skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Two weeks ago, my client’s datastore indexes became corrupted. The failure was demonstrably AppEngine's. Attempts to manually rebuild indexes failed. The AppEngine team worked for several days to resolve the problem, which we appreciated. But such failures are disheartening when you’re busy signing up paid customers.

I suppose the term “beta” is so overused that it has nearly lost its meaning. Sometimes, however, it still means “warning, ye who enter here.”

--

I've also written some high-level thoughts about the "big three" cloud services on my blog:

http://davepeck.org/2008/11/30/the-clouds-spectrum/

http://davepeck.org/2008/12/03/the-clouds-dark-lining/
I don't like working for free
I'm surprised how behind Google is on this.

http://uservoice.com is an entire startup based on feedback via this model. Getsatisfaction also has it.

Even Barack Obama got on the bandwagon (http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/).
No one ever got fired for hiring based on experience.

It's a low-risk proposition from a culpability-for-failure standpoint.
And a good thing that will be for the continued health of the internet.

I use three browsers regularly, none of them IE. I use Firefox, Epiphany and Opera, in roughly that order.

I've customized Firefox so much that most people don't even recognize it when they use my machine, mainly by altering its CSS, using the Stylish add-on, and other add-ons as well as some more custom hacking.
OK, how does this work? What are the basic physics behind the technology? You can't project on "air" as far as I know because it is transparent so the light won't reflect. Anyone know how this sucker works?
You may be right about Arrington, but that's not how I see HN. I haven't noticed any prejudice here against things like Flash video games for kids. On the contrary, patio11 and his bingo cards (surely a lower bound for whatever definition of 'cool' you're talking about) are kind of local heroes.
Malls & Hotels to replace municipal schools in Delhi
Nevermind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliodisplay explains it. The projection surface is actually a very fine ist being sprayed. That makes perfect sense, the original website doesn't mention anything about water.
So true.

And yet everyone complains that good developers are so hard to find...hmm, something must be wrong here.
"hey, we've run out of good ideas. anyone else got some?" ;-)
whoa - seems like change.gov is using the same implementation as google?
Only works if you don't give employees stock, which in turn only works in old industries like this.
The above comment is inspiring to me - and I think epitomizes why Americans have been so wildly successful in the tech realm.

Up here in Canada... well, a very wise entrepreneur in Toronto once told me: "Up here they ask you how many times you've succeeded. Down there they ask you how many times you've failed", and I think there's truth to it.

Anyways, just something that struck me.
Start off by looking into where your future college will matriculate credit from. If you're going to school, you absolutely don't want to waste any more time/money than necessary in your general requirements. Most 100/200 level classes in university don't offer you much intellectual bang for your buck. If you could do one semester of community college and one summer term for $5,000 total and knock out 3-4 semesters of high priced boredom inducing garbage general requirement classes, you've got to look into it.

Travel's good and builds the hell out of your wisdom and character. You'll get lots of great business ideas from traveling too. There's two schools of thought: Spend less time (4 days to a week) in a bunch of countries to see which you like and see the major attractions, or spend more time in one or two places going for immersion to really deeply learn about the place. I've done both - I "quick travel" through parts of the world that I'm not sure if I'll like (rapidly did most of Europe), and went for more immersion in China and Spain. Japan I passed through on the way to China and fell in love with it, and have been back a number of times.

If you travel, I'd say think about picking up some skills instead of just doing tourist stuff. Tourist stuff gets boring. Learning another language, a martial art, or some kind of craft that's big locally could be great times.

Working is good, and I know internships aren't such a popular idea on HN, but I interned at my local statehouse for a while between semesters at university and it was blast. Seeing how government really runs to some extent was pretty eye-opening. (It's even more corrupt than you'd expect, but everyone's really nice and friendly)

What I'd recommend against: Staying in your home area without a really filled schedule. Because all of your free time is likely to be sunk into whatever you currently do to waste time (so... maybe XBox and Hacker News? Just guessin'). No matter how much you tell yourself you'll read a ton of books, plant trees, go jogging 10 miles a day - you probably won't if you stay on your home turf. You're likely to read more books, jog more, and plant more trees in foreign countries, at least in my experience. If you do decide to stick around wherever you're at, I'd say almost overschedule yourself - some of the most fun I ever had (in retrospect) was when I was running a company full time out of Boston, building a startup in NYC, taking full time courses in project management, and sometimes traveling for work on the weekends to other cities in North America. Maybe 100 hours of my life were booked from the start of the week, but I still had plenty of free time.

For whatever reason, being busy always seemed to mean I had more free time: Anyone I wanted to see would always work hard to schedule me into the limited time I had available because I was so scarce, I was never bored, and I realized how precious my own time was so I did plenty of gym-going and reading too. Great times.
Pricing's more or less been announced though I guess it's still not "official" yet:

* $0.10 - $0.12 per CPU core-hour

* $0.15 - $0.18 per GB-month of storage

* $0.11 - $0.13 per GB outgoing bandwidth

* $0.09 - $0.11 per GB incoming bandwidth

http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2008/05/announcing-open-...

It's slightly more expensive than Amazon.
Not that this really needs another implementation, but since I already wrote it before seeing this thread...

(defun monty-hall (strategy &aux (winner (random 3)) (choice (random 3)))
(let ((monty (if (= winner choice)
(do ((x (random 3) (random 3)))
((/= x winner) x))
(- 3 (+ winner choice)))))
(case strategy
(:stay (= winner choice))
(:change (= winner (- 3 (+ choice monty)))))))

(looping and reporting omitted)

Incidentally, I think the code in the original article provides a good example of how code can be so verbose as to detract from understanding. Good code clarifies a problem rather than obfuscating it under the weight of useless detail.
If you're going to be a competitor of mine I really think the best choice is to keep your day job.
I feel like this Jason character is just a straw man the author created. So simplistic and so easily torn down.
Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010
That feature is in Windows Vista already.
I didn't realize it was such a loaded technical term. I thought it was glaringly obvious from my explicitly expressed concern about whether or not people were being displaced that I was referring to price increases. My bad.

You win the argument over the semantics of two words... congratulations?
I'd thought the Helicopter Ben nickname was due to his frequent and effective use of Zangief in Street Fighter II.

The Fed's focus over the last 25 yearsish has been on controlling inflation.

Its focus over the last 8-15 months has been easy moneying away from a massive deflationary spiral. I'll take a ride on that helicopter.
Do let us know what happens. Either way - good luck!
Oops: apparently not inspired by but, let's say, resonant with. See the (rather pretentious) blurb by Harold Ramis on the back of the book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=d15Nk9MmAMcC&pg=PT1&...
You'll have to pay me (publisher) a lot of money to be able to do that to my site...

I think its a good concept - Changing the site design/UI based on advertisers' branding requirements but automating it and doing it real time might be too much of a trouble and risk for the publisher...
Of course no one is suggesting that efforts be made to cool the globe before significant heating has already occured and the climate models are 99.9% percent confirmed (as opposed to the current 80-95%). But if we get to the stage where temperatures are say 5C hotter then we'll want to have some options available and that research will take time.

I'm sure all those 'stupid' scientists with their 'screeching and hype' aren't completely blind.
Fortunately, the cure has already been found:

http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the_day/confucianism_sav...
They're simply making use of "community resources" ;)
I recommend staying off of GAE. I was prepared for some bumps, but the failures that I've experienced have, to put it bluntly, made me lose a great deal of confidence in Google in general.

Even if it were more stable, I would still be migrating my company site off of it. The feeling I have now is one of helplessness - my site is going to arbitrarily go down and it'll be Google's fault and there's not a thing I can do about it. It takes me back to the emotions I had in the bad old days when I dealt with Microsoft software in a professional capacity.
JPG Magazine Says Goodbye
The Problem With Twply
I did not post this to celebrate another failure (as an entrepreneur, I would never do that). I'm mostly just sad that they're not able to break even and continue. And I wonder why they couldn't drop the print magazine and have their loyal members pay to be part of the community. I have to imagine they would if given the chance.
I posted this a couple of weeks back (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=407169). I guess I should have titled it something else.

That or new year is the best time for things that require resolution ;)
>Heliodisplay images are not holographic

First five words. Accuracy in titles is a virtue.
For a hosted math Mimetex is a proven open source solution (http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html).

Mimetex is a web-based program that generates LaTeX images (math) on the fly, if you use it like this: <img src="http://www.forkosh.dreamhost.com/mimetex.cgi?c=\sqrt{a^2+b^2... alt="" border=0 align=middle>.

To do a plugin that does [tex]\sqrt{a^2+b^2}[\tex] is simple (PHP).

$text = preg_replace('/\[tex\](.*?)\[\/tex\]/ie',
"'<img src=\"/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?'.rawurlencode('$1').'\"
align=\"middle\" />'", $text);

To do something like this with JavaScript is also trivial.

Mimetex is great beause A) you don't need to have a full TeX installation on your server, the program generates it internally B) you don't need to worry about scalability - mimetex can be compiled with caching enables, which makes it the same as static images
I think it's still a bit too verbose and long (off the fold at 1024x768 I think). But huge improvement. Nice work.
The only thing crazy about quitting your job for a startup is if the startup itself is too crazy to ever work.

Do your due diligence. Don't jump ship for a fleeting idea or some trend-hopping weakling of a concept. Make sure you're fully aware of the risks and have a realistic assessment of the potential rewards.

The difference between a crazy decision and a bold one is a matter of reasoning. It could be the case that a startup offers you the best rewards, not all of which might be financial.
Borderline? You give these guys way too much credit.
Ok, there's a technical definition for "hologram" which the Heliodisplay doesn't meet. But, it does achieve the star wars effect nonetheless, and that's what's cool about it.
MYOB Indonesia Community - MYOB Forms I (Faktur Pajak, Invoice, SJ, dll.)
Good to see you blogging Sachin. I've got a whole Google Reader folder for fellow YCers.
Why post a TechCrunch article syndicated at the Washington Post instead of the original (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/01/the-problem-with-twply-...)?

Also, the whole thing seems like a super tempest in a teapot:

1) There's some twitter app that does something straightforward but useful

2) It may or may not be a spammy app

3) It is sold for cheap

4) Press ???

Facebook apps are one thing, but big to-dos over twitter apps I have a hard time taking seriously.
My problem with the pricing is not that Google hasn't indicated what the pricing will be like, but that if you need more resources there is no other option except hope that Google will be nice to you and up your quotas.
The only possible answer one could give without much more information is "it depends". Any response other than that is mere exposition of the responder's natural bias.
What about 6.5 figure?
If this were actually proven, I would be able to say I combat the effects with cigarettes. Suddenly, smoking will be cool again! Huzzah!
Software Transactional Memory: Debunked
"The Real Story of JPG Magazine"

http://powazek.com/posts/534
So does Wikipedia let you look at deleted pages? I thought they did but from the article link I couldn't find it.

edit -- I was thinking of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Why_Wikipedia_is_n...

I guess not.
Mozilla Ubiquity is the future of web browsers
Humans are not always rational. If their decision making skills are poor they don't stop making decisions. If you have poor judgment, you're likely to make a lot of poor decisions.
Richard East On Client Lifetime Value
Building value in the relationships with clients is the key to longevity in business. Now, while that might seem obvious to many, exploring the business plans of many companies wouldn't say that the masses truly understand this principle...
And one that grows sufficiently large will have to go public, whether they want to or not.

I'm curious, what is your reasoning here? Because it will be acquired by a public company (e.g. Microsoft or Google)? Or just because investors will want a means to exit?
Thanks for the math, it's a good estimation even for other countries (in my case Italy). I would add to become a very expert in the field where you are working.
You ask him why not. Try to find out what his misconception is, so you can explain about that particular issue. Then he'll learn about the specific area he doesn't know.

If you substitute in someone with the same level of rationality and decision making skills as a young child.. let's say.. a meth addict, does it still work?

Sure, there are some kids - especially older ones - who can take part in discussions and come to logical conclusions, but this is a learned skill over many years. The ability to take control of yourself and be rational is very much part of the definition of being an adult.

Asking a 4 year old kid if he wants to go to school or not is not rational parenting and a child should not make those sorts of decisions.

I remember thinking a lot of things were unfair as a kid and thinking I could make better decisions than my parents - and I was considered a pretty smart kid. Now I'm of my parents' age, I know I was mostly wrong. Adults and parents are there for a reason. They can make skilled judgments, and kids can't.
Another possible collapse would be to say "I have two children, and the oldest [or youngest] is a girl". That would disambiguate GB & BG, by effectively stating I have G? [or ?G]. Then the odds would be 50%.
Err, if you noticed he linked to the "Jason character's" blog post about Windows 7 and the guy himself was pretty active in the comments on that article (jperlow).
# The hard part: THIS IS AN 'A POSTERIORI' PROBLEM.

# The fact as ALREADY happened.

# BG/GB being DIFFERENT is NOT THE TWIST.

# Whether they are or not it will amount to 50% total.

# TWIST: BB is not possible.

def boy_girl_problem():
from random import choice

families = {}
for i in range(1000):
families[i] = []
families[i].append(choice(['BOY', 'GIRL']))
families[i].append(choice(['BOY', 'GIRL']))

had_both_sex = filter(lambda f: set(f) == set(['BOY', 'GIRL']), families.values())
had_two_boys = filter(lambda f: 'GIRL' not in f, families.values())

return len(had_both_sex) / float(len(families) - len(had_two_boys))

# average(boy_girl_problem) == 2/3
Pingmag ( http://pingmag.jp/ ), a very popular Japanese design magazine (possibly only online, unsure, but it had a stagg), also stopped publishing just now under similar circumstances.

I think a lot of this is unnecessary. Publications, people, heck everything needs to transition in times like these. Everyone needs to become more agile, more efficient and businesses need to cut things down to the bone. Unfortunately a lot of magazines, professional blogs, whatever, are still paying crazy rates and aren't cutting back.. so more will be going to the wall in 3.. 2.. 1..
I guess we knew this day would come. I'm surprised they didn't just decide to sell it back. Perhaps Derek would want to keep running it? They were pioneers in identifying the Flickr/dSLR aesthetic, and there remains a void there in the coming HD dSLR video revolution...
If Google's really serious about this, why not have a yellow bar or something on EVERY Google page viewed by an IE 6 user? I think most of us would thank them for it, if it worked.
I remember that thread!

Maybe this guy does too, but no one that he's stayed with can give the no-rape assurance.

WARNING: Until someone (whose account has existed awhile so you know that Sam_Odio didn't just make a new account to do it) gives the no-rape assurance, be very wary of his house.

Kidding, for the extremely dense.

I'll even say that Sam's never raped me. The fact that I've never met him is irrelevant.
I strongly recommend:
- jQuery (all the documentation you'll need is online)
- O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
- Firebug Javascript Debugger for Firefox.
- Emacs Javascript Mode
- Some virtual machine environment for IE6 testing (IE6 testing will be your biggest chore, but it's essential for any public website)

Also, read the source code of sites you like or to see how novel effects work.

This should be (almost) everything that you'll need.
China’s prosperity will be induced by the state; India's may be despite the state.
Transistor Tutorial 1/2
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I dropped IE6
It's not a technical term to my knowledge and if it's a loaded term, I believe that would be by your choice ("wild"). This is not about the semantics of two words but about the proper approach to conversation about serious matters. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Be precise. Avoid exaggeration and equivocation. This matters far more than any particular subject under discussion.
a "house that hack built"?
Please star issue 313 to encourage the GAE team to implement distributed transactions:

http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=31...

BTW, I'm currently working on a GAE app: http://readmytweets.com.
The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft's Bizarre Animated Character Patents
One of those completely random discoveries that almost never happened in this instance of the universe. Sorta like vulcanized rubber. Or waffle cones.
Is that the case? I've never profiled it actually. I always just assumed that basic operations (float and int) were all single cycle since there is such a huge incentive to optimize those on the CPU.

Random tangent: a while ago I was working on a project where we used a big fancy MCMC algorithm to do some computer vision task. One issue we ran into was that double types didn't have enough precision to compute the partition function. We spent along while trying to figure out a way around having to compute it, and put in 10-20k lines of C++ code to make it happen. Really complicated. Took forever. One day I had the rather silly idea to just use an arbitrary precision floating point library. It was a silly idea because we profiled it and found that it was 20x slower for all floating point computations which seemed to be the bulk of the algorithm (and performance REALLY mattered here.) I decided to try it out on the theory that 90% of the CPU time was spent on memory access, looping, and program jumps, and that even though we had a ton of floating point operations, they were basically free. So I implemented it, and as it turned out we did indeed get a 20x slowdown on our floating point computations. But the overall algorithm only lost about 1% or so, because the floating points stuff only constituted a tiny fraction of the total cost. Since then I just ignore the cost of arithmetic and focus 100% on optimizing program flow. Almost seems obvious in retrospect, but I still see code where people jump through hoops to save a few multiplications, even though in the end it usually costs them more due to cache misses inherent in loops and program jumps.
On how to pick goats from cars: The Monty Hall Problem
I would definitely consider outsourcing. You have to be prepared to spend some time finding the right people, giving test projects, etc. But if you do it right, you can find amazing people for very good rates. I've done it for my own projects and it worked out really well.

If I could go back and make one change over the last 10 years, it would be to have stayed where I was and outsourced more. Once, for example, I was sure that I had enough for a couple years with staff. I went through it much faster than I thought. Remember that it will not go at all like you're imagining, no matter how good your business plan is, and that no company ever went under with money in the bank.
You make a good point, and there is definitely some value to including that step (although it would be only another 2 lines of code actually.) I considered putting it in, but didn't because of the following:

1. The only leap of logic required is to realize that the two options are mutually exclusive: either you win by staying or you win by switching. There is no alternative.

2. Writing the code in that concise form, I believe the inherent structure of the problem is much clearer than the mess of classes and function calls.