and distribute at virtually no cost. Trying to make it work would be like trying to impose a law that only permits domestic imports via rail on the state of Hawaii.

So now that we have the internet, the law needs to change - a lot. And under a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, it's pure insanity to think that the people won't have a major say in deciding exactly how far property right should be allowed to go in the intellectual realm.

We already place very firm boundaries on their scope by way of Fair Use, limited terms, support for the Public Domain, and so on. And it's high time we placed a few more.
In the opinion of the RIAA/MPAA they are. I think that's not necessarily true because many of them are still buying media, just not all of the possible media that interests them.

They're probably still going to the movies, renting or buying DVDs (redbox, Amazon/iTunes, Netflix), listening to music on the radio, buying CDs, paying for cable, etc. A total boycott would be difficult - basically no music, TV, or movies unless they were independently distributed.

Personally, I already mostly do this. Pandora on my way to work is an exception.
The first question that came to my mind was: How do they know what is an ad and what is just a heavily graphical site that is exactly what the user was looking for?

If they're virtually rendering the page and looking at how much page area is covered by content from known ad networks (including Google Ads, I trust) then that's one thing. If they're looking for lots of nice, Google-friendly text and just discarding images, Flash, etc, then that's another thing entirely.
Ok I see the difference. I'll answer more to your point. When a person creates a work, they have a right to decide how that work is given to others. They can leave it in their closet. They can sell a couple copies to friends. They can give it away to everyone and say "if you like this, please give me a dollar!" They can say, "here is one copy for you but I want it back if you ever decide you don't want it any more." The creator of the work can place whatever restrictions they want on the work.

That is my basis for calling people wrong. People who pirate argue that they disagree with the creators choice for how a work should be distributed. Thus because they disagree with it, they will just take it anyway. That is why it is wrong.