skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Good catch. That just jumped to the top of my list. Regardless of the app store approval, the last thing I'd want is to piss off a user because they can't contact me about an issue. Much appreciated.
Classic Nintendo games are NP-hard
Foxconn is Taiwanese, if you think they care about their 'domestic buddies' you'll be sorely mistaken. Even if it were mainland Chinese they'd not give a damn about China's domestic industry over making stupendous amounts of money from Apple.
Huh. This reminds me of the FreedomBox[1] effort.

I was always under the impression FreedomBox would never catch on because 1) they don't know how to make the software attractive and enticing and 2) requiring users to have some specialized hardware acting as a server is a big hurdle for most people. Also, and perhaps this is the biggest problem, the alternative centralized and cloud services are good enough for the vast majority of people.

Space Monkey looks cool but I'm not sure they're cool enough to overcome these obstacles. Also peer-to-peer provides its own weird drawbacks (similar with Skype) in that your home network is now being used as someone else's infrastructure. For a backup service data usage is going to be very high.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomBox
You can't compare Android vs iPhone sales by lumping "get for free with a contract" Android devices in the lower tier of the market. They are sold to people who don't even care about the "smart" in smartphones, anyway.

Uh, that's a pretty bold assertion to make without bringing any data to back it up. How do you know that those consumers don't care about data access? How do you know that they don't "care about the 'smart' in smartphones"?
I could equally well argue it's an awful vampire story.

Still way better than.... (I can't do this, you know what I was going to say).
Gel-electrodes, 27v DC - clocked at 100ma when I tested it. 27v to get required field strength across the site of my injury, just a back of the envelope guess. Both electrodes on my back 1 above 1 below the site of my injury.

It's a long story but it seems a modest electric field can encourage axon regrowth in damaged spinal cords. Good evidence for this including a phase 1 human trial in 2005 but nothing since. Here is one of the first papers:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.902500204/abs...

My arduino controlled device:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/105950978003980827748/posts/hQY2...
The iOS 5 today uses the exact same interface as the iOS we saw 5 years ago.

Not true, but I'm assuming you're referring to the springboard/icon/home button paradigm.

You think this isn't by choice?
I'm happy that their business model is designed around lower market share, with higher quality product, but I don't see how they will lose market share in tablets. There just isn't anything comparable for the whole experience of using the iPad (e.g., having access to content from the iTunes stores, including videos; or being supported with software updates for many years; or having access to a local Apple store where I can send my Dad when he needs help). Plus, the potential competitors just don't seem to get that the iPad is more than hardware and software --- the iPad provides a paradigm shift that many customers want, such as being locked down and which can't be pawned while browsing the Internet, and which can't be pawned by incompetent developers (e.g., button bars for the web browser). It is similar to game consoles.
Insect Experts Issue 'Urgent' Warning On Using GM Seeds
As a kindle fire owner I think Amazon could be beaten in the tablet market quite easily. It's a mediocre device though I don't think Amazon cares that much as it's clearly just designed to consume Amazon sold content.
> You can drop the price of a $70 game to $30 and not see a significant increase in sales

That's because that's still way beyond what most people are willing to pay to play games. You do not reach the threshold at 30 $ where you maximize your audience. It's like saying, "This sports car was 2 million dollars, I am selling it half price and still nobody buys it".

That's precisely why the humble bundle and the steam sales work well. Because they offer you games at a price most people WANT to pay.
"Unbeatable" is hyperbole but it's not that far off the mark. IMHO the iPad will dominate the tablet market for at least the next 3 years.

People like analogies. Two regular comparisons on HN and elsewhere are Windows vs Mac and iPhone vs Android (interestingly the second is also used as an analogy for the first).

All of these analogies are wrong.

A smartphone has very high (what I call) built-in utility. You can use it to make and receive calls, send and receive SMSs/emails, take photos, get directions and browse the Web. At a guess, this accounts for probably 70% of smartphone usage. A large portion of the rest would be (again, I'm guessing here) games.

Android is a commoditizing product. With the standard Google apps, you get 70% of the utility (based on my earlier assumptions) of an iPhone. The point here is the ecosystem doesn't matter as much.

The iPad is a different beast entirely and (as I've been saying for 1.5+ years now) IMHO much more important and will be a much bigger market than the phone market. It will (and already is) cannibalizing a lot of PC usage and sales.

The thing to note about the iPad is that 70% figure is (at least anecodtally) vastly different. The ecosystem matters. Apps and content matter much more than on phones. And this is where the iPad competitors really suffer and will continue to suffer.

It's why I have the most hope for Amazon in the iPad competitor space because they have the closest thing to what the iTunes ecosystem can provide. Without this, despite the relatively low price, I don't think the Kindle Fire would've sold anywhere near the number of units than it did.

A better analogy for the iPad than the iPhone is actually the iPod. 10+ years after the iPod's release it still accounts for the majority of MP3 player sales. Yes you can rip your own CDs and buy your MP3s from Amazon and elsewhere but the convenience of the ecosystem trumps pretty much everything else. Last year it was rumoured that Apple would kill the Classic until it was pointed out that the Classic is the fifth biggest selling MP3 player (the top 4 are all Apple too).

Apple's supply chain management, innovative financing and unprecedented warchest certainly have given it a massive advantage, no question. No one else can (yet) create a product at similar specs for a similar price. But it's the ecosystem that has driven and will continue to drive the iPad's dominance.
I sometimes think HN is trolling me. I just had this conversation about Quants, finance etc. Is there anything like this in NY? I'd go.
The first thing I thought of when reading this is the 10000 hour rule. These people didn't come out of nowhere. Most of them appear to have been honing their craft for a while prior to becoming famous/wealthy (or at least getting practice in a similar field).

Malcolm Gladwell's article on late bloomers is also relevant http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_...
But this is the paradox.

Valve increased their revenue x12 (twelvefold) in Team Fortress by going free to play route and letting basically their players pay whatever they want.

All the other previous experiments show that this guy is onto something.

Fuck his entitlement, he is not arguing that he is entitled to anything. Merely that he follows a certain pattern and that there are ways to profit off this pattern.

So it would seem that your argument points towards publishers, who seem to not care about production costs since they show no interest in expanding their market and utilizing these powerful behavioral patterns embedded in all of us.

I certainly could very much identify with what he is saying. I respect IP, I live off my and other peoples IP. But this medieval view of IP has to go away.

Whenever I read a comment like yours I get this feeling that people like you are: A) Either Astroturfing on behalf of content publishers OR B) You are taking a moralistic stance that is completely unrealistic not unlike a grown man chastising another for watching Porn and/or going to a strip club, by preaching about sanctity of love/marriage.
How to implement BrowserID with web.py
Of course the Android sales dominate the cheaper end of the market. Apple dominates the expensive end of the market, as I said (lower market share, high margin).

I always find it fascinating how the Apple arguments now center almost exclusively on who's making the most money. It's a fine argument to make, but it sure sounds shallow when you stack it up against the supposed Apple ethos.

You'll notice I didn't say Apple wouldn't dominate the profit center, much like they do in PCs.

I said they'll lose their market dominance. Their market share will erode until it finds a balancing point based on the iPad being at the high end of the product category. Apple has no interest in positioning the iPad anywhere else, so they will absolutely hold their pricing high.
Just like what happened with the iPod and iPod Touch, right?
LA Noire was pretty good- most of the time. The game was awkward in other ways for me, but a good experience overall.

I haven't played it in a while, but I remember my main complaints being that I didn't care about my character at all (story about 'you' moved far too slowly), and that somehow they managed to make driving in a game using the GTA engine un-fun and exploration generally uninteresting.

But on the topic, the face stuff in the game was relatively good- but kinda smacked the valley a bit at times as it felt that everything had to be over-acted like a bad play.
What if this allows you to run faster. Should we allow this in Olympics? (I haven't made up my mind yet, but leaning towards a no.)
I think I'm glad.
Android is the modern day Nokia.

Like Android today, Nokia had a huge market share. but that market share was useless because their users didn't give a shit about their crappy phones. their users were not spending money, etc.
Actually, the manufacturing process is nothing that's unique to Apple or China. Apple is assembling iPhones in Brazil at the moment in addition to China. And as long as they don't stop innovating in their production processes (like the injection molding innovations of the iPod and the unibody innovations of the MacBooks and iPads) their lead is not going to erode there.

However, Apples biggest advantage is the enormous cash reserve they have, which enables them to get extremely good deals on essential parts such as flash memory and displays. This has nothing to do with where the devices are manufactured. Even when selling plastic tablets, other companies have a hard time matching the price of iPads (and now MacBook Airs).
[Video Interview] Tamas Locher of LOOKK - Meet an entrepreneur #02
Unsure about your other points, but I believe the most recent statistic is that the Android browser is the most popular mobile browser and that Android users are using the most data of any smartphone OS.

Still, I think the big advantage of Android is the variety. There's pretty much an Android device for whatever it is you require, whether that's a phone with a built-in projector, a phone with a 41MP camera, a top-of-the-range quadcore smartphone or a cheap-as-chips-barely-a-smartphone smartphone.
It's a video game, not a movie.
> The radical majority of iPad sales are the wifi model.

I absolutely disagree. Unfortunately there is no data on how much each version of iPad has sold, but eBay says that Wi-Fi model accounts for about 60% of all (of their) iPad sales: http://www.quora.com/iPad/What-percentage-of-iPads-sold-are-...

On the other hand, it's been rumored that Apple (at least for the first batch of iPad 2's) had ordered 60% 3G and 40% Wi-Fi: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/04/over_60_of_app...

I believe the first (60% Wi-Fi), but still it's not * radical majority*.
> The question is not whether what the OP is doing is right or wrong.

I agree; I did mention the word "right", but I then went on to say that that wasn't the real point.

> maybe we'll come to a point where artists will get a higher percentage of each album sale

First of all, if artists are selling direct over the Internet, why do they need to sell "albums"? Why not just sell songs? Or better yet, why not sell "content" in whatever form the customers actually want to buy it?

But if anything like this happens, then the effect will be to reduce the prices of content to the point where the economic "signal" sent to the author or artist by a single purchase is about the same as it is now.

Anyway, my point is that the OP went to all this trouble to write a long blog post trying to explain how "content creators" could get him to spend more money; but he never seems to realize that a better way of communicating that information is already available to him: actually spending the money on things that are worth it to him.
Startup Chile Executive Director Jean Boudeguer Resigns
Witness At Fukushima Daiichi
I love articles like this. It reminds the 99% of us who didn't "hit it big" in our youth that it's never too late.

Hopefully someday...

"edw519 toiled in obscurity writing software for over 30 years before he hit it big when his proprietary NFL Play Calling Software enabled the Pittsburgh Steelers to win 7 consecutive Super Bowls (American football). The string was only stopped when Paul Allen put together a team to reverse engineer the software, enabling the Seattle Seahawks to win their first Super Bowl in 2020."
The iPad is not quite a computer replacement. Most people are going to have an iPad and a desktop or laptop as their main computer.

The windows tablets will be a computer replacement because you'll be able to jump into desktop mode and keyboard and mouse around.

The problem microsoft is going to have is getting their tablets into a form factor/price point that is competitive with the iPad. It has to be just as fast, just as cheap, and just as small. Unless Microsoft starts selling their own tablets, I think the only company really capable of building an Apple quality product is Apple.
We Need a Digital Distribution Model That MAKES Money as Content Spreads
Ask HN: Friend is genius, needs cash (VC), doesn't think he can get it
I am posting this in a throwaway on the off chance he sees this.

Without going into details as much as I can here is the situation. I am a lazy hacker myself, pull in 50-60k a year working part time making things for people and they are happy.

My friend is post PHD from a top school; rock solid mathematics/compsci background. A genius by any measure and hard working. Bound to be rich.

He is working and has been working on an unsolved problem of great commercial value in the machine learning world. I say unsolved meaning that no one has decided how to do it and its only happening in research circles.

So, taking for granted that this person is solving these problems as well or better than anyone in the world and sees a plan to turn it into a commerical product; how do I get VC attention to him.

He is still at a school doing research and plans on staying in academia for a couple years because he is somewhat fearful of making the leap.

What I would like to to see happen is some people with money to talk to him, because he would drop what he was doing if the cash was there (and the deal was right). He estimated he would need 750k and two years; the vast majority of that going to processor time.

Who do I talk to to say, "hey this person is living off 35k a year, is one of the smartest people you will ever meet and is absolutely going to make a business worth 100M+ in the next 4-5 years"

Of course I recognize the possibility that I have no idea what I am talking about, but for the sake of argument lets assume I am right. Any VC/other hacker could look at/talk to this person and see what I am saying is true.

He has turned down many 150k+ positions in finance because his vision is bigger; but I think VC is too hot right now for him to do his research for 2 more years when it seems like investors with a clue would be falling over themselves trying to give him cash.
I'm pretty sure Ghost in the Shell, and it's assembly sequence came long before All is Full of Love. And I am sure there was even earlier stuff. Chris Cunningham is absolutely brilliant but I don't see the direct connection to that particular video.
I always find it fascinating how the Apple arguments now center almost exclusively on who's making the most money. It's a fine argument to make, but it sure sounds shallow when you stack it up against the supposed Apple ethos.

Apple is a company, it's out to make money. What "Apple ethos"?

If anything, the Apple ethos is about designing highly usable, uncomplicated and beautiful devices and software. Which they kinda do --and has nothing to do with what part of the market they target.
Green Dot Acquires Loopt For $43.3 Million In Cash
I'm interested to know what alternative framework the author has chosen in place of Play!.
Yes I'm well aware of the constantly reiterated technicality that Foxconn is a Taiwanese company.

They're a Chinese company. Period. If China believed differently, they wouldn't be allowed to do what they do in domestic China.

China is nationalistic first, concerned with money second. That has always been the case and will always be the case. There's no amount of money that can buy you a lot of segments in their country; there are countless monster companies locked out of China right now, who would willingly pay countless billions just to get proper access to their markets - China promotes their domestic giants first, always.
Zaarly swaps anonymity for identity in refreshed mobile marketplace
Sam - Did Loopt ever make any profit, if so what area of the business turned out to be most profitable for you guys ?

(This is meant as a genuine question, not a snarky comment)
Downgrade iOS 5.1 To 5.0.1, 5.0, 4.3.3, 4.3.5 On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Interesting point. The reason for this I imagine is that people love to argue and they love it when their view points are backed up. If you read an article and it corresponds with your views, you're more likely to upvote it. Especially as it means it will be seen by more people and your beliefs must win!

With an informative article however it's far easier to forget to upvote. I imagine people see it as being less important.

Just my $0.02 :-)
It's a mediocre device, but that's the whole point of it. It's only 200 dollars. It's the cheapest and easiest way to consume Amazon content and that strategy will happily coexist with the iPad. (I think)
Hah! very true. Also, people are forgetting about the iPad 2. it's $100 cheaper.

"In reality, 2012 will be the year the iPad loses its market dominance in tablets. By the end of 2013, Apple will hold 1/4 to 1/3 of the market, which is exactly what their entire business model is designed around: lower market share, much higher margins."
SeedTable Is A New Way To Interrogate CrunchBase And Find Investors
The only "advanced concepts" in Git are commits and pointers to commits. Branches are pointers, tags are pointers, commits have pointers to their ancestors, HEAD is a pointer, and so forth. Then you have the working tree, index, and stash. The working tree is just the files in your directory, the index is what you're about to turn into a commit, the stash is what you're hiding from your working tree.

If you understand the concept of a linked list you can understand Git with a few minutes of effort, and if you don't understand the concept of a linked list why the hell are you a programmer? Sometimes we need to interface with designers and copywriters, but considering the disadvantages of SVN that's not a hard tradeoff.
How To Separate the Google Chat From Browser
Agree mainstream is only A strategy, but look at all other markets-products-businesses: you won't find many examples where an industry has had tremendous growth while still keeping its price away from the mainstream.

Every business that wants to grow can do so by reaching to more clients. Cars became popular when they became cheap enough to buy (Ford T). Computers became popular not because the Apple II was great and expensive, but when the C64 was cheap enough everyone could buy it. I could go on for hours, it's something you find in every industry.

Of course, Ferrari, Louis Vuiton, Hermes, all those brands appeal to only a niche of customers. And they are still very profitable. But they won't grow much.
There are plenty of unconventional companies that aspire to be conventional. Reddit could have been one of them for all anyone outside knows.
BRB WRITING AN EBOOK
I really like this improvement. Noted!

Might try to throw together something with blur.js now.
If one could guarantee that the money paid were a "reward to content creators" I suppose I could agree with you. I find that description quite problematic because there is very little transparency in these sorts of processes.

I find another aspect of your approach somewhat problematic, too, because you seem to view "economic feedback" as somehow distinct from "creating an interested customer who will buy from you." I might agree that you might be able to support people more by buying things at no advantage to yourself, but if the author really wanted to do something of that nature, I suppose he would just send the band money directly. Most bands don't ask for that sort of financial support, though, and don't provide any way to send it to them. Trying to hack an existing system to do such things would be so much less productive than doing it yourself manually.

Don't get me wrong, there are still usage cases to buy the old albums. People who liked Firefly bought many DVDs to donate to libraries and give as Christmas presents. But your objection sounds pretty contorted to me because they now have a customer who they didn't have before. Having a customer is all that there really is to economic stimulus; you don't make your next album based on how many buyers you used to have, but on how many buyers you think you will have today. Vanilla Ice can tell you all about this. ^_^
The problem is not the price (of course a cheaper iTouch 4 wouldn't hurt), it's the time spans. The iTouch line needs a new version (retina display!?), and afaik they are a profitable line for Apple, so it's not like they will ditch it. But no new version yet, and I'm still waiting for my new one. Anyway it's a great looking app, congratulations and I bet it will get traction from this HN post :)
Why Did Depression Evolve? It May Have A "Purpose" After All
I would dearly like to use Play, but I find it really uncomfortable (and not because I'm some stuck-in-my-ways Java developer). Play's heavy abuse of statics is a real problem from my perspective, in large part because it's extremely painful to write inheritance-based code; I realize it helps the simpler use case but I find that I don't regularly write to the simpler use case.

I've gone back to Servlets+Guice+Velocity because it's easier for me to write expressive code.
That's a brilliant layout. Unfortunately it appears to require a "tall enter" keyboard rather than the much more common "wide enter". I'm in the market for a nice cherry blue keyboard, so I'll see if I can find one with a tall enter. Anybody have any sources?
Some are primed to blanch at transhumanism; Some are primed to accept a class-based social hierarchy as simply mundane and not an ethical issue.

Every new privilege granted to the top socioeconomic class is an appropriate opportunity to ask the question "why solve this problem instead of improving peoples' lives by tackling inequality?" The answer can be that one is simply working on what one is good at. However that answer doesn't mean the question is silly or appropriate to sideline.
Junior information Systems Assistant Job, Forum Financial LLC
That's one thing I love about ultrarunning. The old guys can compete with the young guys. In what other sport is that possible?
This is a duplicate of a post that appeared four days ago. I thought the HN software caught duplicates like this.