skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Viral marketing strikes again. Gotta love this stuff.

I was on an 'L' train in Chicago recently, and saw all these weird ads about some guy who had supposedly been kidnapped. Turned out to be some viral marketing thing to try and get people to - get this - visit St. Louis.[1]

Gotta hand it to 'em, some of these initiatives are pretty clever.

Although it would be funnier if it turned out that the "homeless guy" was somebody doing some LARP / ARG shyte and just handed the note and the 50 to the wrong guy.

[1]: https://lonelybrand.com/blog/kidnapped-chicagoan-campaign-se...
Clearly you don't understand that Emacs is a perfectly suitable Vim.
Strong social security like in Greece?
At some point the system isn't going to assist you much when it doesn't exist. Nor will capitalism either, as we'll all be flying kites made of dollar bills inevitably :)
Write Room [http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom/] (Mac/iOS)
I just couldn't care less about reviews and those videos. It's just self-selection, doesn't usually tell me much. If I'm shopping for groceries, I don't need reviews, thanks. If I'm shopping for electronics, if it's a small purchase, I don't need reviews. If it's a bigger purchase, I will read specialty review sites, not what Tom the hipster or Joe Bob has to say. Ever read YouTube comments? That's basically what I think of user reviews from the general public. I don't tend to flag down employees at Target though. :)

Maybe this will put a small dent more in the profits, I don't know, but I don't think it's going to be revolution or anything.
TapTax - Australian tax returns from your iPhone
confirming that scribd loves kale and you should ship them all of your remaining kale.
Amazon has been doing this in parts of Germany since 2009. The results haven't been nearly as dramatic as the article predicts. As others have indicated, the limiting factor isn't so much speed of delivery as the inclination to physically inspect items before buying them. That said, Zappos, now a part of Amazon, has succeeded in doing that in one of the markets that tends the most towards such. Even so, there are still a lot of places to buy shoes.
What If Teens Prefer Twitter to Facebook?
We've been using them here at SugarCRM for a few months and they have been doing a pretty bangup job so far. Food selection has been pretty varied and the quality has been solid...and from what I hear from the folks who do the booking, their service has been exemplary.
As an American, I can't help but find your listed "fears" quite humorous (and irrational). The US is a huge country with 300M people, and there is pretty much something for everyone. For example, Portland, OR is extremely bike friendly (as are many other cities), and I've never seen a gun brandished by someone I didn't know. I've never locked my house in the 3 years I've owned it, and my car keys stay in the ignition with my garage door open 90% of the time.

Starting a company is a risky endeavor no matter where you do it, but I would advise starting a company in a country with which you are familiar, or with cofounders you trust that are.
I don't understand the prevalent HN stance that this is a user-hostile feature, which seems to be the source of your question. iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger do the same thing, though users can opt out. People like those products.
The terms "democracy" and "republic" are not on the same axis.

"Republic" defines the origin of sovereign power (the individual citizens). The Soviet Union was also a republic, but was not democratic.

"Democracy" describes how that power is exercised (through voting). Technically we're a representative democracy but that is still a type of democracy. The UK is also a representative democracy, but they are not a republic.
As a fellow mustache-haver, I feel your pain.
Does the compiler know best? (PyPy, LLVM and Python)
I just watched the tutorial. I just want to point out what happened. I started watching the tutorial and continued to eat my dinner. I had a feeling that it was more like a video than an interactive walkthrough so I ended up being stuck at the project creation page not realizing that I had to put input some information. The woman started talking about some stuff that were not visible on the screen so I got a little confused and started looking around to see if I missed something. Otherwise, the technology looks cool, but I don't want my users to be confused as I was.
But you're picking a fairly non-representative product for this issue. I doubt any of us are going to be buy a laptop from Walmart, looking at their stock, I don't think many other people are either. They have a couple but this is not their bread and butter (which actually is their bread and butter).
Since there is really no demonstration or walkthrough on their home page to explain their analytics tools, I followed their hinted example of www.qrafi.com by typ www.google.com, which generated the following unhelpful error message:

snip:

Sorry, but that was a bad idea.
I hate to break it to you this way, and we're sure it's not your fault, but the last thing we need is another moronic QR code pasted on some poorly designed poster. It's like a damn epidemic. I've heard words are pretty good for communicating, so perhaps try those instead of alien barcodes.
Thanks,
Chopeh
@chopeh

/snip

So I went and tried a few random domains, both with and without http://, and each generating the same error message.
“Development costs at least 10 times as much as research, and commercialization costs 10 times as much as development. So in the end, research — which we think is the most important part — is only 1 percent of the effort.”

This just means that it's easy to get something working in a lab but it's hard to make a product that you can mass produce. In non-voitile memory a flash replacement is always 2 years out, just like cold fusion is always 10 years out.
Did you not read the article? Full episodes on thedailyshow.com are currently unavailable.
I think you and I are saying the same thing, but to be clear, this was "common sense" on CLJ long before mainstream libraries adopted the practice.
It's a beautiful site! Nice to see something that doesn't look too Twitter-Bootstrappy. I like the blue highlighting around the cursor. I'd make it more clear that you really want the user to enter an email address (instead of just demo a hypothetical site asking for that). I was a little confused when the tutorial abruptly stopped.
What is the difference to http://rundeck.org/ which can be integrated with foreman or puppet?

It also looks like (not sure if i am right) but your worker/server has to have direct ssh access to the server. This means you basically have root access as most configuration management tools need root to administrate the server.
Like shoes ? and clothes ? those are starting to move online using some interesting technologies[1][2] and there's no reason to believe that we won't find a way to help with buying other physical items.

[1] using the kinect to virtually measure clothes on your TV.
[2] using a variable robot to show you how a specific garment would look on your specific measurements.
For most people that think this is going to wipe out the B&M stores ... Have you guys been outside of Mountain View lately? I mean, this is just the most ridiculous thing; it's just nonsense. Has anyone here ever been to a Wal-mart? You think all those people are going to say "Nope, just buying next-day shipped products from Amazon now." It's just not serious.
Hi Zheng, fair comment. If you'd like to learn more about the product and technical aspects of our work, check out these links: http://codeforamerica.org/demo/ and https://github.com/codeforamerica (including https://github.com/prashtx)
Indeed, when you look at surveys that ask people why they prefer shopping online, things like "24/7 convenience", "saves time", and "better selection" usually end up ahead of "costs less money, even after shipping" and taxes are usually a small part of that.

The lack of sales tax hurts local tax entities far worse than it hurts Amazon's competitors.
Whats the plan for making money? Is this ya - join.me?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

I'm going to be watching this several times a day until touchdown.
Yes,

Another part of retail is that different kinds of stores support each other. Anyone "making a shopping run" usually visits a number of stores, especially in the suburbs/exurbs where they are a distance away. The few stores people have to visit, the fewer "runs" they make and the more pressure they have to make do with stuff online. Just as much, when some of the stores in a retail complex go out of business, the complex suffers. The total number of complexes has to shrink and by the time that happens, some portion of the remainder is further disrupted.

Retail is in trouble. I'm in a major metropolitan area and it is very visible.
My best guess is that additional work-ethic has diminishing or even negative returns past a certain point. That's certainly what hours-versus-productivity studies show.
I think the big advantage of amazon's tax-exemption isn't necessarily competition from physical retailer's, but rather from the online presence of those same physical retailer's. For example, I was checking out target's website the other day. They were offering some online only prices on things, I loaded an item into the cart, but at checkout, when the tax and shipping was added, I backed off because it was too expensive. On amazon, due to the no-tax and (usually) no shipping charges, I probably would have made that impulse buy.
What's the difference between what Webvan did and what Peapod and various similar companies have been doing for years?
(Creator of Commando.io) First time we've seen RunDeck, its been mentioned a few other times here. Investigating now.
What this is going to do is punish people in non-metro areas.

The way that happens is the same way supermarkets work. In very competitive areas, cut rate prices, coupons and promos like doubling, etc. are offered very liberally. To make up for that profit loss, they pump up the prices and cut out promotions in areas where there is little to no competition.

In areas with a walmart and target and now amazon local delivery, prices are going to be crazy good.

Everyone else will suffer as they supplement the profit-loss.
The crucial point from the perspective of corporate procurement is that it externalizes the decision. While the parent could probably do the research and make a solid comparison to EPEAT, his employer would not believe him. Large organizations want to be able to set a policy that even dumb procurement staff can follow, and certifications like EPEAT give them that.
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Screenplay of Watch Ice Age 4 Online is by Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs and Camera work is by Renato Falcão along with Mike Reiss. This film is distributed by 20th Century Fox under Blue Sky Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Animation studio which is expected to be shown in theaters on June 27, 2012 in Europe and July 13, 2012 in U.S.A..
I had thought this was due to a glitch caused by adblock plus, since if you rewind back you can watch the part that skipped so it's not an intentional thing. I haven't actually gotten to testing it yet though.
I didn't miss the point; I disagree with it. Yes, it "takes a village" to bring that technology to a marketable life, but ultimately the large part of that chain isn't doing the "innovative" part (the actual out the box conceptualizing to fruition of a truly novel concept) but taking said innovation and making it consumable by a perceived (or primed) audience.

I am making a distinction between participants. What you are saying implies that its those because it makes something "better off" but I could say that about a lot of things that are not novel either (i.e. vaccination of poor populations that can't otherwise afford it), so innovation doesn't necessarily mean (or in my mind have to be) marketable to large numbers (i.e. novel new treatment for a niche disease).

Innovation != "bring a technology to life" (take it to market), its proving/crafting something truly novel.

Whether it makes it to wider usage doesn't make it any less novel, nor does successfully selling non-novel ideas at scale make that success any less valuable. I simply refuse to conflate the two.
I live in the same county as Amazon's HQ, I pay full sales tax on everything there, it hasn't changed my shopping habits one bit, amazon is just such a better deal most of the time.
The package I had delivered today came via Amazon Fresh - the grocery delivery service they are testing in the Seattle area. It looks like they're also using it for non-Fresh items too for small, commodity items like CDs

This is Amazon owning the entire process from order until the item is in my hand.
Walgreens (and others) already have kiosks like this. Haven't used them, so not sure if it's only for raw USB storage or they speak PTP (which most phones seem to have).
I only picked that because it was the example in the article. Looking at my recent Amazon purchases:

Amazon: Oxo Coasters $9.99 for 8
Walmart: Comparable set, Silicon Coasters $30 for 6

Amazon: DVD Rack $29.99
Walmart: Comparable model from same company, $39.00

Amazon: American Crew Pomade, $21.49 for 2
Walmart: $16.98 for 1

Amazon: 13 Watt CFL, $15.98 for 8
Walmart: Same model, $16.88 for 4

Those were the first 4 items I tried to compare.
Remember when home videos were going to obliterate movie cinemas? Who would go out when they can watch a movie on their couch?! For a while too things dipped. Then people realized there was a social element to going to the movies that made it a compelling experience. Add to that iMax and 3D etc. Heck, who would bother going to an Apple store when you can buy everything online!

Amazon is to shopping what McDonalds is to food. We all know what happens when you have McDonalds every day.
> The real power comes from creating more complicated recipes.

This is my sticking point: if the power comes from the recipes, how does having a web interface help any of that? I think this is a great piece of work, but I just can't see what the advantages are over any of its competitors given that all the actual work is still being done in the same way (e.g. shell scripts).

I would add that you bring up GitHub a number of times as a comparable service, but I think that the key difference is that a number of core git features are actually implemented by GitHub (e.g. fork, log, pull) and although this all looks great it isn't the reason (IMO) why it's successful, it's because it makes a common operation easier (i.e. git repository management). I think that you would need to make common dev-op "recipes" easy to generate before the GitHub comparison is correct.
Doctors buy their own stethoscopes.
Thanks for the feedback!
We were indeed really focused on customer service and are now finally finding the time to put some efforts into improving our image.
- Ben from Cater2.me
I am actually quiet sure there cannot be a live video feed. The best we can have is a twitter feed or maybe a live-blog from someone form NASA. I would have absolutely loved a video feed though.
He does not have to. There are certain types of defamation which are considered "per se libel" or "per se slander". He doesn't have to prove anything other than that you made the statement--you would have to prove the statement is true.
Moreover, per se defamation does not require proof of damages; the very act of the defamation is damage enough.
UPS could also benefit greatly if they play their bargaining game right and form a good partnership. Breaking into shipping is difficult, even for a company as large as Amazon.
Have you tried uppercase 'OR'? I found that worked.
discussion on HN about how downvotes work: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2380729
Solar Prominence 4K demo - 1st place at Rewired 2012
After looking at your video it seems the main difference currently is that your recipes are versionized (which is a huge plus)
In Preventing Alzheimer’s, Gene Mutation May Aid Drug Quest
To be fair, belt clip covers are not awesome.
I think amazon is concentrating on the clear and really hard pieces of eCommerce: warehouses everywhere, robotics, pack stations and leaves the fuzzy and less hard pieces to start-ups.

So now for example there are many start-ups working on the clothes and shoes fitting problem. In the future when the solution will be found , amazon would buy them , or just use their eCommerce muscle to force them into good terms or just copy them if possible.
> Go feels to me like it is trying to combine C and Python.

I think that's accurate, and to me it's a great thing.

I'm currently converting many functions written in Python, to Go. I haven't coded in Python or studied it, but I can read it fine. This exercise has made me a lot more interested in Python! However, I'm confident that for my use case the runtime speed of Go will pay off, even though it's not nearly as simple to code in as Python from the looks of it. I'll use Python (or even PHP) for things where speed isn't such an issue.
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so, this means we are heading to a walmart vs amazon war? shit just got real.
So I got a chance to play with it... My only gripe is GoDaddy... GoDaddy is bad. Very bad.
A general policy that "online stores pay sales tax" also benefits Amazon vs. small internet retailers.

A while ago I sold a few bumper stickers online and ended up using cafepress. I could have made a better profit by printing the stickers in bulk and mailing them to people, but I'd have to spend $100+ on paperwork just for the privilege of paying sales tax just in case I sell any to New Yorkers.

If small internet businesses had to pay taxes to the 40+ states that have sales tax plus to all the other jurisdictions (cites, counties, who knows what) in the U.S. it would be almost impossible to sell stuff and comply with the the law.

For AMZN the overhead is nothing.
Maybe "shallow" was the wrong word. I can go with "bad" if you prefer.
Okay, and I'm paraphrasing Louis CK here, you go make one if it's so sucky and imperfect.

Seriously, how hard can it be? Get together a BOM for the $5 in parts, send it through DigiKey and have it in a couple of days. That's like what, an hour of time?

Then layout a PCB in your favorite schematic capture and send it off to a board house, quantity one. Two hours, tops. Never mind you're wasting 75% of the minimum PCB size.

While DigiKey and PCB Express are cooking, time to write some firmware. If you chose a nice chip like a Cypress part and have some experience, you could be done in another 2 hours. You do have a development kit on-hand, right?

Then take all the parts, solder them up in your reflow, burn the code, test, and assemble. Another hour? Sure. (Hope those boards were right the first time and didn't come in upside-down) Whoops, don't forget the drivers. Let's do a quick linux one.

So $20 in parts and board, and six to eight hours of your time. What's your time worth? $2 an hour? Cool, you're golden.

I tend to charge a bit more for my time, so it puts me in the range where $30 is a great deal. But then again, I'm using the old ScrollLock LED trick as my message indicator. It's free.
Kale en route.
I thought Walmart already destroyed traditional local retail?

This one goes in the scaremonger bag.
Does RunDeck keep a log of every response? With Commando.io you can flip back through previous executions and see a snapshot of which servers got which recipe, and what the results were.
Really? Fabric is not the right tool for what they're proposing. Yeah, sure, can be used, but it's like using a hammer as a screwdriver.

Puppet and Chef have deep-learning curve and they're the tools that can be replaced with what OP is proposing.
Hi, I'm Ben from Cater2.me.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it! We are pretty focused on operations and customer service but we're (finally?) putting some efforts into our image and have revamped our website for example.
Stay Hungry! :)
Interesting! I'll definitely remember this when designing certain pages. I'm pumped to see another ambitious .io.

It might be weird to say this, but as another person picking a .io for an ambitious project, every great site on this tld helps the domain's image.
Genwin,

Sorry about the confusion. It's a hard thing to demonstrate and I understand how moving from hypothetical to real is a little jarring.

Thanks for the kind words about our design!
So the author is right and I really enjoyed reading this as I've got myself one of those shiny ideas and I can relate but then when he gets to the part about prototyping I get angry.

The implication in that part of the story is that if the author can get a million users with a 20minute - 12hour prototype then you should be able to as well. I think that's bullshit and it'll discourage a lot of people. If he had said "a quick prototype... And fair amount of users, enough to show you there's interest..." then it would have been perfect! Not everyone has a 12 hour block to create a prototype even if it's a simple CRUD app and some people aren't master programmers that can whip up a prototype worthy of a million users in 20 minutes but they may still be very capable of knocking something out that's of good quality to them and fast measured on their own scale. Now a lot of people reading this think the bar is set at a million users for a prototype to be worthy of further work. Even I thought that and I know better!

For example, a few months back I knocked out a quick prototype, stripped down to the core, just like the article describes. It took me a week or two to get it up though because I just didn't have time to do it all at once. That prototype with absolutely zero promotion got 40 users in 3 weeks. There was only a single link pointing to it from another orphan site that also gets no promotion from me. After reading this article I thought I was a failure. I didn't make my prototype in 20 minutes and it has nowhere near a million users. But then I remembered I'm operating on a different scale. I'm a nobody with no personal brand and no widely read blog. So my 40 users are the same as his million on my scale.

So in the end I think those details were misleading and unnecessary. I think they're unrealistic too. Either the bar is set super high for anyone with an idea or that was bragging. I mean, that's really impressive and deserves to be bragged about but when it's in a blog post meant to motivate, advise, or inspire people it only serves to set up the naive for a let down and get realists upset.
That list was definitely not intended as a list that applies to all of the U.S.; quite the opposite: some of the points apply to some of the U.S. (I didn't make that clear though). You're right, there's something for everybody. One problem is that this also works the other way; I have to pick from the places where I find an interesting job and where the employer wants to employ me. So far those places have been places where several of the above criteria are unfortunately met. I do know that some of those things are definitely irrational, and would not be a problem in practice (especially gun ownership).
I imagine this story would get a lot less attention if there wasn't $50 involved.

Google could hand out little cards like this anonymously to try to find smart people but the problem is someone would eventually turn to crowdsourcing.
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we have an exciting new monetization strategy that will enable free use of our services and does not rely on advertising - stay tuned for more very soon :)
Too reminiscent of those pesky read email requests. Also, 'Seen by' is not the same thing as 'Really read by'. One reason why I stopped using Messenger (the app and web version)

Favoring the content producer over the consumer won't necessarily lead to less confusion or a better user experience. It's kind of a forced form of social regardless of the group's size.