skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Tell HN: Thinking about making a K-12 app now? Know how education pricing works.
I figure a lot of hackers out there have noticed Apple's push behind the iPad into the education market today. As an educator, I just want to make sure that those of you who are looking to make an app for the classroom, especially in the K-12 market, are aware of how schools deal with buying iOS apps.

First, and most importantly, unlike apps for private use, schools pay per device for your application. This is new for the 2011-2012 school year, so schools are feeling a lot of sticker shock. This is going to drastically affect your price point.

Second, schools have to pre-pay for their volume purchase, in vouchers starting at $100. Expect school systems to set a budget for apps at the beginning of the year, use one PO to buy the vouchers, and then not buy more except in very extenuating circumstances. (Your app will not be an outstanding circumstance. One by Apple or Pearson might be.) School budgets are very involiatle and only refresh once a year; if a school cannot afford your app in October, they cannot afford to buy it until the next September.

Third, schools do not have a way to handle in-app purchases (yet?).

Finally, you can choose to offer schools a 50% discount on purchases of 20+ copies of your app(and only a 50% discount, no more, no less).

Expect this to have a strongly downward price pressure on your app. One school I know only looks for free apps, and finds Apple's Volume Plan too cumbersome to use. My wife's school, K-8 has an app budget of somewhere just south of $1000. Their policy was: each grade level must choose, as a team, one application that costs $1.99 per unit or less. Plus free apps. That's it for the year.

In short, if you're looking to hit the classroom, you're probably going to need to stand out in both polish and price. Polish to get noticed above the others, price to get in under budget.

Links to check out:

Apple's FAQ: http://www.apple.com/education/volume-purchase-program/faq.html

Blog post on what it looks like from the educator's point of view: http://learninginhand.com/blog/app-store-volume-purchase-program-explained.html
ZTE reveals $20 to $30 cost of Windows Phone license
Maybe it's more helpful for product development teams in mid-size or larger firms... In the realm of bootstrappers & hustlers, most of the advice is SOP, just re-branded.
For high schools, the main cost in production is lobbying the state standards board. For colleges, buying decisions are made by people (professors) who don't have to actually spend the money. There's no advantage to undercutting someone on price.
I agree, we will get around to implementing more functionality for cookie-only users.
With such a long list of investors (http://www.crunchbase.com/company/readfu) it must have been quite a large sum of money to acquire Summify. So IMHO not just a talent acquisition.
Sell your iBook Author's Work through Apple or make it free
Civil disobedience, the most puissant form of protest, is breaking a law you believe to be unjust, and suffering the consequences if necessary.

If you break a law you believe to be unjust and expect to suffer no consequences, that's silly, but not immoral.

If you break a law you believe is just, then you're kinda evil.
Has anyone asked on Quora, why Quora does this?
can he be extradited to canada to avoid this sentence?
It's hard to overstate how important I think this is. There are a few reasons.

First, this brings a focused, clear path for educational content on the iPad. By opening the Books marketplace to more rich multimedia applications, Apple has made it possible for many of the dreams of interactive learning advocates to go mainstream. Imagine learning math by interacting with functions directly or doing symbolic manipulation directly. Or learning to code by actually doing it alongside a narrative. It's hard to imagine an area of study that would not benefit from creative use of technology in teaching it. (No, just adding videos and audio is not enough.)

Second, it opens the door to getting iPads in every classroom. By making it so there is a clear incentive for schools to buy iPads for all their students (cheaper, more useful textbooks) you get an iPad in the hands of every child. It goes without saying this is a big deal.

Finally, it opens the door for real competition for textbooks. By capping the price of textbooks at $15.00, students can easily decide to have several different treatments of the same topic on their iPad. If you manage to create content that is more clear, enjoyable, or even correct, parents and students will be one tap away from getting access to it, cheaply, if their officially-sanctioned book is not doing the job. This turns traditional textbook publishing on its head, because it empowers parents to overturn the textbook choices their school makes from the bottom up. If the entire math class has switched over to using an alternative textbook to learn a topic (just through word of mouth), this might tip the scales so the best content ends up being adopted by schools. Creative, upcoming authors will find that usurping the mainstream textbooks is now possible. I can imagine maverick publishers basically taking the same table of contents from a mainstream textbook and modernizing the treatment of the topic, so students have an easy way to move forward in their class at the same pace but with a much better learning tool.

And this is just what is on the top of my head, before forward thinking content creators have gotten their hands on this new platform.
The Big Banks
"You can't make one tablet type mandatory to read a textbook."

As opposed to making one physical textbook mandatory to read a textbook?
Most CCDs extract color information using a Bayer Filter[1] over them. Each square is a pixel in the megapixel count (a 1 megapixel sensor would have 250k red, 250k blue and 500k green photo sites). Algorithms are used to get RGB values for each pixel in that setup (luminance is extracted from the green sites). However, all the algorithms for the Bayer filter have a tendency to generate Moiré patterns[2]. To combat that, most sensors have anti-alias filters in front of them. This reduces the size of detail that can resolved by a sensor, but it also prevents some of the ugly consequences of the Bayer filter.

Some companies have experimented with other sensors or other patterns. The new Fuji X-PRO1 is using a non-Bayer filter, which should be interesting if it works well (it also does not have an anti-alias filter). There are also Foveon sensors, which use the selective permeability of silicon to different kinds of light instead of a pattern of photo sites.[3]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3%A9_pattern
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foveon_X3_sensor
You are aware that the definition of piracy and pirating has been changed since the 1600's I hope?

Here's a link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy
I think that's only part of the argument. The other part is that, regardless of what's right or wrong, the OP thinks that using the software/service perpetuates it, and choosing not to pay for it isn't enough.
Do you think someone here really considers vendor lock in a positive thing?
Anytime someone threatens to sue you, things change. You need to be very careful with how you talk to this "friend" going forward. Save all old emails and correspondence, and avoid talking to them until you really understand the details of the contract that you agreed to 6 months ago.

You need your own lawyer. Find a good one (ask around other freelancers in your area) and go over the contract with them and explain the situation. The first meeting with a lawyer should be free.
After reading that ticket, I think the solution is going to have to involve more than one keyword. It's curious to see that the objection is to the hideous mass of js that "defer" compiles down into. I kind of thought that was the point of CoffeeScript.
Brainwave controllers: Put your thinking cap on
Some of his items are ideal, but misguided.

For example, number 2, "it only takes one Senator to filibuster" is very inaccurate. It takes 41 Senators to filibuster, as a vote for cloture takes a 60-vote majority on the floor. And most bills never make it to the floor without a guarantee that it can overcome filibuster threat.

Regarding number 10, it's likely that a constitutional amendment would be necessary to reverse Citizens United. As much as money in politics sucks, shareholders are people, and "corporate personhood" is an extension of those people, with certain protections and responsibilities. Furthermore, there is already legislation to overturn Citizen's United in the Senate. Writing an entirely new proposal may not make sense.

Lastly, number 8, (and to a lesser degree, all of these), depends heavily on which committee assignments he receives. Assuming he wins a seat in the Senate, one does not just join the Senate Committee on Finance and start introducing bills. Seniority can take decades. Again, it's not ideal, but this is the way the system operates, for better or worse.
He's talking about anti-aliasing filters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing_filter), which essentially blur the image enough to mask moire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moire).

Because this is the internet, I feel obliged to point out the inaccuracies of some of his other statements:

>>Film was and is to some degree still capable of more resolution, more dynamic range, better color fidelity and less prone to weird errors in the way that a Bayer sensor does<<

First of all, film and digital sensors of comparable sizes have nowhere near the same amount of resolution, dynamic range, or color fidelity. Digital sensors simply murder film in every category. (You can make the argument that B&W film still has some an edge in terms of dynamic range, but considering you're matching it against RGB sensors, I'm not sure that's fair.) Even 8x10 film is now out-resolved by medium format backs.

In terms of color fidelity, there is no film emulsion that will get you more accurate results than properly color-managed digital equipment. Which is exactly why museums and people who care about accurate color reproduction use digital capture.

Finally, the anti-aliasing filters aren't exactly a big deal. Yes, they degrade image quality. Yet, even with them on most consumer sensors, those sensors still massively out-resolve, and produce sharper images, than comparable film. Also note that most medium format backs don't have AA filters.

So, while somebody might like using film (or may need to in certain circumstances) the arguments presented aren't exactly the best justifications for doing so.
A tweet was sent to Quora engineering - https://twitter.com/#!/Sengupta/status/160044848697704448. Could not find any question on Quora though.
I agree with you.But to build something I need the the skill and that is why I have started learning programming. I would love to hear about your ideas.
THe email is on the way.
Apple unveils iBooks Author, a Mac app for easy interactive e-book authoring
Pretty sure the doctor would refer him to a specialist. In this case, a lawyer.
AggregateOrientedDatabase
Accessing physical textbook can't be mandatory, since you can get it in a number of ways (buy it, go to the library, borrow from your friend etc.).

DRM locked in ebook is much worse. You are forced to get iTunes/Apple device to access it.
Ctrl-Alt-Multiply is a known key shortcut. Someone just has to know it exists and think "I wonder what happens if I use this while the screen is locked". You can get to that internal question many different ways, but its worth mentioning on top of that, security minded have trained their brains to be good at serendipitously coming up with "what happens if I do X and X" questions.
He does not appear to intend to enter either the Republican or Democratic primary. While his independence is commendable, this makes his path to victory much more difficult for reasons of practical politics. Independent candidates lack a sizable, established base of voters.

Indie candidates can win, but the only two indie candidates in the Senate right now only faced one viable major party opponent. Sanders and Lieberman both drew heavily from one of the major party's base making them de facto major party candidates and independents in name only. The last indie Governor to win was famous before running for office. Ventura's fame and his choice of Paul Wellstone's legendary ad consultant enabled him to draw from both parties' bases.

Duverger's Law makes establishing a sustainable third major party difficult if not impossible.

His realistic chances right now do not look good but it is still early. All bets are off if he catches fire on the Internet and one of the major party candidates turns out to be a dud. NM has a small population making it less expensive to get the word out.

I would advise him to do some research (polling, talk with grassroots leaders, etc.) and enter one of the two primaries. There is another Senate election in 2014. Even if he doesn't make it this time, he will establish a personal base by competing in the primary that can help him get off to a faster start in 2014.

Running as a partisan doesn't mean you must give up your principles. Parties adapt and change over time based on the views of the members and candidates. Case in point, the Democratic Party in CT is much more progressive than it was even 10 years ago and part of the reason for that is candidates, who more often than not lost elections, spoke out like Ham is doing and attracted more progressives to the party. Eventually progressive Democrats started winning, brushing off the Republican wave of 2010, and we now have what I view is one of the most progressive group of political leaders in the country.
I don't know if publishing companies (or even book sellers, like Borders) have attempted this in the past, but this article (and the article it links to) lays out a pretty fair case for predatory pricing (sometimes referred to as "dumping") which is when a business attempts to root out competitors by selling below cost and then (hypothetically), when its competitors are out of the market, raises the price above competitive levels. This is generally illegal under the Sherman Act (antitrust law) in the United States (and likely in other countries, too), although, unfortunately, it is quite difficult to succeed on these sorts of claims in the US, most notably because, while a company is engaging in predatory pricing, consumers are better off since they are paying less (and a fair number of economists don’t believe that predatory pricing is rational or even possible to work for various reasons).

Still, there are remedies for companies that engage in this behavior--maybe they'll come too late to save small publishers in this case, but they exist.
You are assuming that textbooks are gifts to the children and are never returned and re-used.
Further, all the books had physical DRM. The glue they were bound with and the cardboard the covers was made out of was designed to disintegrate over the course of a semester, even with good care. I kept my books on a shelf next to my desk in my dorm and never took them to class, and still couldn't sell them at the end of the semester because they'd fallen apart.

That is not DRM. That is shoddy craftsmanship, poor quality, etc. But it is not DRM. DRM specifically limits your rights - Digital Rights Management - with regard to the content.

Plus by definition if you create software which supports new features you have lock-in.

Not necessarily, if it is an open standard - and if it is an open ePub 3 standard, then that is great. However, if it is DRM inhibited, then it is enforced lock-in. However, interoperability is key, so it needs to be both an open platform, and DRM-free. And it would be disingenuous to argue that the book format is an open standard, if it has non-open DRM locking it down. The DRM becomes part of the book, and cannot be separated from the standard, at that point.

I am not arguing that the college textbook industry does not need reform, or is not prohibitively expensive. It does, and it is. I am arguing against DRM in textbooks, and device lock-in.
Did anyone else notice that Yahoo did not post a single story on its front page about the blackout yesterday. I had to dig down to the News page to see a story about it. No wonder they are spiraling down...
I really don't think a chart/video next to some explanatory text would tax an iPad screen. News websites often use a similar layout and work fine.
I've did a bit of googling about this and ran across something that might work (but I haven't tried it), adjust the AllowClosedownGrabs option in your xorg.conf file.
>there isn't a tablet market, there is only an ipad market.

There is certainly a laptop market. It would make sense to make the books compatible with the devices students already have.
Want to know why SOPA will succeed? Ask Paula Deen
Using An IFrame To Override document.write() Inside A DOM Sandbox
> You are forced to get iTunes/Apple device to access it.

Or go to the library and check one out (some schools in my area are already allowing this with laptops and iPads), or borrow your friend's.
Amazingly you've all missed the big problem with electronic books. One I worry about from time to time.

There's a reasonable chance our civilisation will collapse in the near future (within 100 years). (Not going to go into detail of why - think climate change, viruses, meteors... take your pick)

When it does, there'll still be people around. And if it is a severe collapse, there won't be the infrastructure to recharge, install new books, manufacture or maintain e-readers.

This is a pain, as books will be really useful then. e.g. About farming, traditional methods of manufacture etc.
Abstract Algebra: Theory and Applications (A free & open source book)
You can have your cake and eat it too (if its information)
Ask HN: Book Recommendation for Ajax/Rails?
I've been coding in Ruby on Rails and PHP for a while, and have a very light level of Javascript knowledge.
I'd like to learn more about Ajax in general, as well as Javascript Integration with Rails, and I'm looking for some good books.
I found this (Ajax on Rails) http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596527440.do but I believe that Javascript integration changed considerable with Rails 3 and I'm concerned that this book might be confusing.
I'm also looking at Ajax the Definitive Guide http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596528386.do but again I'm concerned with the age of the book (2008).

So I'm looking for suggestions. I'd like books similar to these- or do you think that either of these books are an acceptable place to start learning?
100 Best Companies to Work For 2012
SOPA Explodes on Twitter, Generates 2.4 Million Tweets
No, but I think some may be indifferent to it.
This is a great write up. We have a very similar stack for a separate team based project we're working on. The only difference is the front end stack, and we have tornado sitting back on the backend to serve http requests when needed. What's the benefit of Mustache/Backbone over just writing your own client side templating, in a practical sense? Last time I used a KVO framework, there was a performance penalty that I did not like. Does Backbone have any performance issues? Or even mustache? What's the trade off of having these frameworks versus generating custom tempting code?
This is wrong in so many ways, I hardly know where to start.

The evil done by the U.S. government does not excuse evil in other places.

Regarding Guanatanamo: the way in which the U.S. deals with un-uniformed combatants has been ferociously litigated from within the U.S. by civil rights organizations. Discussion of the matter occurs in public, without fear of reprisal. The detention policies have been condemned in public by high-ranking members of the U.S. government and military. Although we have detained men who are clearly and completely innocent, no detainee has been sentenced to death. Some who have been released have subsequently returned to the battlefield to fight against us once again.

Even if what you say about guantanamo were entirely true, in no way would it excuse the actions of the theocratic regime in Iran which is happy to overtly and unaccountably murder its own citizens for the purpose of propaganda.

> "Should we all now boycott the US?"

There are many reasons to boycott the US. I'm sure you've noticed the froth over SOPA/PIPA recently, for example. Again, the evil present in our government doesn't excuse evil in other places.

> "The US is not such a bad country"

Tell your friends whatever you want; if your reasoning involves excusing the actions of the Iranian government, your advice is worth exactly nothing.
I'm curious, have others written posts like this on their company blog, extolling the virtues of (and linking to) your competitors?
LinkedIn: 5 changes to make to your profile today - CBS News
Ask PG: Bug in HN Ranking
It seems there us a bug in HN Ranking: There are posts with less points (in a greater amount of time) that are ranked higher:

http://i.minus.com/ibfxthNpnVPHHc.png
20$ a month is not cheap for SSL
Facebook Announces Tight Integration of 60 Apps to Timeline, More on the Way
you, and I, and pretty much everyone we know, are making ends meet.

trust me on this one. it may seems far fetched that in all your friends circle, or mine, we don't know any rich person. but it is so.

We are all Class C, by the original definition that classify modern social classes by their aspirations and goals. not that non-sense sensus stuff. The successful guys in this forum, that made millions with their hard work, are class B. we have not even indirect connection to class A.

tl;dr do not base society on your personal knowledge.
kill the patenting system and everything comes back to normal...
Mobile is a must-have for agencies in 2012
7 Creative Ways Your Brand Can Use Pinterest - Search Engine Watch (#SEW)
I am wondering where and how you terminate the HTTPS connections for websockets. Can you share some details on that?
Models And Professional Photographers
Civil Disobedience doesn't involve you getting free stuff. Please don't equate piracy to civil disobedience, it cheapens the meaning of the word.
That's right.

You don't normally need to write each vector function both ways. If you can statically know the length (which you normally do in practice, at least in my experience) then you can write down a more precise type. filter serves as an example of what you might do when you need to compute an index dynamically.
Chomping has 20x the Google results. It may be wrong, but it's the common usage these days.
How To Transform Into A Social Enterprise
Want to Become Known as an Industry Expert? 3 Tips to Get You Started
Military's New Plan to Weed Out Counterfeits: Plant DNA
Hollywood vs. Obama
Richard Branson's Strategies for Success
I agree with everything you said but worry about the market dynamics of capping the price at $15. As far as I've seen, Apple has never done this before (putting a price floor of $0.99 for paid apps is quite different).

Will this result in each "chapter" being $15 eventually? Will this favor the rich student over the poor one in terms of coverage (underfunded school wants basic book that covers entire course, but marketplace offers much better books that are more surgical in coverage - rich kid gets better content while poor kid does not).
This is starting to happen all over. Tech startup accelerators in places like Vancouver are in danger of becoming a farm system, a "minor league" of tech entrepreneurialism.

A team that attracts attention will impress the scouts (either acquirers or investors) who will sign them up to play for the "big leagues" in the Bay Area.

This isn't malicious, but so many accelerators are trying to build a community, which is really hard to do when so many potential leaders of that community decide to 301.
Industry Analysis Is Dead. What's Next?
Apple iBooks Author App Lets You Make Your Own Books, for Free