skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
G+ is much more engaging for me than either facebook or twitter.

This article feels like it's shilling for facebook.

"It turns out Google+ is a virtual ghost town compared with the site of rival Facebook Inc., which is preparing for a massive initial public offering.'
I think the argument that Torvalds was making here is that that's exactly what C++ is. Messy and unnecessary. You can write C++, but if you do so without the mess, you're so close to C that there's no point in using C++.

I, on the other hand, would argue that C's lack of object-orientation somehow dooms one to implement it. OOP is _not_ the pinacle of software development. Further, I would argue that "structs full of function pointers" neither, necessarily, represents a desire for object-orientation nor is it messy.
This saddens me as C++ is growing into such a beautiful language. C++11 is a major step forward, and I don't really buy in to complaints that are not about the current standard.

Bad programming is language agnostic. Disliking a language generally implies that you don't know enough about it to really get it.
Why does the guy Linus is replying to think C's portability is BS? Anything besides the fact that any libraries used in your "portable" program must also be portable?
People I Don’t Want to Work With
If I want to post publicly to my "followers" (people I don't know) I use Twitter, [...] I still don't understand what Google was thinking with +

How about publicly post long form content to your followers? Because G+ excels in that, and both Facebook and Twitter fail at it. There's a network effect problem, for sure, but it does have a purpose in the situation you outline.
I don't really understand what you're saying, but the odds are that they won't have any takers for the $60k and $40k prizes based on previous event history. And I doubt people will bother to break flash and the plugin sandbox over 50 separate times.
Even if there were no workers comp laws, there would still be workers comp. Why? Because employees demand it and will work for a lower nominal wage in order to get it. Even 17th century pirates had workers comp.
There's a large faction in AAA games that thinks C++ is a stupid idea. It's debatable who's right in that debate, but good points are being raised.

The problem is not so much that C++ is a worse language than C - it's that it makes it insanely easy to shoot yourself in the foot in hideously complex ways that take forever to unravel. See e.g. two phase name lookup - http://blog.llvm.org/2009/12/dreaded-two-phase-name-lookup.h...

There are plenty of other places where the design constraints of C++ have forced it into a dark corner on the edge of the realm of madness. It _does_ buy you additional abstraction, but there is a price you pay for that.

Personally, I'm not happy with either camp. C shows its age - it's from the 70s - and C++ is just out of control. So I'll continue to use both unless there's a decent replacement. (I'm squinting at Go, Rust, and BitC - and none of them are quite what I'd like to see)
Instead, Java got FootShootingFactoryProxyAdapterBridges :)
The problem with C++ is, it is not language that has been built from scratch. It is just a layer upon layer upon layer upon C written by various people for various usecases. So there is no way to "properly manage" a C++ project. Unless it is maintained by one single person (or few like minded people)
1.They aren't really cash, they are cash equivalent. And it is interesting for other company, Newspaper only signal out what is really "cash" and leave those "cash equivalent" like bonds as separate thing.

2. Apple likes to have some money in the bank, so they dont need to borrow on anything.

3. Over 60% of its co called cash are overseas. Which means they cant really do anything with it.

4. The other 40%, are used for operational cost, paying big in front for favorable price, R&D, and even acquiring companies.

5. Apple has LOTS of High Profile Stores. Those Stores are long terms liabilities, and they do cost a bit operate. In the case of another huge economy downturn, those cash are what makes them stay afloat.

I was actually wondering what happens if Apple do have 100B to buy into bonds or what ever, that is 2B a year of interest coming from it.
Designing dropdowns in Bootstrap
New W3C Group for Mobile Web - Mobile W3C Community Group
> the problem is simple: no one wants to maintain multiple social accounts.

I'm a FB refugee and G+ is the first social network I don't have to maintain. It's just there. I use other G products anyway so I don't think about using or not using it, if having the account is really worth it. And circles are so damn easy I don't care about adding even whole public circles I wouldn't normally friend/follow on any other network - they are there, I don't share with them, I can read them once per month and their existence doesn't bother me, if I realize I don't read them, I can drop a whole circle 4000 people at once with two clicks. And it's usability is disobliging, especially comparing to FB.
The word you are looking for is "technician".
I was actually intimately involved in that particular case and one of the named parties in Diebold's C&D.

Support the EFF. They got the proceeds from our settlement.
Point your mobile website to this url for Mobile Browser Test
It tests for Mobile Website and would be released to the open source community soon. Developed by Facebook Engineers: https://developers.facebook.com/html5/blog/post/2012/02/27/announcing-ringmark--a-mobile-browser-test-suite/
Big Phone, Big Hassle - Wired Reviews the Galaxy Note
I bet the DHS is working on this right now - that is if they do not already have such a system.
Perhaps OT: I've tried to like OCaml 2 or 3 times so far and have not succeeded. I've loved Haskell (until I hit the wall), enjoy Python, enjoyed Ruby, am very happy with JS, had a love/hate relationship with C/C++ (really, header files?!), loved Java compared to C/C++ (until I learned to hate Java). And I'm generally really excited by what's going on in languages right now.

I just wish there was an SML for the JVM. But until then Ocaml is probably the gear and I look forward to reading this book.

And, oh my golly, have you seen OCaml's Eliom for Ocsigen? Absurdly interesting. http://ocsigen.org/eliom/ One language for the browser and server, with client/server transparency and best-in-class server performance.
Ask HN: An idea to build a marketplace for game accounts, is it legal?
I just came up with an idea of game account marketplace website(e.g. WOW accounts) to build in my spare time.

Idea: The sellers submit userid and password, plus a description/screenshot of the account(e.g. level,items in the account ) to the website and price it(e.g. $10). The buyers can browse through the site filtered by the descriptions (e.g. level >20) and buy it, then the userid and password is sent to the buyer.

However, I am not sure if it is legal to do it or not.(assume all sellers are legitimate/not scam)

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
اروع الحفلات النادره للشيخ عبد الباسط عبد الصمد
https://developers.facebook.com/html5/blog/post/2012/02/27/a...
If the yellow cab drivers have phones on them as well, you could try to make "psuedo hails" using bluetooth or something where if you drive by a taxono.my user who has hailed a cab both apps ping, and let the users know. Then you could just have the drivers app show a heatmap of hails throughout the city to get them in the right places.
Mental calculation using only the human brain, with no help from any device
These days we have become so much dependent on the mechanical devices that we have almost forgotten how to use our mind. We need calculators (if not computers) to add our shopping bills. Daily life tosses plenty of math problems our way. Of course, normal calculation can get boring. Here's the secret: Tricks & Shortcuts. http://mathema-tricks.blogspot.com/
Some good tips. Thank you very much. Sounds like just making it as easy to use, constantly staying on top of things & being involved. Pretty standard advice, but good use case. Thanks again =)
I've seen it for a variety of items, but I'm in downtown Manhattan- I suspect the economies of scale make a difference here.
XKCD Geohasing - South Pole Station
Exactly +1
Sorry I didn't just fall off the turnip truck as you imply.

From the story:

"but given our waning cash reserves we felt like putting our eggs in this basket and creating a trusting relationship would increase the likelihood the deal would happen"

Naive. They took a chance and bet wrong. If you've been doing business long enough you would realize that a trusting relationship will not trump self interest. And any legal document doesn't mean anything if you don't have the resources to enforce it if the other side wants to get out of it.

"We are a company without the cash to try to enforce the NDA, and The Company knows it since they saw our financials during due diligence."

So they knew they didn't have enough money to enforce the agreement and they knew the acquirer knew that but yet they thought that it wouldn't be possible to have that used against them? That's naive as well.

Additionlly, everyone is assuming that they did steal info and that is a proven fact. It is not a fact. As of the writing of the story nothing has been built and there is no violation. We don't know if the company that "screwed them" ever did anything at all or if there was any abuse. Even if this went to trial (assuming funds were available) there isn't enough info in the story to even begin to make a judgment on who is right here and who is wrong. Companies always have disagreements and things get drawn out legally because each side thinks it is right. Nobody is looking to throw money out the window on clear cut legal cases. Two sides always see things differently.

When you say "violating an NDA" the NDA has not been violated. We have one side of a story. Given the facts this could be abuse or maybe not.
To be honest, I started the project as a way to get my name out there in the Open Source community and ultimately make it easier to get a job, yes! I've realized my ideal job would be as a developer/Open Source evangelist/advocate/community-builder what-have-you.

It's hard for me to really care about building facebook widgets or coupon-local-picto-gram social apps etc. In contrast I spend ungodly hours working on Open Source projects that deal with solving lower-level developer problems and more and more of my time is spent writing tutorials and walkthroughs of how a codebase works rather than actually writing code!

So I want to work for a company that pays me to do Open Source work. I haven't really looked too deep into it but so far my ideal would be GitHub or Khan Academy.

Though to answer your question, I haven't spent any time actually trying to get a job even though my work was originally based on that premise.

I'm trying to make a go out of starting something of my own. If I run out of money before I can get any traction then that plan stands to reach out to my ideal companies for full-time employment. I believe 100% that I won't have much trouble getting a job, the problem is I want my ideal job, so we'll have to wait and see.

I am very confident that my work on GitHub will speak for itself. That's not to say I'm some coding God, but rather I do take my code seriously with organized commits, documentation, and well-thought out design choices. I have never been to college so I am very adamant about "show don't tell" when it comes to resumes/experience/cred etc.

Hopefully you will either see me leading my own company, and/or as part of the GitHub, Khan Academy, or other pro Open Source team!
So it sounds like you cant really get your scripts found, unless you have relationships built elsewhere already? Would you say that's the case?

And appreciate the input. Do you have any github code?
I don't know about that, I can't see Apple wanting NFC to succeed. If they do they will need to already have some killer apps that use it, and have big deals in place with stores. Apple is incredibly secretive, but that'd be hard to prevent from getting out.
Can you elaborate a little more on your idea?
I am curious to hear how you found your clients in a place as competitive as HN?
The first course I went to was actually a book. Maybe move the books to a totally separate section? I was excited about learning about designing visual interfaces only to be presented with an amazon link.
Live Broadcasts of the Earth 24/7 From the ISS
People who write libraries and frameworks want to advertise them, get good SEO from the larger JS community. So they'll call their projects Blah.js.

It's also easier to remember JS libraries as Blah.js instead of having to worry that it's Blah.js or Blah.coffee.

Yes it is somewhat dishonest. But users of a lib or framework should not be reading its code in most circumstances. Otherwise it's crap API/documentation.

With CoffeeScript you can use the lib from JavaScript seamlessly. It is essentially Blah.js. If the lib was written in Ojb-J or ClojureScript that's another story. Then lib authors couldn't say it's Blah.js.

If you need to read coffee code as JS for some reason, compile it. If you need to submit a patch, doing it in CoffeeScript will indeed be a minor inconvenience. Not so for Clojure, Obj-J or whatever else will come along.

----
And on another note. These languages compiling to JS are essentially causing fragmentation. If ClojureScript gets as popular as CoffeeScript is now it won't be pretty. I'll bet that CoffeeScript will reach critical mass at some point. The newest libs and tutorials will all be Coffee. JS.next should adopt as many features as possible or promote it as the new standard to stem the tide and make fragmentation less obvious. CoffeeScript would be more stable as a language, hard to make JS semantics prettier.
Google to Consolidate Data March 1: 5 Steps to Protect Your Privacy
The title is so misleading its just funny.

I could propose to offer 1000 BILLIONS to anyone who exploit chrome and give $1 per exploit too (yeah im not Google so it's $1 for me).

I think Google is going that because security companies request such amounts for exploits before Pwn2Own to Google so that Google doesn't look bad.

And Google didn't take VUPEN's offer on all bugs, so VUPEN said they're going to go to Pwn2Own and break Chrome with their known exploits. So Google wants to come out as the good guy.

Yay for politics.
Does HN have a github user directory document?
Does HN have a github user directory document?

If so, please link me.

If not, let's get one started.
Got to this site: http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/cfa-level-1/equity-in...

This chart is "industry life cycle" so let me apply it to smart phones.

There are 4 distinct phases:

1) Pioneering Phase:
Back in 2004sh, a number of companies were making barely usable smart phones: (Pocket PC, Palm Treo, Black Berry)

2) Growth Phase:
This is where we are now, Apple, Google, Etc. are all building products targeting this market and it is growing like crazy.

3) Mature Growth:
This will happen in the next 10 years, (my guess is in the next 5), as the world population who can afford phones is limited and there will be so much product with limited new customers. Companies will still innovate, and sell product, but the growth rate will slow.

4) Stabilization and Deceleration:
This will probably happen after people in impoverished nations get cell phones and all Smart phones are driven down in price. (Think current PC market) and who knows what will cause the deceleration? I don't.

--Here are the theoretical flows of capital for each phase--

1) Pioneering = VC, Private Equity money flowing in to businesses

2) Growth Phase = IPO, and Private Equity money flowing in to businesses

3) Mature Growth Phase = Companies start buying back shares, and paying dividends.

4) Stabilization Deceleration Phase = Bankruptcy, Buyouts, continue paying flat dividends etc.

What you will notice is that between 2 & 3 share holder money starts getting returned. Growth companies are priced "high relative to current earnings" but "low relative to distant future earnings".

Investing in the growth phase is done so that the stock will appreciate as certainty over product success becomes apparent. Once that happens, the stock price will be much higher as the market expects dividends.

Apple is a great example of this process.
I think that's the key there, and you said it in much less words than I did =). You have to give people no excuse to not try your product and every reason to try it. In other words good, easy to understand hello-world examples are a must, then backed up by what's next, and next, and next etc.

People don't have time nor the patience to jump through hoops to use your software. Make it really easy to try and people will try! Then it's up to you to follow through on taking them through the "funnel" if you will. Best of luck.
if G+ has 90 million users, and FB has 900 million users. statistically, only 1/10th of your FB contacts would be on G+ without the help of warm-market recruitment.

if you happen to find yourself in a situation where 95% of your friends are either exclusively or primarily on G+, you are likely a rare exception and don't need to weigh a choice between following 95% of what your friends share and the freedom from "maintaining" a social account.

i am very specific about what i want to share and what i dont. for that to happen, yes you need to explicitly post and not post. i hate the whole "share everything implicitly" concept. to be honest, beyond the FB feed of my tight circle of friends, i don't use it for anything else.
I think this is going to turn out to be a killer feature of Ocaml once people get used to the fact that using 8 cores at once isn't that great of a goal when on-demand computing platforms let you scale much much larger.

I think this point isn't made often enough. There certainly are times when scaling within a single machine is useful but, as is more often the case, if you have to scale beyond a single physical instance you might as well plan for process-oriented parallelism up front.
This is an idiotic argument that ignores/sidesteps the main point of the parent.

No matter what you think of China's economy, it is leaps and bounds better than what it was 20 years ago and provides a dramatically superior quality of life for its citizens.
Yahoo Stabs Facebook In The Back
DAIR Finally Happened
Brilliant response.

Economic ignorance encountered here can be stupefying.
Combining my replies:

> "Sounds like an opportunity for a standardized, flexible industrial robot platform geared towards rentals."

This would work if different businesses have significantly different seasonalities - but on the aggregate in North America this is not true. Amazon gets the same Xmas rush as Wal-Mart, along with Target, Macy's, and whatnot. The number of businesses whose rush season is out of sync with Xmas is quite low. In fact, on the whole, retail basically rises and falls all at once throughout the year.

> "Why not go one step further and have elastic fulfillment centers?"

AFAIK Amazon already does this :) Look up "Fulfillment by Amazon".
"It’s just the slightly awkward first steps of a serious move by Nokia to differentiate itself."

This seems like the same old cell phone industry for me. Several years ago, camera megapixels were one of the most standout features on cell phones for consumers. It was simple enough to boost the number ever year and have a buyer go "Well 4 > 2, so this phone must be better" I'm not so sure if thats a valid strategy in this current market.
"Time Crystals" Could Be a Legitimate Form of Perpetual Motion
Maybe, except presumably a lot of the "seasonal retail" stuff would require all the "spare" warehouse-picking-capable rental-robots at the same time.

Unless you can make something generalized enough to do _other_ (profitable for the rental robot owners) tasks outside the BlackFriday/Xmas shopping season, you've still got the same problem (though more power to you if you can make that problem become the robot rental industry's problem instead of yours…)
I just did. Thanks for your response.
How much automation do you need and how "bulletproof" does it have to be? What's the up time? What sort of rates does it have to handle average and peak? How accurate does it have to be? Does your control and execution software have to be custom (since you business model and methods are oh so different than your competitors) or will the standard be good enough? Trust me automation and the software to drive it can be quite expensive.
The monad in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_features#ST_monad
> Touch settings, and you get WiFi, volume, brightness, notifications, power and language icons, from which you can make changes without closing the current window/app or having to open a new one.

So the settings charm is like android notification tray on steroids? That's pretty cool! I'd like to see this added to windowsphone too! :)
Well, there are two different issues at hand:

1) Will there ever come a day when people can produce value merely by living? That really depends on what "value" is, and as you said, the standards of the day may differ from ours. Under some circumstances, merely being a consumer might be enough to contribute to some overall good. If energy becomes cheap enough, even a tiny benefit might be enough to offset a person's energy consumption.

2) Should we let a human being's survival be taken hostage to whether or not he or she produces what other people perceive as value, provided that there is leftover capacity to give them a free ride? This is more of a moral question, and your answer may vary according to your ideological commitments.
Good call! I can see that being a big buzzkill.
A large extinct penguin has been reconstructed from fossil remains
fish meat is muscle too.
You just rationalized all hyperbole.

Their post was obliterated. Could not be found. Ceased to exist. The DMCA take-down notice removed TechDirt from Google. TechDirt was erased.

All completely true if you don't require modifiers to be stated. I'd prefer that HN doesn't turn into a tabloid.
Steve Jobs: A Flawed but Innovative Businessman
Grand Terrance AC service
No offense to your original statement, what you said makes sense--the link was mislabeled in a common way.

I just want to point to this comment and its children as the reason that HN should have comment thread collapsing.

There's no reason the majority of people checking the comments for this link should have to see the language debate. It's not relevant to the Tower framework. The only reason this debate is so high up is because people chose to upvote the original comment.
Prescription of modafinil for any reason other the conditions for which it's indicated (hypersomnia or accepted off label use) is highly irresponsible of physicians.
Seems pedantic, but a lot of people use punctuation as a signal. Couldn't hurt to capitalize properly.
I've been working on my own DSP library in C++ on and off over the past year and a few times I've gone through the thought experiment of rewriting it in pure C.

Every time I conclude that all I'd gain in the process is the extra work of finding some third party collection library, adding manual resource management where I currently use RAII, and rolling my own struct-based object system, probably with a buch of macro glue.

I don't see how this makes my life any simpler.
To be fair, this has been happening for quite a while and it's nothing new to modern society:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

Still, this article disturbs me and I will be making more effort to shop locally (I am lucky to live in a massive city however, where I have access to most things a short metro ride away).
Move to France.

You'd find their backwards, less competitive economy to your liking.
Face Your Fear of Failure With Technology and Start Building
So, because it wasn't instantly successful, it's a failure?

I remember thinking about MySpace that, with 80 million users, nobody would ever catch up. Boy was I wrong.