skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> They'll sell anything to anyone, anywhere, and they do so for ridiculously low margins.

+1, no one ever seems to realize how important this aspect is. "Cloud" providers aren't competing with some fat margin software corp. AWS is a billion dollar business who's used to 1% margin, sinks 100s of millions in infrastructure, and is insulated from a lot of business pressures. Oh, and they control the vast majority of your market. That sounds like a pretty scary competitor.
It was added in March 2011 :) http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/03/maps-apis-ov...
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KE...

"UPDATE (3/13/12): After public pressure, PayPal has revised their policy censoring publishers of erotic ebooks."
MegaUpload Racketeering exposed
I don't recall anybody saying the first macbook air was the "Best product Apple has ever built" - it was _clearly_ a concept piece that i wasn't even tempted to purchased. Too Expensive. Too Slow. Too little storage. No Optical Drive. - it missed the mark on _everything_ except for being small and light. It took a few years before the price came (way) down, it got faster, storage started to recover (a bit) and the lack of optical drive became as irrelevant as not having a floppy.

On the flipside - I'm tempted top purchase the 15" MBPro - and, where it not for the still-to-expensive storage and overall too great price, as well as having a display that's probably two years ahead of content/applications capability of supporting it - it would be a great device.

Also - nobody got that excited about the MacPro update - it was widely lambasted as too little, too late.
I think it's helpful to make the assumed premises from both sides explicit.

One is "a website like website x does anything it does to generate profit". That would be the side the OP takes. The other is "a website like website x does anything it does to make the world / the internet a better place", something like that. I think an open source enthusiast would take this position.

Obviously people value these ideals differently (otherwise this discussion wouldn't be there) and therefore voice different opinions. With that in mind, I think it's easier to evaluate the opinions of others on this matter.
The money shot is towards the end: "I don't know... but I will find out." I think that shows initiative and a willingness to learn and work as part of a team, which in many environments is just as important as being an expert.
Even if you can't provide some information on an application, they usually already have access to most or all of that information once you give them just a few facts so that they can uniquely identify you. And it takes surprisingly sparse facts to identify individuals for this purpose. They do not make you fill out the application for the information on that application per se; their sources of that info are more reliable.

In terms of risk mitigation, they are probably interested in comparing the extensive profile they have of you with what you put on the application. Significant discrepancies would be a reasonable red flag for risk, more so than having incomplete information.
Facebook: How to disable "Seen" on chat?
Ah, Craigslist sucks.
1. Their interface sucks.
2. They won't fix it.
3. They won't let anyone else solve it for them.
If third parties are not supposed to scrap data for their users from Craigslist CL's Legal team should be all over sending a C&D to Google! Sure that's not going to happen because it would be stupid, but so is killing off Padmapper. A great interface that keeps Craigslist in mind when someone moves into a new place and wants a TV or Couch, or even a date. They will look back and wonder why they didn't try harder to grow with these third parties instead of killing them.
That's correct -- phooky is Adam Mayer's handle.
Already on front page from previous submission:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4150797

(The mobile device URL is not the canonical URL for that story.)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4111691
I thought that would be about the new audio search by Microsoft.
http://www.acxiom.com/

Multi-billion dollar company that does nothing but buy and sell that kind of data. They have categories of information about people that only the government is allowed to access.
Will the Internet Always Be Run By Unelected Technocrats?
ScraperWiki Tries to Turn Journalists Into Hackers
Interactive JavaScript tutorials you may have missed
One more revision, in fact. Ivy Bridge's 4K display support enabled the 15" macbook pro to exist with discrete GPU switching. Haswell will be faster enough to ditch the discrete GPU.
NASA Video on Plan for Mars "Curiosity" Rover Landing August 2012
Google Glass is cool, but I really dislike all these phone camera AR applications. They just don't seem at all innovative to me and it seems that when people mention AR, thats what most people think of. People seem to forget that AR really applies to anything where reality is augmented and there are much cooler applications than overlaying data on a location and orientation aware video feed on a phone using the phones camera. This comment isn't really about the article, but more about people talking about AR in general, since the article does talk about much more interesting forms of AR!

At the risk of tooting my own horn too much, here's an augmented reality framework I built as my final year undergraduate project: http://dublindan.posterous.com/things-ive-worked-on-1 Basically, its an augmented reality system that uses only audio as feedback. One example application could be to guide blind people through obstacles.

Personally, I'd love to build something like that combined with Google Glass...
I know I can't use the Craigslist website, and can only use mobile apps which provide a much better interface.

I hope that Craigslist changes their mind and decides to allow websites to license their API. If they don't, however, then Padmapper should just adapt and become mobile-exclusive, or try to generate their own apartment listings instead of depending on Craigslist.
Yes, but is it "cue-tee", or "cute"? =)
Most of the people on the floor are kind of wastes of space -- I hate going into the Palo Alto store to buy anything, because the employee rarely actually knows what it is. I asked for "thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet adapter", which is pretty straightforward (and not stocked on the floor, since it's small and thievable I guess). 3 separate employees had no idea what it was, and then one of them decided to ask a manager, who did know. The geniuses are good, but they're not the retail people.

(I would have used the Apple Store app on my phone, but it doesn't work on iOS 6 beta...)

I kind of get the impression most of the Apple employees are there just to sell and "support" iPhones and iPads, not Macs.
That's not necessarily true. I see network effects as something of a negative externality, one that is hit particularly hard by the tragedy of the commons. The problem is that even if every single person on Facebook decided that YourBookSpace was a better website that provided more value, no one would leave because until everyone else followed, your network wouldn't be there.

This type of dilemma is known as a collective action problem.

The collective action problem either did not exist or was not a sufficient problem to prevent FB from overtaking MySpace. The Tragedy of the Commons actually worked as an exploitable marketing angle for FB in the form of exclusivity (initially at least). The winners will turn their disadvantages into advantages.

What most on HN don't want to admit is that the brilliance of their code or the beauty of their design alone are not enough to guarantee success. We still have to market our wares and if the value derived from our code+designs isn't greater than the value provided by CL's network + usability + cost then that doesn't mean we call our parents or a referee or a senator and tell them we need the playing field leveled because the end users are too lazy to see how deserving we are of their business.

Paper classified still exist, web based CL alternatives still exist (Backpages.com is a big one), CL is not a monopoly and a "superauthority" is not the answer.

And how would we know when a "superauthority" needs to step in, "judiciously applied" is subjective. Successful passing of SOPA would have been "judiciously applied" "superauthority" in the eyes of the entertainment industry.

The free market doesn't work on its own.

I'm of the belief that the free market isn't perfect, maybe not even close to it, but I don't think you've explained how the free market has failed to address the HN community's "perceived" problem that CL presents.
I think it was on RadioLab where a primatologist mentioned how amazing an airplane flight is. Not the aerodynamics, but that hundreds of people sit jam-packed for hours and no one gets hurt. If you put that many monkeys or baboons or whatever in a giant metal tube for a few hours, it would be a bloodbath.
What if newspaper B held positions the advertiser didn't want to be identified with? Or had readers the advertiser didn't want to do business with? Or presented their ads in a way that they didn't want? I don't think you can assume the advertiser cares only about the widest audience.
One - you're grossly oversimplifying why CL won. Friendster had first mover advantage as well.

Two - you have way more faith in our legislators than I do. Remember SOPA, PIPA etc from way back in the day. Oh wait - that was a few months ago.

Inviting legislators in - be careful what you wish for.
The ethernet port, much like the optical disk/Firewire is gone forever from Apple laptops. I use an ethernet cable at home/work with a permanently connected dongle, and carry one in my bag while travelling.

It's never been a problem, and, as soon as they start rolling out 802.11ac, I expect you'll have even less need for one at home/work (though may still be useful in hotels/remote offices without wireless)
"There are/were plenty of groups who object to all stem cell research."

Can you name a few? Thanks. To the best of my knowledge, no major religious group opposes adult stem cell research.
And why does something being "natural" make it good?

So, so many people have forgotten this. Thanks for pointing it out.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy
PowerShell, batch files, and exit codes. Recipes & Secrets.
It's more of Avant then... as in, you know, the wrapper around the IWebBrowser2 interface.
I think what is overlooked too much here is user choice. If I can say 'I am interested in mens clothes only' that is fine, and I'm happy. If the website makes the choice for me and doesn't clearly show me how to alter this - thats creepy (and they'll probably lose my sale when I want to look something up on my girlfriends laptop).

There is a differnce in shopping (where the user is active) and marketing (where the user is 'targeted') in this regard. Of course there are some parts of clothing websites which are more 'marketing' than 'shopping' but the balance needs to be found.
This is the kind of stuff python is really good at doing. I can't really vibe with Perl, but this Python script should work well, another one with graphing coming soon.

Plain reader/logger: https://gist.github.com/2980913

EDIT:
I don't have an Arduino on hand to test this with, I hope it works.

EDITEDIT:
Pulled my Arduino out, it works now.

Grapher/reader/logger: https://gist.github.com/2980955
Watch Brave Online
Watch Brave film adoptation is by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, and Irene Mecchi which is edited by Nicholas C. Smith. The motion picture is distributed by Walt Disney Pictures under Pixas studio which is due to be shown in theaters on June 10, 2012 in Seattle International Film Festival and the 22nd of June, 2012 in the U.S.A.
entrepreneurs are currently fighting on the basis of their ideas, and failing, even though their ideas are better than Craigslist

Then their ideas are simply not better enough.
Or Med student who knows the right person.
I might be wrong, I don't know much about all that, but here is my 2cents (as a user of Padmapper);

I personally almost never use craigslist because :
1) I'm not in the US, so I guess I have better choices for local classified
2) I'm not fan of their UI and don't adore to have ads per date (vs price, location, etc.)

But I am starting to look for a place (to rent and to buy) in SF, and didn't think about CL; I was going to Trulia, realtor, etc.
I discovered the interest of CL's ads through Padmapper and 8 out of 10 place I found was on CL and I ended up on their site and contacted people through CL.

Today, I am still interested in CL's classified, but again, looking for a place is really hard with their UI because
1) I don't go every single day
2) I don't know every single neighborhood's name, streets, etc.
3) I can't (or hardly can) filter more precisely than the bay

As a matter of a fact, while using Padmapper, their were 80% chance that I would have ended up finding a place coming from CL, but now, there is 80% chance that I will find a place through another service, because the main thing I like looking for a place is drawing a circle on a map and look for places in it; Which CL doesn't allow me to do.

So I just don't understand why CL would block Padmapper or any other service using their API since it just brings more people to their service, and not the opposite.
You can buy an Ethernet adapter to use with Airs or this new MBP.
So, what are we supposed to do? Seems like the only options are:

A) destroy the network effect with legislation. (How is this good?)

B) select another company The Board feels has a better platform, crush CL with legislation, and establish the new company with legislation. (How is this good!?!)
Taking research forward by InSites Consulting
It's possible to have multiple news articles concentrating on different aspects of the same event. I bet there are other articles out there that concentrate on the medical research. Not everything out there has to cover only the most important stuff.
Pascal's bad rap was entirely justified. You could not write a useful program in Wirth's Pascal - a lot of language extensions were required, and of course every Pascal vendor implemented their own such extensions.

Ada suffered for years for being an unimplementable language. It was a long time before compiler technology caught up with it, but Ada found it hard to shake that stigma.

C came along at the right time, did not have those problems, and so took off. On the PC, for example, in the early days C was the only possibility other than assembler.
Ah yes, that is how free markets actually work!
Geez, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand who can argue with the idea that businesses need to have a general autonomy regarding their business deals?

On the other, I think that when you have a businesses creating industries around themselves, that a significant amount of that autonomy has to be abridged.

Take for example Ebay and how they strongly encourage Paypal. If you run into a problem with Paypal, and your business has a significant presence on Ebay, that's a pretty heavy cost, and I don't think Ebay should be able to say "so long, tough luck."
I'd also like to add to this that in our world, it's not the idea or theoretical mechanism that matters, but how well it's implemented.

If I can manage to copy your idea and give it a better UX, more reliability, better prices, etc. and consumers choose me instead, should you really be able to stop me?
Quadrotor band plays the James Bond theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUeGC-8dyk
People don't use Windows because it has more compelling features than OS X

Ahem. I may not use it because it has more compelling features than OS X, but I did not rule out OS X because of lock-in.
It's pretty easy to assert that Craigslist is somehow disrespecting their users - perhaps by having poor UI - but it's harder to prove that assertion by setting up a competing service with your idea of a "better UI" for the users.

It seems abundantly clear to me that the assertion that "A competitor to Craigslist who got $x right would easily get all Craigslist's users", for any of the usually mentioned values of $x [web design, UI, UX, customer service, search, API, other services using their API, …] - is nothing more than a head-in-the-sand misapprehension on the part of startup/web design/UI people. Craigslist _users_ have not "jumped ship" en-mass to any technically or graphically "better" alternative - and it's hardly from lack of trying by people who're _sure_ they will.

I think sometimes we need to get out of the HN/startup/bay-area echo chamber - I'm pretty sure Newmarket and his crew have a much different view of what their user base wants than any assumptions made by the HN zeitgeist…
The Majority Of Gaming Kickstarters Fail
No legislation! We aren't supposed to do anything other than decide which services to freely use and not. Our collective actions make the market dynamic, and if some company is winning and you don't like it, don't resort to violence (legislation).

We need legislation to stop people from abusing legislation. Err.
I agree that it would have been awesome to upgrade the non-retina MacBooks to IPS. But go try the 14" Thinkpad. It uses the shittiest LCD panel in the industry, way worse than any MacBook and worse or on par with the worst Dell laptops.
How far do you take this?

If Microsoft decides tomorrow to say "if you want to write Free/Open Source Software, you can't use our API's" do they have a right to do so? What if it is competing with Microsoft software, i.e, "no use of our API's to build competing web browsers and office software" or the like?

I am genuinely asking because I think it's as clear a line as one might think.
You can still use interpolation, but most of us use parameters now.

See: PDO @ http://php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php
How about bishops in the Catholic Church?

http://www.lifenews.com/2006/08/23/bio-1727/

'Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, an expert on bioethics issues, told the Associated Press the research "raises more ethical questions than it answers."..."It is widely believed that one cell of a very early embryo may separate and become a new embryo, an identical twin," Doerflinger told the Associated Press.'

Here's another response to the same experiment, which better captures the root of the objections:

http://cathnews.acu.edu.au/608/140.html

'"Regardless of the speculated benefits, no human being, particularly the most vulnerable, should be treated as raw material which we can manipulate and manufacture," Mr O'Gorman said.'
Why the references to legislation? The free market can fix this IF the Craigslist experience really is bad. You might not be able to grow organically like Craigslist did but it is totally possible. Pay listers to post on your site. Offer something unique to the listers Craigslist can't.
It would be great if there was regulation over certain types of data that would require companies to post back to a central database if they take certain kinds of information. It would be great if there was a device that could help level the playing field.

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help!" - music to every Internet entrepreneur's ears.
Have you ever tried porting code to Dotnet/CLR?
I can't imagine any tech company worth working for that wouldn't consider Haskell to be a big plus on a resume.
Grass linked to Texas cattle deaths
Meta comment: The New York Times has really got a burr up its shorts about Apple these days, what with this piece and its "iEconomy" articles. Yet the NYT's market cap is only $1B:

https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:NYT

The Times wouldn't have attacked Apple like this if Jobs were still alive. For that matter, after the first negative NYT article came out, he might have simply bought the NYT for $1B and pointed it against its traditional rivals. None would be the wiser. This is what Gates did with Slate, and Soros with ThinkProgress. And at Apple's scale, that actually makes sense: better $1B out of pocket than a negative NYT article knocking 1% (nowadays $6B) off your market cap.

After all, the NYT isn't writing exposes on Carlos Slim Helu, who owns an 8% stake.
Thanks. I did upvote you earlier.

My experience with this: I worked at an insurance company for five years. A lot of what we did was driven by questions of what would hold up in a court of law if we got sued. Generally speaking, proving someone was an alcoholic had no bearing on the decision (there were exceptions: some policies had odd language driving those exceptions).
thanks for that. PadMapper probably would have been fine if they remained craigslist only.

I was watching Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai last night. In it there are a number of Samurai codes that are highlighted in title cards. One of them was this:

"If one were to say in a word what the condition of being a samurai is, its basis lies first in seriously devoting one's body and soul to his master. Not to forget one's master is the most fundamental obligation for a retainer."
Don't forget that screen-scraping doesn't work in print journalism - transferring the ads is labour-intensive.

But even if the labour was free and paper B was willing to print ads/classifieds for no money, it's still a drain on paper A's resources - running a classifieds department required staff taking calls for placed ads, plus editorial work and similar. If paper B takes those ads and sells them at a lower price, then paper A will lose out on revenue for value created by their staff.
But some 13% of Alzheimer's diagnosis are actually a prion attack.
I believe that the CPM for ads on Craigslist would be higher than it is for Reddit or Facebook. The key is that people browsing Craigslist are usually there to buy something rather than seeking free entertainment. Advertisers really value audiences who are ready to buy a product in their market.
any way to do this for -80C freezers? Many sensors used don't work at such cold temps - but it'd be really useful to build a similar (cheap) device to monitor freezers.
I Heart Py - Shell
I think this is fuzzy logic, to say the market is not working over time because some people you are close to complain about craigslist. You are ignoring a huge number of people and the vast majority of the market's information (even analysts can't pin all the dynamic in a market).

An idea can't "beat" Craigslist. It's the whole of a product and team mixed up with constantly shifting market dynamics and human preferences.

It's just way more complicated, and legislation shouldn't even come into the conversation here unless the company is provably violating another's civil or property rights. Are they?
How is the Windows 8 UX in any way familiar to the bulk of today's Windows users? I would argue that it will be more foreign to them than OSX.
Do your homework. Right after graduate school I went to work at a startup with $8 million in VC money, a nice office, and a good outward appearance. After a few months I found out that they didn't have customer traction, saw some people lose their jobs, and wasn't convinced that the product worked as advertised. I was just a small cog in a larger machine, but perhaps I could have asked tougher questions during the interview process.

Here's some more to chew on,

http://venturehacks.com/articles/job-offer

http://genuinevc.com/archives/2005/10/18/seven-questions-emp...

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/03/nine_questions_.html#axz...
Simple. I don't think Craig is trying to flip his company for an acqu-hire. I don't think Craig will have any investors pulling him by the short hairs towards an IPO.

My prejudice is that PadMapper probably wants to flip the company, and even if they don't, they probably have investors who want them to.

I trust Craigslist, and I don't trust PadMapper.
We are entering the era of corporate fascism.