skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"But the 1,000,000th iPhone app is not a big idea. The next Facebook game is not a big idea. Obviously there are some exceptions, but by and large these are just small fishing surfing on a big wave. Yet entrepreneurs and VCs are disproportionally investing their time and money into them."

Well, the assumption is that social is some sort of platform. You'd figure, now that we have some semblence of the relationships between people, we can build applications would wouldn't have been able to otherwise with it. It seems like that would be the case, wouldn't it? We often lament that our software treats us badly, usually due to social faux-pas a human wouldn't commit (like inviting your ex-girl to your wedding in a wedding invitation app).

In the same way that when other products we have that sprouted other industries as a result. Cars(along with highways) helped made suburbs possible. The first apps for the personal computer probably seemed gimmicky (why would people want computers in their homes other than for recipes?), but people kept trying since it seemed like something should be there.

So therefore, we see a lot of people trying. And it's true what Steve Blank said about VCs liking fast and big returns, but they can also only invest in what companies people start. There are also a disproportionate number of startups in that space.

That said, there are a lot of copycats that haven't thought deeply on the matter and are just digging there just because that's where everyone else is digging. In addition, social/mobile seems easy to people to do. Everyone's a self-proclaimed expert because, "hey, I'm social and I use a smartphone!". Social/mobile is hard to get right.

I believe it's just what innovation looks like. You're going to get patterns like this, where everyone's chasing after the same big and lucrative stuff (what someone else in their thread called #LowHangingFruits). Once it's exhausted (or seems like it is), people will turn their attention elsewhere.
Well, I'm certainly not as classy as Dan, kudos to him. But I don't see the point of hiding my disappointment just because I don't know them personally. As Dan said, when you listen to people on the radio every week, you feel close to them. The way it was handled lacked class. Calling Gruber a jerk is just an habit of exaggerating thing on the Internet I guess... We're not entitled to an explanation or a goodbye, but that's the difference between classy a douchy IMO.
Yes, that's right. On Linux, you already have readline installed. But neither Macs nor IPython can ship with readline itself, because of the GPL, so by default you get the inferior libedit.

The Qt console doesn't require readline, but it does require Qt (and zeromq, and pygments).
Incubator infatuation...We ended up getting attention, but we never had the product ready because…we were too busy trying to get their attention.

You raise an interesting issue. Whenever you do something, you should ask, "Am I doing this for my customer or for my investor?" The answer may surprise you.

I bet both your customer and your investor would prefer if you focused all of you attention on your customer.
Facebook's IPO and Dual-Class Share Structures
Cowbird is a rich-media story-telling website. We are attempting to build a public library for the human experience. My particular story is an audio story about how I left high-frequency trading to focus on startups. I'm surprised you're having trouble, can you give me more details about what's happened? I can pull it up on my Android browser with no problem.
Infographic: The Social Media Market Landscape
What's the hardware? Two infrared cameras and a laser dot pattern of some sort?
The whole point of "The Matrix" is that we are already there. It's a good reading of human nature.
Googling for "kinect price" gives me numbers of about $150; this is priced at $70. Even if we assume this is a discounted price to lure in pre-orders, that still leaves room for it to cost less.

I would not think of getting a Kinect but my thought upon seeing the video was "I want to get one of these and use it to control the RasPi I'm sticking in some fake taxidermy along with a pico projector for a micro media PC."
It's serious for everyone with skin in the game.

Disclosure: myself included.
Disclosure #2: Whenever acting serious, probably not accurate.
A big threat the banks can make is that if you play hardball, they won't do business with you next time.

I guess that doesn't matter so much for a $100 billion IPO.
Your site is currently displaying a 500 Internal server error.
Or in a "bishop" maneuver, another company comes out with video tracking and renders privacy a property of "the past" and FB, Google, MSFT, and anyone else with pending anti-trust suits - to make out like kings!
Yep -- `this.$` is a jQuery lookup scoped within the view's element.

http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#View-dollar
IPython has seen quite a large refactoring in the last couple of years, and now there is a popular vim-ipython integration: https://github.com/ivanov/vim-ipython
Unfortunately, I feel Scala is headed the same direction, but faster.
This is extremely old, no wonder the information is dated. I used this as a source for a presentation in high-school.. I'm 25.

Edit: But, the information is extremely relevant still, in regards to UX and design (imo)
Wow, I wish his condition stays managed for a very very long time to come.
This is extremely old, no wonder the information is dated. I used this as a source for a presentation in high-school.. I'm 25.
i think he does; read my response later in the thread; startup conditions are miserable and the payoffs need to start justifying the poor conditions and life expenditures
IMO, it's all about brand recognition, marketing and advertising.

Google has the money and clout to introduce Chrome pervasively. Opera doesn't. Technical merits never came into play.
You have to wonder if John expected this level of backlash. It reminds me of LeBron James' "The Decision" in a lot of ways.

He may be good, but he'll never be loved.
Frame of Mind: Inside the Art of Building Handmade Bikes
The ribbon can be hidden so it's not too bad. The interesting part is the reason why they chose to introduce it in explorer. There was a Microsoft study (can't find the link atm unfortunately) which showed the majority of users couldn't cut and paste or 'select all'. The Ribbon is meant to expose more functionality to the end user which I guess us keyboard shortcut users take for granted.
Why did I say no to Funding?
Why I Dumped My Facebook IPO Shares at the Open Today
Like in MS Office applications you can hide the ribbon in the new Explorer.
when you climb a high tree you have a vantage point over your competition. yet it would be inappropriate to deem the botanical landscape analogous to the "low hanging fruit" metaphor.
It's not about whether they can be considered an "upstart" it's about whether speculators think they have the potential to make much more money than they already do. Amazon for example has been around for 2 decades and have a PE ratio of 179 because they've put nearly all their profits into investing in new businesses that has a lot of potential to make more money down the road.
Kinect for Windows, v1.5
Forgetting for a moment all the theory of color and contrast /equilibrium in a design:

1 - different people see different shades (difference in monitors)

2 - Unless there is a glaring problem with the shade of color chosen (like something most designers wouldn't approve), changing shades is one of the least important areas of improvement possible

3 - The current redesigns of GMail / G+ / GReader (among others) are very showing that Google is thinking like "engineers" and not like UX experts
Okay, cool - thanks so much for the feedback.
Me too. I use Mac fulltime now, but I really like Aero Glass.
all due respect, i disagree. the value of a new engine, or a new process for treating water, is hard to dispute. the market economics are less complex.

facebook stock is just as bad as a mortgage backed security. yet i'm a speculator because i'm greedy.
A fair price for Facebook might be between $16 and $24
Hm, maybe. But that was my point with saying interface designers should hop on this: they design the interaction to be simple enough that it doesn't wear you out (at least, that's how I'd look at one facet of designing for this).

Moreover, it's not enough to just copy our current understanding of UI over to a form of input like this. Of course that's the natural inclination, but in reality, interfaces will change and adapt to things like this (meaning scrolling may not exist and a whole new form of pagination may be invented). The "how" is up to the designers.

More than anything, you really articulated my point by saying that "it really won't." You're right: as things stand in terms of interaction, this would become tiring. You just have to think of a way to make it not.
I don't understand that at all. I assume your point is that Google only makes money from "ads", and that makes it a single source of revenue despite being well-diversified advertising products across a big segment of the tech industry (Youtube ads aren't the same as search ads, which are different from Android ads, etc...)

But... how is facebook any different? They have ads. And... more ads, as far as I can see. What's the "more than one" source of revenue you're referring to?
We are entering The Matrix, but we are not fully there yet. We need more tools to achieve better integration.

That's why investing in social networking software is more important at this time (and therefore more profitable) than investing in other directions.
An Encrypted Social Network
Agreed, but it turns the stomach a bit to read the FB fanboys slapping each other on the back about FB being a "$100B company" (and that the IPO "proves" it).

FB scored a win by getting $100B, but in my opinion it's tainted, and they may have poisoned the well for those who follow.
Yes, SSDs set a portion of the disk aside for wear-leveling, so even writing zeroes to the entire disk from the OS does not guarantee that the data is completely destroyed. (Similarly, hard disks may hold secret data in bad sectors.)

However, this device has these capabilities baked into it at the firmware level, and the firmware can address individual cells. (Similarly, the controller can include a small amount of non-volatile securely-erasable memory for the key.)
Perl is mature, predictable and not really OO language. Which is fantastic. Because I can't stand OOP anymore.
Facebook Stock Drops: What Really Goes On In IPOs
Despite Tougher Copyright Monopoly Laws, Sharing Remains Pervasive
You may only get one chance to be a beginner, but you can cultivate "Beginners Mind" or "Shoshin" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin)

Edit: "Saadat A. Khan suggests that "Beginner's mind embodies the highest emotional qualities such as enthusiasm, creativity, zeal, and optimism. If the reader reflects briefly on the opposites of these qualities, it is clear to see that quality of life requires living with beginner's mind. With beginner's mind, there is boundlessness, limitlessness, an infinite wealth."
> On the other hand: MS also spent ~ $3B providing a floor on Friday by buying up FB shares in the open market.

You don't understand the greenshoe: MS didn't spend a dime. That money came from selling initial shares from the "overallotment". Essentially, suckers who paid too much.

If the price had stayed above the IPO, that money would have gone to FB. Since it dropped below, MS is plowing the money (on behalf of FB) into manipulating the share price.

Edit: My more detailed explanation here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3996536
The Oatmeal's response to the Tesla article
Good luck to Mr Moritz. The Little Kingdom is one of my favorite books about Apple and remains a classic.
I rather liked Aero and I never really found it to be cheesy. Compared to Win95 or XP it actually looked great! And this is what MS is about to do, go back to the "old" look without adding any value to it (and I have a hunch it won't be easier on the system resources too).
InterPlanetary Internet SIG - Please call to revive and update this needed SIG.
I really enjoyed the story. Seems like it could become a cool platform for a new kind of audio book. Maybe it's just me but I did find it a little hard to find a story on a specific topic, but maybe thats because there aren't any tagged with finance, tech, or programming. Are there plans to add video along with the audio/picture?
The Talk Show has always been unstructured in my experience. If you listen to some of the other 5by5 podcasts they are much more professionally done - intros/outros, some focus, and sections in some cases. I think Dan is very aware of traditional 'radio' methodology and knows that you do that stuff to guide listeners and give them context. The Talk Show didn't really need that... it was just him and Gruber BS'ing about whatever Apple/tech news was popular that week. Which is fine, because Gruber has some interesting insights on Apple.

Personally, I get that kind of content from the Web already and much prefer deeper analysis of issues. I am a huge fan of Hypercritical because of this, John Siracusa can take a topic and pick it completely apart - and I enjoy picking things apart in parallel while listening. My Talk Show listening was waning in favor of this type of podcast anyway.
Improving Outbound Calling Conversion Rates by 37%
He clearly did not do ANY real testing, of refined metrics (target people who like his competitor, age range, etc. etc.). So the counterpoint is someone who is killing it on FB ads - and can they blog about it well enough for said 60yr old business owner to adopt.
Hard to imagine exponential growth in what either users or advertisers are willing to pay. An analogy to FB as a user service might be, say, MMORPGs like WoW. They seem to exhibit early exponential growth due to peer pressure. Yet they are never priced more than $10 - $15/mo. Often they start out as a subscription service and then move to free-to-play.

So then are advertisers willing to increase their FB advertising budgets exponentially? Does FB have something coming down the pike on a regular basis to make that happen?
If you are going to manipulate the document structure on the server, JSON might be an alternative. There is an interesting project on Github that does HTML -> JSON conversion: https://github.com/gregory80/fastFrag
User count is only one dimension of the value that Facebook has. The user connections are arguably the more important dimension.

As Facebook figures out more ways to be a more pervasive force in people's lives, they'll have the ability to multiply the revenue they receive on a per-user basis.
Chrome overtakes IE as the World's most popular browser
"You're talking about replacing a high bandwidth, instant communication channel with a low bandwidth, asynchronous communication channel?"

No, actually I'm talking about replacing yelling a question across an entire office space with simply sending them an IM. The IM method also doesn't require tracking them down, and as you mentioned basic politeness, I think yelling for somebody when you have no idea where they are or what they may be doing is rather impolite. You could be disrupting a conversation they may be involved in elsewhere for example.
Can you make an analogy that doesn't involve a felony crime?
Thanks! Every story has tags, if you scroll down. You can also search by tag, and you can open up the Topics section from the menu at the top of each page. All of that being said, we are working on redesigning and simplifying the interface, and content discovery is a key part of some changes we'll be rolling out soon. We do not have any plans to add video. We find something very striking about a beautiful photo, or a photo and audio. For now, we're sticking with this, but may revisit video down the road.
The first version of this site was published in October 2010.
Who listens to IT podcasts? the world is full of rich and wonderful media broaden your horizons, listen to something that isn't backdated garbage. Imagine all the music genres you could discover, educational materials, languages you could learn, audiobooks ..
How Apple and Microsoft Armed 4,000 Patent Warheads
The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS)
Is there some indication as to why you wouldn't be able to?
Disclosure: Dan is my friend. He's actually one of my best friends. I know far more about this situation than most, I am not unbiased.

I love Dan for doing this. I think it was the right way to address listeners and also express himself on the topic.

John doesn't need to give his take if he doesn't want to -- and I don't think anyone would expect him to.

People do expect more transparency with Dan, and that's why, however uncomfortable this might have been to discuss, I'm glad Dan took the time to do.

In my professional life, I spend a lot of time analyzing, criticizing and discussing various PR maneuvers of major companies and brands. To me, it's always telling to see how a company or brand deals with a difficult situation.

I think Dan's approach here (and again, I'm totally biased -- though I try to look at this objectively and out of the lens of "my friend") was a great example of how to deal with a private business situation that becomes public.

No one is a villain here. No one did anything wrong. But I'm glad Dan got a chance to talk to his listeners. It's why I listen.

Well done Dan.
Is pretty so awesome? Informative, functional, reliable and as few marketing-based impediments get my vote. Like people, superficiality often lessens the desire to engage, much like the those guys I dated before I realised what's important.
Plussing or Dividing: How Do You Show Up in the World?
Facebook is not just a photo uploader in PHP. I can assure you that's not why Mark built it. Instagram is not just a photo app with filters. These products add more value than the sum of the parts. A car is not simply a combustion engine with wheels. Who would buy that? They buy it, because it takes them somewhere. Who would want a photo uploader in PHP? It's used because users find value in seeing their friends in photos. You must take the tech and use that to make something of REAL value, something people would want to use and understand why they would want to use it.

But I do get what you mean. Preferably we would want to see people putting their minds into 'big' ideas, vast improvements in humanity (such as privatised spaceflight/mining). Facebook has value because it connects people, Instagram has value because it allows people to make their photos look good (and easily share it).

Do you know what Elon wanted to do before SpaceX? He wanted to put a greenhouse on Mars, just so people could get excited about space again. SpaceX isn't just about reusable rockets, it's about selling the idea of a space-faring civilization.

Sorry if I came across as a bit harsh, I'm just tired of people distilling products (that has value) into the parts, as if that is only what it 'actually' is.
Put another way, you got 400 customer interactions for free, many resulting in additional sharing of your content. Isn't that worth something in a world where an Adwords clickthrough can cost $10+?
"To build a great UX, one has to step back and think about what’s most important, try to come up with the most simple and shortest path to get there, build, analyze what works and why(not), measure, test, rinse, and repeat."

This is true, but in my experience, the best UX people are even more excellent at figuring out what is NOT important and getting rid of it (or not investing any time in those things at all).

Also, just as the "learn to program" meme does not, and can not, apply to everyone, "be a UX person" does not apply to everyone. A significant part of what makes great UX comes from the right-brain and some of us simply are physiologically weaker there.

When I shifted my customer focus from developers to consumers in 1999, after 10+ years of building products, I made a conscious decision to become a "UX guy". I spent YEARS working on that skillset. I even had some pretty strong successes.

But I still suck, compared to my UX idols. I like to think I know good UX when I see it, and I can guide others to do it, but when I'm on my own I struggle.
Show HN: How to create a django sample project (Bash Script)
CSS3 & HTML 5 Login Form With Validation
I wonder if DHH feels like Rails was his best work and that's now behind him (at least the revolutionary capacity).
When did you last test it? Firefox performance surpasses Chrome in memory management and optimizations IMO.
Hope he stays healthy for a long long time!
Is it too late to short the stock?
The Best Thing I've Read in 5 Years
蒙克通
Do you have those up anywhere? I'm also learning Clojure, and would find that very useful.
The Oatmeal response to the Forbes article about the Tesla comic
Life On Planet Facebook
I would think that mule radio would be on precarious legal ground carrying and unauthorized continuation of what is (likely) the intellectual property of 5by5. Hard to say for certain without seeing the agreement between 5by5 and Dan but I'm surprised they wouldn't give the show a new name.

(On a personal note I think Dan is getting screwed here after doing most of the work and this has finely put me over the edge in considering Gruber a git)
Plink: A multiplayer music experience HTML5 + Nodejs
Does anyone know the story from Gruber's side?
It's awesome to see more innovation in event-based analytics. It seems like most tools don't dive deep enough. Can you do cohort analysis of multi-stage funnels? So for example, can I build cohorts around a user completing a series of events instead of individual events?

I'm building a behavioral database right now called Sky (more info at http://skylandlabs.com). It seems like we have some overlap. I looked at using something like Hive for my query language but I felt like it didn't handle time-based relations between events. I'm rolling my own language called EQL (Event Query Language) using LLVM to JIT compile.

I'd love to hear about what kind of questions you're answering for clients using event-based analytics. It feels like a market with a lot of possibilities that no one is really exploiting yet.
This is actually very cool.

I expect this will drive up the adoption of GitHub by a measurable amount.
It's harder than it looks
Didn't everybody get 5k for attending?
This seems like it would be beyond the scope of the project (to provide a simple rich text editor.) It should be very easy to add some sort of inline commenting/review system in your own application.
Furthermore, I've been trying to get them to sell me a commercial license for months. Someone sometimes emails me back, but they have yet to give me a way to give them money.
I don´t think OP is bothered that the founders cashed out. Saying that company Foo got a $40M investment usually means the company got that much extra capital. If most of the money is just going to buy existing shares, then it´s misleading to hide that.
Really automatic binding of 'this' in Backbone.js
Just as importantly, if you're a UX guy, you'll have a much harder time honing your skills and convincing others that your solution is right without some basic graphic design and coding skills, at least enough for prototyping.
And an impressive demo it is.

But I'm fairly certain that not everybody understands the limitations I mentioned. You and I and hopefully most of the folks here, sure. But spend some time on the css-discuss mailing list [1] for an eye-opener.

Many of the members of that list seem to favor CSS-only solutions even when the user experience is inferior to what you could achieve with a sensible blend of CSS and JavaScript. And they're not just talking demos, they put this stuff into production.

I don't understand that point of view at all. I want the best solution for the user, and I'll use whatever tools are necessary to build it.

[1]: http://www.css-discuss.org/
it's too bad XML doesn't support XPath...
@leashless mentioned it on Twitter, and it shocked me! He's worth following for quite unusual stuff.