skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Which services tried this idea?

Also, could you elaborate on (3)? I'm not sure what you mean. Of course, I would not be using ads already submitted into other ad services in this approach. But are you saying I can't even make money from adsense on the same page?
Macworld : All the music in the iTunes store is DRM Free
Internet teachers - Are they a Ponzi Scheme?
Do this do that, don't do this nor that. Who are these people?!

I am speaking of primarly motivational speakers who seem to only speak comon sense in short general articles so as to make us feel good. You know a bit like astrologers.

I am also speaking of certain opinionated people who think that they are able to thrush their opinions down our throats without any educational value let alone insight nor wisdome.

Have people forgoten that everyone has an opinion?
Most importantly have they forgoten that although things are simple or seem simple one you know them they are utterly complex untill you acquire such knowledge.

I do not wish to be made to feel good by cheap general comon sense statements, nor do I wish to waste my time in reading the opinions of someone who hardly has any knowledge of the subject, still not failing to discuise it within an authoritarian voice and again general comon sense wordings.

So to get back to the question. Internet teachers (and teachers here is used rather broadly), are they a ponzi scheme?
I will sell my automated Swoopo bidding software if 100 people each pledge $100.
This was just a little hobby project, but I figured other people would probably want it too, so I'm making it available exclusively to 100 people.<p>Has anybody else successfully sold software in this fashion before?
ITunes Sells 6 Billion Songs, And Other Fun Stats From The Philnote
They already have a terrible case of NIH syndrome. It is already well accepted at Google to build if you can avoid the buy.

Usually, I'd consider that a bad thing. However, they have proven they can write some damn good software. They have also proven that they can run a data center better than anyone else can. Both their internal and external systems are a pleasure to use. NIH is only a problem when it starts to burn you, but that hasn't really happened... yet.

Luckily, they count most open source software as a building block. If there already exists a great open source package, they aren't going to completely ignore it for the sake of NIH syndrome. It's about control, not price.

Put simply: Google demands more from their hardware and software than any other organization. Moving and sorting bits is their core competency. This seems like a smart move to me.
I don't see .69 songs yet? When does that take effect, I wonder.
End of Q1
I think entire catalog DRM free + iTunes Store over 3G (instead of just WiFi) were pretty good reasons to finally allow variable pricing.
I haven't looked back on the smugmug case since that came out, but just wanted to note that 600TB would cost $0.12/GB/mo not $0.15.
Obscure vocabulary could be divided into two, one containing obscure synonyms of frequent words, and another is the chunking of information, of many words, to give one label. People familiar with the topic may find it easier to anchor their thoughts with these chunked words of phrases.

A lot of philosophy seems really ridiculous to me, and yet there must be a need to chunk concepts and give them labels. When you agree on the basket of concepts tagged with "logical positivism" or "paleo-conservatism" isn't it easier to just use that phrase and not repeatedly invoke all or the topically relevant concepts of that set?

Of course, the problem is when these labels are overburdened and/or so multifaceted that you could be talking about subtly different things and not get anywhere. This is why philosophy should be based not in the fuzzy verbal, but in the concisely mathematical, but that is another topic.

I can't point to any letters to showcase the method, but I'd point to political science as it is a place where verbal philosophy and practicality do coincide.
Obviously, not everything is a Ponzi scheme but the point the article is making is totally valid. Any child can understand that you cannot grow indefinitely in a confined space, even if that space is the Earth and even if the value measured is quality. The measure of quality is appreciation and we only have a limited amount of time on our hands.

I wonder why so few people think about the following line of reasoning:

1. Our current economy is based on money as a medium of exchange to function (separation of labor -> good)

2. Therefore, money is a universal medium of exchange and acquires a value separate from the exchange value: liquidity, the possibility to exchange it for anything else (see Keynes et.al) -> unintended but ok

3. As a consequence, our current money relies on a positive rate of interest to circulate. Whenever the interest rate gets too close to zero, money holders will not give up their privilege of liquidity and not lend out their money (bad!)

4. As a result, the economy collapses - simply because the medium of exchange stops circulating. In the end, the government has to print new money to replace the money not being spent/lent, leading to inflation. Alternatively, the state has to make new debts or fund dying industries only to keep interest rates positive... (very bad!)

This reasoning does not depend on any technology or production-based argument because every human undertaking these days is based on beating the rate of interest. Even if you only invest your own money, you have to factor in the interest you might have gotten at the bank.

There's a really simple fix to it: motivate money holders to part with their money even without interest. You would get an economy that can grow when it needs to but can contract as well without collapsing.

Even though it seems god-given, money itself is actually pretty hackable. If you're interested, one interesting proposal is here: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/suhr/nngengl.html
Ah. Then to fit in E-Prime, I believe you'd have to state what Bob was doing as a killer.

The killer Bob <verb:[lived sat stood munched ...]>.
Would adapting readmytweets.com to use ads encourage more web surfers to read ads?
* do you think many people (including savvy web surfers) would read ads using this service?

* this is sort of like reddit but where self-promotion is the norm and ad scoring is based on the effort of the submitter rather than the quality of the linked page/site.

* which services (if any) have tried an approach like this including the reading comprehension check?

* would I be able to use adsense on the same page or is that against the terms of service?
Do you even know what a Ponzi scheme is?
LG VX9400 VERIZON CDMA
LG VX9400 offers new cutting-edge features including access to Vcast Music and Video, Get It Now and Mobile Web 2.0, plus get Bluetooth capabilities and a 1.3-megapixel camera camcorder. The LG VX9400 easy to use multitasking capability.
I hate google. Eff em. I use http://search.isc.org/en/ and if that fails http://search.wikia.com/.
It's a stepped rate. You pay .15 for the first 600, then .12 for all aditional data beyond that.
Outlook has this sort of thing, but the receiver sees the notification and has to accept it. Which is always a clear sign to me that someone sent something out and then thought better of it, so I always look extra-closely at the email in question.

Anyway, if people didn't accidentally send stuff like this, cnn.com and other mainstream media couldn't write an article about it every 6 months.
On the other hand, Picasa is free.
I didn't watch it, I read the TC coverage after it was finished.
This is the reason I asked the question. I'm not convinced that any of these items are ground breaking, though very cool features.

The coverage didn't seem exciting which is why I was asking the question did Steve Jobs not do the keynote because there was nothing worth reporting? or was it just not carried off with his panache and excitement?
The coverage made it seem quite ho-hum.

And I still believe that none of these things are really news worthy.
An 8 hr battery on 17" device is pretty cool

iWork gets document sharing - about time, and they aren't going to become a leader with that product as a result

*Getting rid of DRM on iTMS means now they can are equal to amazon and everybody else

again, I don't see this stuff as really exciting and ground breaking. Cool, yes. Good business decisions, sure. Amazing! no.
Thanks. I just did this too - goodbye DRM! 57 songs upgraded for $15.40, not too shabby.
Actually I think it would good for everyone if there would be somekind of trial model.

I heard a speak from some Xbox manager once and he talked a lot about trial versions of games. I think(not sure) MS requires every game that is sold in Live Marketspace to have some kind of trial. He made a point that trials and especially great trials can mean a lot for game's success. Great trial isn't just a crippled version or the first level of the game but a game itself, using almost all the mechanics.

Of course the scale is different, but I think the general point is that trials actually help in the long-tail if your game is any good.
This started off as a hobby project, but I figured that other people would probably be willing to buy it from me - so I'm making it available to 100 people exclusively.

Placing bids on the Swoopo website is tedious and expensive, and also unreliable (all those javascript timers tend to lock up the browser). Instead of biddign on impulse, I've found that leaving my robot in charge reduces the overall number of bids that I need to make in order to remain competitive - I only jump in when certain conditions are met (when other people either run out of bids or walk away).

Has anybody else successfully sold software in this way before?
I didn't renew my subscription because I found that I am wasting lot of time mostly wading through mostly junk.
It has nothing to do with a preference for complex vocabulary.

When I talk to someone I know has a large vocabulary, I am free to use the best word that occurs to me, and if they think I'm up to snuff, they are free to do the same thing. This makes for a more pleasurable conversation. (Assuming we're actually trying to say something to each other. But if the motivation is to show off, or engage in ego jockeying, that's boring.)

I guess it's more accurate to say that baud rate surges transiently when a rare, but exceptionally precise word enters this sort of conversation.
At one time or another, we've all accidentally sent an e-mail, probably by invoking the keyboard shortcut.

I would definitely be waiting to have my emails delayed a few seconds if Gmail would momentarily display an Undo option. This would mean that the email wouldn't even be sent until after the Undo option expired, so we wouldn't need to worry about the email protocol.
Agreed, I love RescueTime

You just have to be careful that you tag things correctly and are honest about it. The default tags and categories are pretty good, but you have to decide for yourself if hacker news is really that productive ;)
It makes a lot of sense. Goog has been using Juniper for a while, so goog really understand the problem domain and what % of that problem is solved by Juniper's products.

They would also know what they like & dis-like in terms of features their product should have vs. juniper which probably address a wider customer wish list; maybe & I am speculating here, Juniper takes a long time to turn around on features or some features are custom to goog and Juniper doesn't want to build them.

So goog gets to design a product that fits their needs for the next few years. If the product turns out well there might even be tremendous competitive advantage since googs competitors can't buy it.

Worst case things don't work out and they go back to buying Juniper.
Yes! It's the cheapest entry into owning a Mac at a time when people are looking to spend less money (e.g. netbooks).
I am getting great commentary back - I cleverly included the option to send feedback directly from the application, and then foolishly forgot to include a field for the user's email address, so I can't respond directly :)

I will try to pick up on those comments here in the thread, particularly support issues:

> When first starting up TeamPostgreSQL with the "Start TeamPostgreSQL" Windows start menu option, I am given no indication that I should connect to it with a web browser on localhost:8080. I was able to figure this out by inspecting the process, but I did not notice any information being presented to me about this previously.

Of course. We will log this in the server window when it starts up. Note that the installer should have added a desktop link which opens your browser on the right address.

> There doesn't seem to be any way to view the full text of a long column, like a varchar(255). The first bit of the text is shown, followed by an ellipsis, but I don't know how to view the rest of the data.

Right. For now you have to select the row and click the 'edit' button, that will bring up controls to view the full content of these fields. Of course this control should be available when browsing the rows - will fix that.

> I get this error: gzip: sfx_archive.tar.gz: not in gzip format

I have changed the compression of the Linux packages, hopefully that fixes this problem.
Another reason NIH makes sense for Google is that since they compete in so many markets, the shifting alliances and mergers and whatnot for their vendors could mean that they could end up in a situation where a competitor buys a vendor which puts their support/upgrades/pricing at risk.
People are not going to feel the difference between a page rendered in 50ms and one rendered in 100ms.

I don't think that every 50ms difference is unimportant, but the difference between a 50ms render time and 100ms render time may be unimportant. Anyone have a feel for what the maximum render time is for a page to feel fast?
Apple and Jobs have actually been in favor of this for a while, but were prevented from doing it by the music industry. See http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Quote: "The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. ... This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store."
Agreed. They all seem like pretty logical upgrades for most of the things.

An 8 hr battery on 17" device is pretty cool

They always inflate this number and I wouldn't be surprise if it loses its charge quickly like most other macs. plus, integrated battery? no thanks.

No-DRM was more of a 'Finally!' than a 'Wow!'

Don't get me wrong, they're newsworthy, but I feel like there was no climax. nothing too surprising
A ponzi scheme takes something from one person and gives it to the next.

Motivational speakers are selling their own past experience, speaking style etc.

You can question what that experience or opinion is worth same as you can question if that jacket is worth its price. But that's not a ponzi scheme.
Messaging is not just for investment banks
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35309500@N00/3173797487/sizes/o...

another screen shot.
You can always claim you had brilliant performance, but failed due to the impossible odds.

Where do we draw the line between making an excuse and being optimistic? You might do the absolute best you can but the timing just wasn't right. As long as you've acted with character, integrity, and have done the best you can, there's nothing wrong with being internally optimistic while publicly admitting failure -- all while maintaining a genuine sense of self-esteem.

On the other hand, the time I often make excuses to others is when I know I've made a mistake with moral or character implications. A business failing has nothing to do with my personal character, nor does the failure (hopefully) show me as someone with lower standards of morality.
This is clever technology and a well-known problem, but I wonder how much traction it will get since it's going to be a for-pay service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess_paradox

It would be interesting to contrast the blog with wikipedia. I haven't yet gone through the explanation, but I had to check wp first to get a grasp of the problem.
Do none of you find it annoying that you have to pay to remove DRM from music that you already paid for? I think this is ludicrous.
should have gotten a sponsorship from mediatemple
Based on how FairPlay works, and how quickly the conversion happens, I think itunes probably just gets permission from Apple's servers to permanently decrypt the files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay#How_it_works
The problem is that storage costs are a step function. Once you cross a certain threshold (the threshold depends on your performance requirements a.k.a. IOPS), storage gets Really Freaking Expensive (tm). The steps start to get really, really steep as your capacity increases, and that's just for the primary copy of your data.

Once you get into truly large data amounts, other things start to break (RAID 5, RAID 6, tape backup, disk backup, synchronization, the ability to replace storage systems without massive outages). The good news is that they're almost all solved problems, but you're usually stuck with buying overpriced crap from EMC, Hitachi, NetApp, 3PAR and IBM (storage is a protection racket). All of this combines to explain why a good storage admin pulls down 6 figures a year.

I may be a bit myopic, but I see a world coming where technology startups trade capital costs for operating costs. S3 is pricey if you're dealing with small quantities of data, but once the step increase in your per-GB storage costs goes over 30%, you might want to reconsider. The steps only get bigger.
I've seen a pattern: "How do they do it? Because they have to."

This seems to apply to many areas of life. Create an environment in which failure is simply not an option and no one will choose that option.
The most important option IMO:

* MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
* MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display [Add $50.00]
Portables do almost double the amount of revenue as the whole desktop category for Apple; the Mini is accounted for alongside the Mac Pro and iMac lines --- either of which surely dwarf the Mini. However important you think it is, I don't think Apple thinks it's as important as the MBP, or the 3.3Bn iTMS, or even the 2.2Bn Apple software line.
No sharing. And clever compilers can already allocate most conses on the stack nowadays.
Technology start-ups find it harder to find buyers
would resubmitting the same question encourage more HN users to reply?
This is very neat. Makes a lot of sense to me.

However, I think better commenting systems are the real problem here, instead of hacking current ones. The "threaded" conversations in this post are very cool, but disqus threaded comments are much more intuitive.

And instead of making just a blockquote, and referring back, github-type line commenting would be awesome.

The model of post then comments is kind of counter intuitive in terms of real discussion.
A view count would help me know how many of them saw it last time.
The reason is that you don't have to deal with it. Amazon isn't magic and they use the same hardware available to everyone else. Sure, there's some scale involved when it comes to labor and power and bandwidth, but they can't undercut what you can do yourself.

However, spraying files everywhere is a pain! MogileFS makes it a lot better, but you're still in charge of monitoring it and making sure it's healthy. With only two boxes, you have to be always on call so that you can order another box from your provider fast.

Plus, there's the issue of multiple data centers. S3 doesn't just make redundant copies of your data. It makes copies across data centers. So, you're paying $0.10/GB for data in, but you don't have to pay for when it replicates copies into several data centers.

You also have to realize that you have to pay for excess capacity anytime you're doing your own storage system. If you like to keep a 50% buffer (a reasonable size), you're going to be paying 1.5x the base cost of $0.10/GB that you've come up with.

And then there's the issue of having to make sure you're monitoring it and that if you see a spike in storage usage you can add drives fast enough. . .

You pay for a bit of convenience with S3. I'm not going to argue that it's cheaper, but it's definitely a lot less headache. Are you going to colo several boxes in different data centers, constantly monitor the storage, make sure that they serve the files properly, making sure that more copies get replicated if one server dies, replace drives as they fail, adding more servers as needed. . .

If you're on a large scale, I'd say you should do your own storage because you can justify making that someone's job (or a large enough portion of their job). I'm not sure I agree with SmugMug using S3, but I'm not sure I disagree either - it allows them to concentrate on what they want to do. Remember, for every tech person on HN, there's 100 that will say they're doing backups and aren't (ok, maybe not true, but you have to find an employee to manage your storage who you trust as much as Amazon).

However, most people don't have that much to store. If you're storing 100GB of data, you'd then be paying for multiple servers all with RAID and managing MogileFS or the like for what? 20% savings? $150/year? I'm as cheap as the next person, but I also like sleep. I don't want a pager calling me telling me that one of my two file stores is down and that I need to provision and configure a new box at 2am. And do you want to focus your time on creating a compelling product that your customers think is awesome or do you want to spend your time creating an awesome file store that works really well? Life has tradeoffs. You're not wrong, but I don't see Amazon as ripping people off with their pricing and I don't mind someone profiting from giving me a hassle-free, no-lock-in solution.

EDIT: I personally think your estimate of buying boxes and colo'ing them is a tad low so my 20% might be your 50% and so it might make sense by your numbers more. Maybe I've just seen crappy colo offers. Link if you know good ones! I love being proved wrong.
Howto Make Music with a Microcontroller
Honestly, if you don't think a piece of music is worth 30¢, you don't really deserve to listen to it.
Ah, I forgot about the stepped thing, thanks. It's 0.15 only for the first 50TB though:

$0.150 per GB – first 50 TB / month of storage used

$0.140 per GB – next 50 TB / month of storage used

$0.130 per GB – next 400 TB /month of storage used

$0.120 per GB – storage used / month over 500 TB
When you bought the music, you bought it under the DRM agreement. By paying for it, you said you thought it was worth it. And your payment paid for Apple's servers as this happened.

Yeah, it stinks that you have to upgrade. But they aren't forcing it. I'm keeping my DRMed tracks the same until I have a reason to remove the DRM. It's not costing me anything. And I know this is a one-time deal, that I'll never have to pay extra for future tunes.

Annoying? Yes. Ludicrous? No.
Nice, can't stand the glossy screens on the new machines. Wish they had this option for the 15".
Yeah, this happened to me in Middle School and High School. When a girl did better than I did (I must admit it was a sexist attitude), I asked myself "Oh no, but I'm still smarter, right?" In Middle School, there was an excuse. In High School, the answer was "No. She's smarter than you are. Deal with it." I got better results then.
+10 evil for apple asking me to pay more money to "upgrade" my DRM tracks to iTunes+

Net: 0
It's an interesting theory and some validity to it. Personally that's to minical for my tastes, but I did think the 8GB was a great engineering feat. I was just saying to a coworker a few minutes ago, probably 10 years ago I was on a 386p... with I dunno how much ram, now we're pushing 8GB's! Awesome.