skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
TV might be broken, but the inability of a child to focus on something for more than a few minutes at a time isn't the best evidence. It definitely brings up some interesting things to think about, though.

First, while the attention span of adults is normally quite a bit better than that of kids, the digital age is eroding our ability to focus on one thing http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1312119/Faceb.... While this may be a temporary trend as we adapt to the information overload the internet can provide, I think it's fairly safe to say that people 10 years from now will be far less likely to sit patiently watching TV than people 20 years ago.

The most obvious implication from this may be that commercial advertising, rather than TV in general, is going to need to adapt. I imagine part of the reason why people under 30 are cutting the cable in increasing numbers is because they aren't willing to sit through loud, irrelevant commercials in order to watch something they don't actually want to watch. The tolerance of the consumer for TV style advertising is shrinking proportionally to the consumer's attention span. This should be good for subscription services like Netflix, and would be good for HBO/Showtime if they didn't for customers to pay for cable/sat in addition to their services.
I would rather pay three times as much for Netflix than go back to watching commercials, although I may be in the minority.
Some constructive feedback for the website. There are three thumbnails along the bottom of the screen. I immediately assumed I could click these and a larger image would appear.

When I see a new product linked on HN, I want to quickly look at screenshots. I couldn't find any screenshots of the product on your website besides those thumbnails that look like any other IDE at that resolution. I did eventually find the movie but I would've preferred some screenshots.
The Axis of Eval: Browsers will let PLs break free from plain text
Having seen things like this first hand, I can confirm your observations. Things are weird enough on their own.

Throw in inflexible enterprise software (why do we have to specify delivery time down to the second!?) and it gets even more fun....
What does criminal enterprise even mean?

Mostly everyone is a criminal, if you've gotten a city parking ticket you're a criminal.

If you've let your meter run out but didn't get caught it's still criminal. Didn't wear your seatbelt? Criminal.

Were you having a bad day but when you talked to the city clerk you told them it was going well? You're a criminal.

Altria sells a product that is harmful to people's health while providing other benefits, like most other products including car manufactures, coffee shops, etc.

Does Altria break a criminal statute? It's pretty much inevitable that they do.

Would I characterize them as a criminal enterprise? No.

Some people are far more concerned about living life than prolonging death. If you don't like cigarettes don't smoke.
I think there are examples in both directions, facebook and more recently linkedin seem to be have embraced "let's build a page out of many different calls in js", if I am not mistaken.
For those curious; kernel hacker Matthew Garrett wrote a great post on this subject: http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8705.html
Nice, can you say a bit more about the purpose of the app. And did you consider creating it for mobile or other browser platforms.

Loaded question - I'm a co-founder of Trigger.io :-D
Thanks, good luck!
If the worst news you can find about Facebook is a few rumors that they might miss a revenue projection, a prediction that their ad revenue growth rate will decrease from its current 60% (note: ads are not the only way FB can make money), and a random class action lawsuit, then Facebook's prospects look about as good as any company's ever get.

This amount of badness is background radiation. You could scrape together at least this much about any public company.
You think better art is the same as art people want? Even that's not the same as art people think they want ahead of time.
30 watt drain. You will need 720 watt hours per day which will be around a square meter of solar cells.

Won't work in the parking garage, snow, or Seattle. Just don't leave your tesla at the airport of 12 weeks. That's expensive all by itself.
Yes: Perl. This was the original use case for the language. We used to have to glue together sh, awk, sed, grep, CLIs (custom C), etc in order to automate anything in Unix. Perl brought all of this functionality under one roof with a simple, coherent interface.

Most every complaint I read about Perl (too flexible, weird sigils) is a direct reflection of the system it was replacing. It's funny to read how people love that there's more than one way to do just about anything in Linux, but gasp that there are too many ways to do equivalent actions within Perl. They're one in the same. (I am not going to re-re-address its "readonly" nature since that's a red herring which applies to any language.)
PBS kids also has a good iPad app. Between that and Netflix, my son discovered Sid the Science Kid and Curious George all on his own.
I like visualizing my graph tree in a GUI, so I grabbed GitX for Mac. I was trying to move my 'working directory' (hg term for the rev you're pointed at) to an earlier rev, so I used a 'hard reset of branch' option. Zoom. Away went my changesets, with me not having any idea how to scrape them up again. I think with enough google-fu I could have found them, but I had the files in my editor, so the issue was resolved.

Another time came when I was trying to squash changesets, I managed to futz around with it to the point of absolutely killing a changeset. I don't know how I did that.
http://screencast.com/t/MdrWSDFZ
Light's speed limit is safe for now
If you can't use Boost and STL, you're C++'ing in the stone age.
This can be said for energy and medical industries, too. We are smart enough to solve all the world's problems, but we won't do it until we are backed in a corner and need to.

Not including war and religion.
Don't Make Me Steal - Digital Media Consumption Manifesto
He's nine now so he's a little past that.

Back when he was young (three) I could never get him to sit still in front of that stuff.

From my point of view, all of that e/i stuff on broadcast was invented by some liberals who want to turn off the next generation to TV.
Let me put in a word for the MB Quart QP805HS. I bought one off of eBay on a lark for $80, and when I got it I was absolutely blown away by the sound -- it beat the pants off my Sennheiser HD-590.

The QP805 is a closed-back design, and despite the 300Ω rating, plays just fine off a laptop or iPod. It's reasonably comfortable, with good isolation.

They show up on eBay from time to time (I see a couple there now). If you want amazing sound for less than $100, I don't know anything better.
The problem is that this isn't common knowledge yet and it needs to be.

Is this Tesla's fault? Not entirely. But let's be honest, a small warning in the middle of the owners manual is not good enough.

I'm sure they feel it would be stupid to advertise something that to the general public looks like a defect with the technology. But I think it would have been better for them in the long-run if they were more informative. Now they are doing damage control, and a number of people have probably been turned off due to this whole saga.

tl;dr This information needs to be common knowledge amongst owners, Tesla could have avoided this if they handled it upfront instead of waiting for it to leak out on a blog.
Don't Hire - Automate Adzerk used software vs. headcount to help with marketing
No. The brand is pretty strong and AOL will bring more traffic to the site. However, I think the profile of the average reader will change significantly.
In what sense? Will news quality go down? I think it already has. Will ad revenue follow? I'm not so sure.
Ubuntu for Android: more details and prototype hands-on (video)
I disagree to your disagreement. :)

Although performance is important, as someone who does PhoneGap apps for a living (http://mulberry.toura.com) I can tell you that there are so many other performance problems with HTML5 that this is wayyy premature optimization.

11ms isn't going to kill you, and if you are experiencing performance problems, there are far more important things to do (check for DOM leaks, dealing with 3G latency, etc.) than shave off a few ms on a call to a native function.

Or put another way, there's no reason to create another PhoneGap-like framework to save 11ms on a native function call. There are a whole lot of other reasons (many business-related) of course. But this isn't one of them. :)

Thanks,

--

Matt
I don't get it ... half their users didn't add any skills so they added "Loving IE6" and created news?
GWT has been doing RPC for years (since its inception).

The best part is that you can have both approaches with GWT (RPC or AJAX).
Well, most of the unhappy endings have suffered from one or more of these problems:

1. The advertiser does not put enough money in to fully test the product/niche/demographic

2. The product targeting mix is not well thought through, targets too many people or doesn't take in to account other factors.

3. The advertiser is not testing enough ads to find what gets people to respond.

There are many more reasons as well, and I won't try and cover them all here. Suffice to say, most of the time people don't really put enough on the line to find where they can succeed with FB ads. This has kept the market fairly clear for people like me - I'll happily drop $1k to test something, because if even 1-2 ad/target combos is reliably profitable, I know I've hit something.

A very broad range of products work quite easily, you just have to break out of the old mold of thinking in terms of direct interest -> product correlation. For example, you aren't really going to sell jeans to people that like "clothes".

Think broader - target people that like home improvement and give them ads that say "Toughest Jeans Ever / (pic of dirty as hell jeans) / Work in the garden or change a sink, it doesn't matter. Save $20 with coupon FB20OFF today only!"

These are the ways to succeed on FB, but you really have to be willing to put it on the line.
You're thinking of a trader.
I don't think it is as much about Self in objective sense of word as much about Self in subjective sense of word. Even if you know you exist, it doesn't prove anything else apart from the fact that you exist. Now you could be made of flesh or silicon, or you could be just an idea existing in someone else's mind.
Well, TrueCrypt containers are always meant to be directories -- i.e. they always hold file systems -- and so you'd best decrypt this container into a file system! But that severely restricts your defense.

TrueCrypt is not meant to hold file systems any more than a hard drive is. There is nothing stopping you from not creating a file system on your truecrypt volume and just storing garbage in it - or use another encryption software on top of it.

TrueCrypts hidden-volume feature is quite meaningless in most cases (my opinion) due to the way it is likely used. If you present a decryption key that gives access to a filesystem that does not match what was expected then you are in trouble.

Especially the hidden OS feature... So you have been using this laptop on multiple occasions the last week (of which we have proof) but according to the filesystem you presented to us this system haven't been used for over a month.

The same goes for a hidden volume. Unless you actively use it as often as you use your device (which is really cumbersome to do right) you might just be better of without it since exposing it will tell them way more than you want to tell them (for starters it will tell them that you are actively lying and having made precautions in order to try and get away with lying).
That's exactly my point. The post I replied to objected to "everything in the browser" because "you cannot put everything on the web". I pointed out that A does not imply B.

For example, consider a browser with local storage that allows for running locally stored apps (written in SVG + JavaScript, Flash, NaCl, whatever). Such a device could run games, word processors,cetc, without a network connection.
If you don't want to give money to Sony, the Sennheiser HD-280 is nearly identical. Same sized ear pads, nearly identical bandwidth/specs, same coiled cord, same price. Made in Ireland for some odd reason.
Clear: simple HTML
This is my least favorite argument when talking about removing advertising from my life. Facebook and Google will simply do something else. Why is "ad supported" always considered the only business model?
Nice post! For anyone interested in seeing another sample, I wrote a chrome extension that leverages backbone as well a few months back: https://github.com/jeffreyiacono/penalty-blox
Is easy karma worth it?
Directtrack down 24+ hours, Affiliate networks go dark
RapidShare Slows Download Speeds To Drive Away Pirates
> "Nonetheless, it is understood that children notice change."

My own niece certainly notices that records are different than music from my Boxee. But records don't really bother her. She thinks they're weird because they're so big, and you have to find them and put them on the player and be careful with the needle.

But she happily drags out the player, shuffles through the handful of records I have and listens to them from time to time.

Yet she had a very similar reaction to what's described in the article, when she (briefly) saw Shrek on Cable. Her grandmother (the only one in her family who watches broadcast anymore) flipped through the channels and passed Shrek, whereupon my niece convinced her that they should watch it. After the first commercial break she asked if we could just watch it on the Boxee.

So it's not "child notices change". Not entirely. It's mostly "child dismisses interstitial advertising entirely".
Yep, I was referring more to native accelerometer events being fed into the web view.

True enough that on iOS we would perform comparably, but for Android, it would mean "long"-polling a local web server at 60Hz!
I imagine he has, but hypermedia already generally means hypertext documents. JSON with some URLs in it (which I think the article means - but I'm not sure) is something very different.
Doesn't sound too bad at all, frankly. Someone is just trying to add a little drama to what is otherwise a big success story.

It is certainly true that usage of Facebook is rapidly shifting towards mobile, and that currently Facebook doesn't have any ads on mobile. That has got to impact revenue growth somewhat. But ads coming to Facebook mobile sometime soon is about as obvious as can be - and I'd bet on them doing it in a way that takes advantage of that platform's strengths and makes their company even stronger.
Directtrack hosts many affiliate networks, all of them currently down. The official Directtrack twitter account has no info. http://twitter.com/#!/DirectTrack
The approach in the Java world for many years have been to implement Services (or Repository if it doesn't need a complex operations) and wrap them via facade pattern by utilizing:

- JAX-RS (RESTful)

- JAX-WS (WebService)

- MVC (view-based web-app)

And in contrast to what people believe, you don't need to write tons of code and still get full re-usability from the Services/Repositories layer.

On the front-end, you have a choice of:

- GWT for thick-client via RPC (return serialized Java object) or AJAX (return JSON)

- JSP, JSF, any templating available

- Mobile, Desktop, anything
exch writes in the comments "Lately I have come to realize that the quest for that one language has been a monumental waste of time.".

I'm not sure. For one, that quest is how better languages are developed.

But there is another thing that bothers me. A lot of languages are good enough, and could be considerably better, if only the designers were not stubborn, or if only they had the resources and the will to break backwards compatibility for a while.

Take Python for example. Wouldn't it be better with:

- A better default UI kit than TK.
- The GIL removed.
- A JIT of JVM calibre.
- Something like goroutines.
- Optional static typing (and/or type inference).
- Some way of AOT compilation (with an appropriate runtime).
- Proper and easy to use closures (like Ruby/JS etc).
- A better syntax to replace the double underscore thing.
- Something like Virtualenv built-in.
- Something like PIP built-in.
- A redesigned base library, with the cruft removed and simpler interfaces

For a lot of those, there exist workarounds, half-baked implementations, etc.

Now, some people will say: "those will complicate the language", etc. But most of those changes are orthogonal, remove very real pain points, and some are even totally transparent to the programmer (like the GIL removal, or the JIT presence), while others enable totally new ways of using it. So, most complaints are of the "I don't want any change" variety.

Consider this thought experiment, to obliterate those complaints: if Python DIDN'T ALREADY EXIST AT ALL, and you were presented with two languages, one like the above (Python-A) and another like the existing 3.0 one (Python-B), which would you prefer?

I'd say that despite the complaints from current Python users on the changes above, 100% of the people would take Python-A. Right?

Now, nothing on the list is technically impossible (most are quite normal). But they require: the will of the core maintainers, a community to do them, money to back them up, etc. Actually, it just takes a major lead like Guido to be hell-bent on them, and lots of money, but not that much.

So, while a "perfect Python" (or a 100% improved one) is a possibility, it's sad to see that it's not actually achievable.

I can find similar pain points for most other languages (a PHP with a re-organized basic library with sane conventions and namespacing, a Javascript that's at Harmony-level on every browser, Ruby with better performance, Go with some way to write generic code besides interface{}, C with actual fuckin' strings, etc etc).
Those owners are unlikely to buy computer POS type systems in the first place.
Yeah, tell that to the overwhelming number of clients worldwide that don't support client-heavy operations (and will probably remain so for the next ~5 years).
Using Gephi to create Twitter network graph
There are two reasons why I refuse to pay for Hulu:

1. Subscribing does not remove commercials.

2. A large number of the shows on Hulu cannot be played through a set-top box like a Roku.
My Notes on Writing an E-book
Even if it is in the owner's manual - and even if it is prominent in the manual - how many of you have ever actually read the manual when you get a new car? I know I have only ever looked when I actively needed something: the meaning of a warning light, how to operate the disc changer, something like that. It is entirely conceivable for someone to own a relatively new car for years without needed to look in there.

edit: and yes, I realize it would probably make sense to check it out when buying a type of car that is relatively new, but that doesn't mean even a significant minority of new owners will.
But the article says:

"Kickstarter does restrict the kinds of projects it will allow to be posted on its website to “projects with a creative purpose.” "

So it could be said that all of Kickstarter projects are in fact art projects.
This is interesting, but it seems to assume that the reader knows what pinball was like before 1948. I don't. What was it like?

FTA:

> ... he borrowed a concept — the flipper — from a competitor."

So apparently most early pinball machines had no flippers.

I found a couple of pages with images of machines that date from 1940:

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=11596

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=13783

And, indeed, I see no flippers. I guess these were entirely games of luck -- slightly more exciting versions of spin-the-wheel-and-win-a-prize.

But at least one had flippers. FTA:

> But instead of having six flippers in the upper playing field, he reduced it to two electrified flippers near the drain at the bottom, ....

and

> "What Steve did was revolutionize the game of pinball," said Larry DeMar, a video game and pinball designer and president of Leading Edge Design in Northbrook, Ill. "It now became a defensive battle."

I'm finding it difficult to figure out what this six-flipper machine might have looked like. Apparently the flippers were near the top, and the game was not defensive in nature. Does anyone know any more?

EDIT: Here is a page with pictures of Kordek's Triple Action game (the one that "stole the show" in 1948):

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/11/view/6969/pinball-in...
How does this compare to other native bridging platforms like Appcelerator Titanium? I see no mention of it anywhere in the blog posts or on the comparison charts on your site, etc.
So what happens when a kid who is used to TV goes to watch Netflix and the stream gets interrupted (like we all know it would on a typical hotel wi-fi network). If you've watched videos online before, you know it's just buffering, but the tv-oriented kid would do the same thing as this guy's kid did: ask if it's broken, or why we stopped it.

I'm not saying that there are no problems with the way TV is presented, but to raise a child in a relatively TV-less environment, marvel at their confusion over how it works, and then come to the conclusion that TV is broken... that doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to me.
It's from the 60s, when hypertext was invented: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermedia
My previous employer insisted that I read every single article on TechCrunch. I could not possibly imagine better ways to bore myself. Avoiding it ever since (both of them, actually.)
A writer has to write a book I want to buy if he expects to make money of it. A cook has to make the kind of food I want to eat.

Why shouldn't an artist?
I tried the Custom 2 and didn't like them at all. The right eartip wouldn't stay in my ear, the cords were easily damaged, and they were incredibly bright. I like a bright sound, but this was ridiculous.

I greatly prefer Etymotics.
While I agree on all of the other points, they are most definitely not extremely comfortable. Especially if you have a larger head, you'll feel like your skull is in a clamp quite fast.

Other than that (and the headband cracking) those are one of the best headphones I've ever had.
JH-16 Pro Customs... nothing else, all day, every day!
I just wanted to say that I LOVE Zite on my TouchPad, every single day I spend about 2 hours looking at all articles... it is a joy to use. Thanks for the hard work making quality webOS software....
Eliminate SXSW from your Twitter stream
By my top-of-head calculations:

$100B advertising / ~160MM households = $625/household/year, or about $50/mo.

You're right, I wasn't even close. I was way over.
Congrats! Looking forward to amazong browser centric gaming.

Question: Does GameClosure have any plans to use WebGL?

Also wanted to give you a heads up re:
Art Hack Weekend SF
http://www.gaffta.org/2012/02/13/art-hack-weekend-sf-a-webgl...
See you there, perhaps?
That's a distortion. You don't mean "no one would pay", you mean "no one would pay enough", which is a very different metric. No one would pay enough to build a nice mural or sculpture in a poor neighborhood, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing. Likewise the translation projects in the grandparent post aren't going to appeal to the mostly English-speaking, wealthy technolibertarians like yourself. But they still have value to a lot of people.

The straightforward corrolary to what you wrote is that the artistic desires of the wealthy are inherently more valuable, which seems a little unethical to me.