skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
...it's about maintaining a distribution chokehold on mass produced popular entertainment.

I don't think "mass produced" is right, since that term tends to refer to literal assembly lines and to exclude things produced merely in volume via artisan processes.

Your broader point is a bit confusing because it seems like you're saying studios don't make movies, they only do X. Actually, I think you're saying that making movies is not the defensible core of Hollywood's power. I basically agree, since there are many producers of quality "content" outside of Hollywood or who could leave Hollywood in an instant.

Separately, I don't think they have locked down distribution (in the narrow sense) channels very tightly; there are many non-Hollywood distributors, and it's not that difficult to self-distribute online or in theaters.

Sales and marketing--reaching consumers--is difficult. Hollywood may have legitimate skill here and the studios benefit from strong network effects, quantity discounts, etc.

Also, Hollywood seems to have decent VCs, as strange as it is to say that. They're able to invest large amounts of money in risky projects and come out ahead more often than not, despite the small average return. This might be a big part of their defensible core.

So aside from learning how to market, any solution that seeks to displace the Hollywood system needs to do one or more of the following: find something which will eliminate the public's appetite for shared/"public" art experiences, reduce the capital requirements for mass media, or cultivate a set of sophisticated-enough investors to put $100M down on projects at the prototype stage.
Ah, I wasn't aware of that definition. Thanks, that's a nice mental model.
Why use GET instead of POST? Just POST a document with the parameters to filter, and the server creates a new resource with the search results and returns its URL to the client, which can then GET it.
Yes but it's expensive to mass produce the type of content that Hollywood does. You may need a cheaper form of entertainment, where the content can be crowdsourced, where the production is quick, cheap, etc.

Making custom crap for MMORPGs, short youtube clips, vblogs, podcasts, rage comics etc. are cheap and quick, but not entertaining enough.

http://www.xtranormal.com style tech isn't there yet.
I don't think movies have to dye for this RFS to work just that the business model that Hollywood uses isn't working. Putting a ton of money in a few blockbusters and trying to squeeze every last penny from DVD/BR sells isn't the way to go.
Distribution is a solved problem. It's open. Even theatrical is more open than it was 5 years ago. NATO wants competitors to Hollywood. In fact, NATO members are beginning to openly compete with Hollywood (see Open Road Films, a joint venture between AMC and Regal).

Production is a solved problem. The tools have been democratized.

Even financing is open these days. There's a huge range of film financing sources, and as sites like Kickstarter grow, crowdfunding will become more and more viable.

What is locked up is marketing. Hollywood is just better at it than their competitors. It's what the studios do that no one else seems to be able to do.

To some extent this is an issue of discovery. You can make a film, you can get it in front of people, but how do you get them to know it exists? To me, this is the most productive area to focus on.
The Design of Free-to-Play Games, Part 2
Movies aren't the latest evolution in entertainment, they're the latest evolution in storytelling, something which is as old as humanity itself. Hollwyood is the descendant of ancient man telling stories of adventure around a fire at night.

So the more accurate question - what is a better way to tell stories?
I came here to post something similar to this. With all the adoration over so-called "Reality TV", I'm surprised there isn't more of a movement towards true reality TV. JenniCam and other sites from days gone by come to mind. That sort of thing's entertainment value is questionable, but then so is watching the Kardashian sisters.
Ask HN: Hiring employees
In mapping out my startup, I seem to be having a mental block when it comes to hiring employees. For some reason, I am blowing the cost/difficulty (I think) of this step way out of proportion. This has led me to wonder both how many entrepreneurs here run their business solo, and how many have hiring down pat? If you have employees, then what was the process like getting them on board, staying legal, and keeping them happy?

Are you generally good with the employees (I'm always being called an asshole), or did you have to hire someone to handle that?
Quick-and-dirty dump all instances in all regions of AWS using the PHP AWS SDK
Not to rehash the entire Cloudant thread again, but if you honestly think Monsanto's way of doing things is just a "different political point of view" then you're disturbingly out of touch with reality.

And as I said in another comment:
"..it does sound hypocritical (not sure how many times I can use that word) when you're supposedly fighting for "civil liberties and the world economy" when you have a financial interest in a company benefiting from the likes of Monsanto."
That's changing the playing field. We're talking about money and time, why exclude multiplayer? Especially considering how much time gets spent on multiplayer games, how popular primarily multiplayer games are (Halo, CoD, WoW), and how much money gets spent on them.
Nice, sounds good. Funny, I always worry about the timing of sending emails. Got to get over that one, ha. I sent one email out, I guess I have two more to do.
We, well, I, have been using sshkeys for access. We actually had one of our accounts request sshkey access as well, which was freaking wonderful. Most are so technically backward that this can't be rolled out globally, though I'd love for it to be.
I had a short and painful stint there, buddy (its been over a year, though).

Hopefully, given all the press, things are a bit better now.
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) get Stopped By Lamar Smith
I just heard his piece on NPR's Marketplace. I thought he came across well, and the reporter put the tweet in the proper context.
I too like landscape. But we designed our app in portrait mode because it was easier, both technologically and because it fits with people's general perceptions of magazines. We're hoping to make it both in the future, but it's a lot harder than it looks.
Yes but invariably they were not rich. In fact too many died in poverty. The commercial, popular art era started when copies became available to the market, and it ends when copies become zero cost.

Hollywood's obsession with mega-productions tends to be an attempt to force-feed mediocre movies rather than advancing the arts anymore

BTW, Coppola suggests 3 rules

1) Write and direct original screenplays,

2) Make them with the most modern technology available, and

3) Self-finance them

Technology has made it trivial for almost everyone to have (2) and (3). Now technology should create avenues for artists to receive a fair compensation for their work, but they should know that it will be nothing like the exorbitant commissions of the past.
Key thing to note is that Picnik functionality is moving to Google+.
You know what's available in all regions? BitTorrent.

And then Hollywood complains about people in unusual regions torrenting things.
Guest post: Vostu’s insights on retention patterns in social vs. casual games
But there is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3474342

Tech support, especially tier 1 support, are there to follow procedures. No matter how fouled up those procedures are.

If the procedures need changing, you find the tier-1 support's management level. Going to the CTO/CEO if you must.
Yeah, too many ads above the fold sucks: https://img.skitch.com/20120121-rwyw8bm7mhu86ptrjuq1mpfqg.jp...
What I wonder is, what role does talent play in this transition? I am a hacker by trade but am always thinking about how to "break in" as an actor and be in movies and on television. A myriad of other challenges (including finding the time to compete with a large talent pool) aside, one thing that I realize again and again is that participating in traditional media means supporting and receiving a paycheck from precisely the companies that fund bills like SOPA and think of their customers as "eyeballs with wallets".

With the costs of production and distribution ever falling, more and more content is being created outside the traditional media ecosystem. How would I position myself (as an actor or set designer, or sound mixer or etc) to take advantage of the coming transition?

Live theater comes to mind as something that might be inline with PG's last paragraph, which suggests more recreational time be spent not looking at screens but engaging with other people.
I think you may be attributing motive or position where none really exists.

My point was simply that the chief proponent of this presumes that we already agree on what the problem is and that we should therefore focus on finding the solution. I think he's either deluded or disingenuous (perhaps misled or naive? Possible, but doubtful).

My personal belief is that any SOPA-like legislation in advance of copyright and patent reform attempts to solve the wrong problems.
>> There will be several answers, [...], through new media (e.g. games) that look a lot like shows but are more interactive

Some genres will not be replaced soon by games. The archtypes of How I Met your Mother are the same as in Friends, and they serve to appease our loneliness and self worth. The 'entertainment' TV Shows and Movies are our fantasies coming real in front of our eyes. While action movies are clearly replaced, fantasies on the Social level are a tougher problem we are a long way from solving.
Rep. Smith postpones SOPA work in response to criticism
Yes, I agree. I was just commenting on there being other ways for artists to make a living, much like Coppola does not rely on his film income.
Wow! Amazing! So what's the real alternative to online image editing for the mass? Of course there are Pixlr, Sumopaint, Aviary, Photoshop Express, but each targets a somewhat different audience than Picnik. I know the fact that Picnik is Flash-based is inconsistent with Google's strategy, and that with Flash going nowhere, Picnik is unlikely to help Google anywhere. But still... there are tons of moms and pops who use Picnik.

Question: Is there room for a new Picnik?

Edit: hmm, the Google+ version of Picnik (scaled down) is still Flash-based. So this is most likely part of the "Drive Traffic to Google+ At All Cost!" strategy.
O(M^(2N)) would get absolutely ludicrous pretty damn quick.
I do not argue against the fact that multiplayer games have a longer potential playtime, however not all games have multiplayer so you just can't say that a $50 or $60 game will definitely have 100+ hours of entertainment value.
Also consider the thing that got movies into the forefront in the first place was excellent use of the medium. The movies of old, due to lack of technological advancements (or even in some cases due to them) were masterfully crafted in the context of the medium. There have been relatively few movies since that era that have utilized dialog so intimately and intelligently as those that were made in the era where all you really had were cameras and audio. I would tend to think that this would translate into where we are currently. The next initiative that can masterfully take advantage of the obvious things at their disposal and package them up into a tight, sound package will be the ones that excel at the craft - and the ones that can get steer us into a new entertainment era.

That being said the only thing I can really think that is equivalent to the old era of movies is mobile or streaming. Both of these have potential to disrupt, but both are trying to force old idioms into new technologies. Youtube at least is trying some new things, regardless of how well that works out.
Pardon, but do you really think the government is taking the MPAA seriously because of its claims and not its members wallets and Washington friendships?
"I don’t get how this is hard to understand."

Because the 'other side' doesn't understand why you think they have to make it easy for you to buy Harry Potter 7.1 and if they don't, why you think you get to circumvent their processes.

You wanted to give them money on your terms. They want you to give them money on their terms. I think that sums it up.
That's a valid perspective, and one that can help you become a world-class specialist. Entrepreneurship, however, very much requires you to be a generalist. There are just too many areas to consider: fundraising, hacking, product design, user acquisition, recruiting, leading a team, product management, marketing, PR, accounting... Zero entrepreneurs are well trained in every one of these areas before doing a startup. Entrepreneurship is about trying to learn how to do something new, unfamiliar, and unpleasant every day. This requires focusing on your weaknesses, even in areas you aren't inherently passionate about.

You certainly don't have to be a generalist to be successful - world-class specialists add much more value to the world than the median entrepreneur. But you do have to be a generalist to be a successful entrepreneur, and it's in that context of entrepreneurship that you should evaluate Jason's post and PG's essay on resourcefulness.
If it's funded by ad revenue, there will be no reason to deny the third world.

In a sale model, dropping third world prices to locally affordable carries a risk of those copies being brought to the first world and resold. Viewers would buy the imports because they were cheaper.

In an ad model, the viewers don't pay. Instead watching an import would mean watching ads which were placed more cheaply, but are probably also less artistic and less targeted. No real incentive.
I don't think it's about sex, the answer is a lot less Freudian and a lot more obvious: it's about the joy of being able to make an imprint on another human being's mind & soul. It's as old as humanity itself is.
Apparently not. :) Almost all countries have extensive rules limiting your ability to charge money for your labour, including but not limited to:
* Minimum wage laws
* Professional licensing laws
* Legal bans on prostitution
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fuzzy%20wuzzy

Strictly an English thing.
Wow, if you look at the blog, it's immediately obvious that Picnik was really loved by a devoted fan base. I'm not endorsing the Picnik shutdown decision (I think it sucks), but you have to ask yourself, "If my service closed today, would there be this level of outcry?" If so, you're doing something really special.

Aviary recently pivoted to become an embedded photo editing service for web + phone apps. I wonder if this is an opportunity for them.
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From 1980 to today the population has increased by roughly 36% while college enrollment increased by roughly 68%. More people feel they need to go to college to get a job, so when they say, "in 1961, full-time students spent about 40 hours each week in class and studying. By 2003, they were investing about 27 hours a week." That shouldn't indicate as implied by the article that we are becoming lazier, merely there is a larger percentage of the population in the mix.

1) http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=98

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Stat...
I think you are confusing craftmanship with art here.

It's the craftmanship that takes years.

Art can take anything from 10 seconds to 10 years.
Adventures in Learning: Books to Read in 2012
Grave Maker demonstrates popular Game Maker product’s versatility
The concept that spawned this article was achievements in Visual Studio 2010. Xcode (spelling!), Eclipse, and other IDEs don't have these achievements.
The point of this article has less to do with drinking than people realize. It has to do with his establishments. They promote binge drinking, and the CDC discourages binge drinking, so he has to find a way to reconcile this to his very white, very educated patrons who also read the Atlantic.
>a project like this is much more of a lifestyle business than a venture business

If you can gain enough market share there is plenty of money to be made in advertising and affiliation, also consider if you had a successful platform you could offer space for independent film. I am reminded of AtomFilms from a few years ago (I think it has since degraded in quality). I spent many an hour watching independent shorts and animation that couldn't be found elsewhere. There is now mubi.com which seems to do well, I pay for content there, but for sure - there is space for a main-stream non-hollywood media delivery network.
Inside Tetris Battle, Facebook’s top multiplayer arcade game
I just noticed the Cryptography course, which was slated to start on the 23rd has been pushed back as well.

http://www.crypto-class.org/

Edit: Coincidentally, just after writing the above, I received the same sort of email for the Cryptography course...
You are conflating privacy with censorship and surveillance here. That is a bit dishonest. To put this in perspective, remember in the book "1984" that the dystopia included both a heavily controlled media, and complete surveillance and lack of privacy. It's not hypocrisy to see both of those things as bad.

furthermore, I think it's a bit silly to claim that in order to win the argument, the tech industry must prove that its many millions of jobs are more important than the entertainment industry's 376K. That 376K may be important, but is it THAT important?
HN is techy and entrepreneurial so most of the ideas presented so far suggest new technologies and business models.

Does this community know of the French New Wave -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_new_wave?

It influenced Hollywood as much as any new technology and business model since WWII. IT created a new ways of looking at movies, created the role of director as author, decreased studios' power, and put creation in the hands of new people. Its influence continues today, though the studios regained their power after a generation. The movement was influenced by new technologies, so I don't mean to imply they are independent.

I hope people think about other ways of thinking about change than just technology and business plans.
It's possible. I did try to make it clear that the Social Graph API isn't the same as OpenSocial. But since OpenSocial is all about an open API for sharing social data....

Google gave me a statement saying they are separate things, which I added, but it still wasn't clear how this may or may not be impacting OpenSocial. So, I asked again.

It's been two hours now, so if it was a crystal clear answer, I'd have expected to heard. My guess is that they are more interrelated, but as I said, hope to get more clarification.
Many artists steer clean of Amazon because it is trying to democratize art through crowdsourced development. Can you imagine what would have happened to Blade Runner if Ridley Scott had even less control on the final cut?
Internet warriors don't appreciate how hypocritical it seems to champion full disk encryption and ironclad privacy while simultaneously demonising DRM or anything similar. It's like saying 'all data should be locked down at all times unless I want to use it, in ehich case it should be free.'

It's hardly hypocritical to think that encryption and privacy should be in the control of the owner of a device, not the device's manufacturer or a third-party content producer.
Hollywood needs to shut up and evolve just like everybody else.
Who said anything about Freud? In any case, you need to ask yourself why it feels good to make an imprint on another human being's mind and soul. There is a reason. It's not random or unexplainable.
and every few years there is a new "biggest grossing film of all time."

That, at least, can be accounted for by inflation: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Titanic (1997) is the most recent in the top ten (at #6). Avatar is the most recent at #14, and one of only two movies from the 2000s in the top 30. Movie revenue is dropping. Roger Ebert has a rundown of why 2011 was such a terrible year:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20...

As for TV- no, it isn't in such a decline. But more and more people are watching online, and the existing TV networks don't have the stranglehold on content that they do on cable/etc. A lot of people watch stuff on YouTube, Netflix is making original content... there is space to disrupt TV watching yet.
Hey, cool! The source code for my Chrome extension is also on GitHub:

https://github.com/atdt/chrome-force-media-type/blob/master/...

The Makefile might be interesting to you. It's very simple, but it automates an annoying part of the development cycle.
I find this opinion more honest and convincing than the "it's not stealing if you both get to keep a copy" argument. The latter fails to account for the time, money, effort, inspiration, talent required to create the original work that is subsequently copied millions of times. When the issue of how are artists supposed to make a living in an copyright-less, free-filesharing world is brought up, proponents come up with limited band-aids (live concerts, donations, SaaS, etc).

At least Coppola doesn't beat around the bush: filesharing may mean that professional artists may have the fate of buggy whip makers. Regardless of one's stance on this prospect, this is where the debate should focus, not on the semantics of stealing or new business model cop-outs.

Interesting thought experiment: how would the world look like if all art was created by hobbyists? (honest question)
If you adjust for how ticket prices have grown over the years, the highest-grossing films of all time are:

1. Gone with the Wind

2. Star Wars

3. The Sound of Music

4. E.T.

5. The Ten Commandments

So in those terms, we haven't actually had a new highest-grossing film of all time for seven decades. The nominal biggest movie ever, Avatar, really only comes in 14th.

Source: http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
Why does agreeing with someone get me down votes? I would have imagined no change. But to feel that strongly that ppl take the trouble to click down - why is that?
> Yes. The latter motivation is not at all timely. I don't see any reason for Google to be more concerned about it than they have been for the last five years.

So you're under the assumption that Google implemented every quality-related change to the core ranking algorithms - every change they ever wanted - 5 years ago, and now they just sit around and react to politics.

Gotcha.