skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If sites respect the DNT flag sent by the browser then this really should be a great step forward for user privacy contributing to a better web from a user's perspective.

As a user I don't care about your politics, alliances, bias, or nefarious (to me) goals. I simply am asked when I start using the browser whether it is okay for sites to track me and I choose the "heck no, of course not" option or the "yeah, whatever, go nuts" option. If I accept all defaults including using Bing as my search engine and DNT as being on who are you (evil web developer at mega-corp) to say my choice is invalid?
As usual Wired's brand of journalism is skin deep, at best. Any time they report on something I have a bit of expertise in, it's wildly inaccurate.

OP's tale sucks, but does not surprise me.
I can't say I'm surprised.

I've read some great stories in the Wired print magazine over the years, but their online presence is typically Gawkeresque.
I find myself drawn more to the funnier Let's Plays rather than the more informative ones. I prefer to play games myself so most of the time I'll play a game first before seeing if there's an LP about it.

Saying they're ruining the gaming industry is a bit harsh. What's ruining the gaming industry are people buying the same games over and over again without rewarding the developers who are trying new things. Yes I'm looking at you Activision. At least a company like Ubisoft is TRYING to do new things. And then some other big developers like Sega and Square-Enix have fallen on their faces.
Not to dilute the discussion even further, but that's certainly impressive, almost cute and shows everything wrong about this trial, basically why it shouldn't have been a trial in the first place.
There's no point in creatively discussing a mound of shit.
I know I've bought several games because I watched or read Let's Plays on Something Awful or YouTube and enjoyed them, and so bought the game or its successor. Three examples that come to mind are Arkham City (watched the Arkham Asylum LP), Europa Universalis (read an LP after playing CK2 a few times) and Assassin's Creed II (watched an amazing LP of Assassin's Creed I)
Ask HN: How to announce your team that someone got fired?
Discuss!
The JOBS Act: Random Thoughts About Investing And Egalitarianism
There are no problems left in first world countries </cynicism>
Interview with Thomas Drake, NSA whistleblower
I actually had the HTC Touch (I had a $30/mo unlimited SERO plan, couldn't complain).

It was a rock solid device (I even had Android flashed on it and in many ways it outperformed my "legit Android" Samsung Moment). WinMo6.5 was also a fine competitor in the PalmOS era, but everyone except AT&T tried really hard to sell skinned WinMo6.5 devices as touch friendly interfaces even sans-stylus in response to the iPhone. That fell flat on it's face once you tried to use any non-superficial feature on WinMo6. Dial a number? Sure, use your fingers. Need to enter a new contact? Bust out that stylus.
Amazing And Funny Hairstyles For Girls
Ask NH: lost a link on using  cat, awk, ack as sql
I am unable to find it now and did not bookmark it at the time. Can someone point me in the right direction.
This is a side topic related (so sorry for the threadjack!):

Does anyone else think TL;DR is a terrible replacement for "Abriged:" or "Summary:"?
Spare us the "kumbaya".

You earn respect and the courtesy of others falls out the other side. And even with all the trolls, anonymous bluntness and dens of iniquity that exist on the internet, there are plenty of ways to engage in positive or constructive feedback loops.

But if you've got a bad product (in this case a poorly executed and thought-out speculative redesign promotional piece) and you actually host it on a .com domain name for said product, it stands or falls on it's own merit.

Had this been a forum post or addressed to a design community with a culture of courteous discourse, I would decry the lack of respect and courtesy provided free expression, but as it stands, this was a cynical and misguided top level domain attempt that failed and should be called out as such.
Either you have the perfect commute (rent must be expensive?) or you're just not paying attention to how much time you're using in travel. Public transport takes longer than driving in virtually every possible situation. The only equalizer is if your commute were near perfect, and short you might gain a slight advantage since the driver has to park.

But if we go to robot cars we no longer have to park.

Also, places like Cairo are bad because of the human drivers. If you only allow robot cars that all goes away. The system can know where everyone is and where they are going and adjust speeds to the point of having your car end up 20cm behind the next car instead of having to use the breaks if you went 1/kmph faster for the last 200km.
The same goes for rasism.

Well, we're at a stage in our society where you can't truthfully criticize some people because they happen to be members of select groups. Do so and you are accused of some kind of "ism".

As the GP poster indicated, this undermines those truly trying to fight a given "ism".
Takeaways from 2012 WordCamp San Francisco
Yes the complaints are more common than the occurrence (I think that's pretty normal, though), but the occurrence isn't uncommon. Back in my reddit days I was accused of anti-semitism merely for saying that creating Israel at that particular location was a mistake. Was that a real person? A false flag troll? Who knows.

I've also read accounts by Jewish people whose family members called them "self-hating Jews" because they criticized Israel.

But these anecdotes are not that meaningful. They do tell us the views of some extremists, but they tell us nothing about the prevalence of that extremism.
In my mind this seems like FUD. With every new interface change - comes some sort of "oh my god they don't allow you too ...."

This article totally pops to mind - http://www.uie.com/articles/facebook_mini_feed/

When Facebook introduced the feed - it was like the world had fallen in for Facebook users. "Quit Facebook", "Worst thing ever" - "I'm quitting facebook" and so on it went.

Nowdays - no one could envisage using Facebook without it - it's become one of the most successful design changes of the site and users generally now like it (sure it still has problems - as does any design for 1 billion users). Indeed the above article concludes

"In the months since the mini feed was introduced, the users' initial reactions have since gone the other way. The mini feed is now a critical part of the site's functionality, allowing users an easy way to keep tabs on their network."

Windows 8 is no different. "Oh my god it boots to the Metro panels" - who cares. All Mac's boot the same and the consistent design interface has made all Mac User's happy. Microsoft is eating humble pie in this regard and accepts that it needs consistency across all its UI interfaces - unifying it's offering is the only way to continue forward. Booting to Metro is probably will make "some people" more likely to go and buy a tablet or phone with Metro because its now familiar - that's not a "disaster" - thats simply innovation and consistency in design principles.

What annoys me about the article is comments like

"If Microsoft continues down this path, the strategy will backfire, and PC owners with a choice will likely skip this version of Windows, much as they did with ME and Vista."

Yep, except the next version will have Metro even more tightly integrated because this is an entire interface design change. Everyone hates change, people like staying with interfaces they are used too. Changing things creates confusion but sometimes its for the better.

I'm not advocating that this is necessarily for the better, but it's certainly not a "massive metro mistake" as much as it is a consistent interface change which is required (I assume) as part of Microsoft long term UI strategy.
Bitrix24 cloud service seeks foothold in China - Gizchina.com
I suppose that makes some sense.

However, it doesn't change the fact that by enabling it by default, most other sites will likely end up just ignoring it, even if that isn't Microsoft's intent.
> Do you actually believe that calling someone a sexist (however 'careless' it might be) is an attack on the male gender as a whole

Keyword being 'often' not 'always', and it's usually particular to the male/female gender issue rather than all majorities/minorities. In particular, if you read the article you'll see that both the critic who claimed sexism and the woman being critiqued throw the term "boy's clubs" about. I've found it's socially quite acceptable to imply assumed male misogyny, but maybe my 'often' should be degraded to 'sometimes'?

> A problem with reverse racism/sexism arguments is that they allow people who are secure in their positions to brush aside the racist/sexist undercurrents of society

Right, which makes it all the more important to ensure that when racism/sexism claims are made, they are made legitimately and not casually, lest they be used as examples to dismiss, or ignore, genuine issues.

> Just because people with axes to grind can use gender as a smear (an inept one, in this case) to paint someone as a sexist, doesn't make it right to imply we as males are somehow being attacked or victimized

This probably comes back to my first point, but look I think the points are orthogonal. We agree that using social issues as a smear tactic is wrong. What I've noticed (and we seem to disagree on) is that at least sometimes (though perhaps limited to the gender case as I talk about above) someone using a social smear tactic will make an appeal to the wider issue (e.g. "x is a horrible sexist, and we all know how bad those boys clubs are") to solicit agreement and rapport, thus strengthening their attack. What I get concerned with is that the implicit acceptance of this wider issue claim tends to paint the majority as collectively guilty of issues which should be identified on an individual basis, which leads to more of the "us vs them" mentality that we're trying to eliminate.
Nope, but a friend did.
Am I the only one who finds a capital "T" very non-intuitive for "Dictionary"? Likewise "V" for "University"? That part of the whole logo branding I found unnecessarily concise.
Integrity Matters, In Everything
In Québec Software Engineering is covered by the "Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec".

Software engineers have to come from accredited engineering schools and take the same exams as engineers from other fields.

They are also required to follow the same code of conduct.
How to build trust
Are Samsung and others still screwing up the vanilla Android UI with things which are worse?
I had the same sort of thought: it's really, really difficult for the bulk of programmers to create an idempotent operation. Therefore, through no fault of its own, TCP Fast Open would acquire a reputation for goofy behavior.
Does this mean that in order to charge money for any programming work at all (even VBA) you have to have an accredited qualification, or can you do so but not call yourself a software "engineer"?
Stripe coming to Canada
Just got my beta invite. Its a good day.
Current weather for Jhelum | Local | Pakistan
someone else pointed this out - if they do this during the initial install/setup of the browser (first time it's run, for example), having explanatory language and an option for DNT that defaults to something is 'good enough'.

However... this possibly is too broad. "DNT" may not be something you want to do for all sites/tracking-entities, and the 'experience' of the web as a whole (untargeted ads vs targeted ads) may end up being degraded for IE10 users, who may switch to something else and be less annoyed.

ALL of this would be wholly unnecessary if 'cookies' hadn't been (and continued to be) treated as some sort of backroom black-magic that is consistently hidden from users at every turn. A little extra chrome in the browser that displays cookies being set/transmitted, along with an ability to delete/block them - directly from the browser, without having to wade through 'advanced/privacy' menus - would go a long way to giving people easy control and insight in to what's really going on.

Paranoid privacy nuts wouldn't trust it anyway, and would keep using hand-compiled lynx or amaya, but the rest of us would be able to quickly see what's going on and prevent things we weren't sure of.
I signed up for square about a month and a half ago. I ordered my little device at the same time and it still has not showed up at my door step. To me, they have been a lousy service so far sadly.
it should be fixed now hopefully
Actually, I lavished on praise for their brilliant redesign, but it turned out I was hellbanned and slowbanned for an earlier comment. My comment of praise never showed up.

And that gets to the point of why people are hostile on HN: because the site administrators and moderators are hostile and hellban users for the most benign comments.

Leaders and administrators set the tone. It all rolls downhill, as the saying goes.

Oh, and my account will be hellbanned and my connection slowbanned yet again for speaking out. As per usual.

TLDR: Look to the admins of the site. They have been setting the tone all along. That's where the hostility is originating from.
Ah!

So we're relying on the cashier to care deeply enough to do this validation.

Remember the phase when credit cards were being issued with a picture of the card holders face on the front? And all the stories about the card with a picture of a petite Indian female being used by a large white male to ring up purchases?

I like the concept of Square, and I'd like for this to work. But the cashier being a face-recognition gateway seems like a horrible idea.
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This is the first time I have ever heard the term "imposter syndrome" and I realized that is exactly what I have. Thanks for introducing me to the concept.
How To Dress A Middle-Aged Nerd
Grouped Tabs
This is the internet, it's how it works, it's how it worked since at least Usenet (and probably before, but I can't testify of that). The social norm is different than regular "face to face" conversation.
It's harsher, but it's also often more honest I think.

That's exactly what PG intended HN not to be. It's meant to be different, nicer, better thought out. If it devolves to a common web message board, we lose what makes it special. Read this, if you haven't before. Especially the last paragraph:

http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

In any case, if there's a secret HN where everyone is nicer, sign me up.
Obat Ace Maxs
Without commenting on whether Kim is in the right or the wrong ... this whole thing was pretty disgusting. For a case where there are no drugs, no murders, nobody hurt, to storm in with weapons and detain women and children is pretty despicable. Completely unwarranted.
Stompy: The Giant, Rideable Walking Robot - Running Python
I remember coding this up in ARM7 assembler (Gameboy Advance) a while back. Clever algorithm.
This is a great first app. I assume you are looking for ideas of things to think about and work on next, otherwise I wouldn't criticize. So here are a few ideas:

- Right now you have to click directly on the checkboxes and radio buttons, which are small targets. There is an easy way to let users click on the text next to the checkbox, and a padded area around it a few pixels, which will make them much easier to use.

- You are mostly using the browser-default typography. Most web applications look better with sans-serif fonts, like the ones you see in any menu on a desktop application.

- The url is currently a bit ugly for the default case, with lots of ?blah=all. Can you figure out a way to remove those and just assume "all" as the default if it isn't in the url?

- The filter tab currently has what I would technically describe as "a big jumble of options". Everything looks the same and is the same size, as if you expect all of the options to be equally used and to have the same relationship. Can you think of a way to provide more understandable structure, by making some of the options (the more useful ones) stand out more, and others be out of the way. Or can you find some relationship between the different options that can be expressed visually?

- "Only free themes?" All, Yes, No. Are "all" and "no" the same? Perhaps you mean: All, Free, Paid?

Have fun! I know how exciting a time it is tuning your first big thing. Good luck.
I'm a completely uninformed white male, but I'm weary of drawing analogies between sexism and racism. It seems like reductionism, I think they should be tackled separately.
It's actually based on ScalaQuery (http://scalaquery.org/).
No it doesn't.

But the term Engineer is protected. You cannot legally call yourself an Engineer if you don't have the degree.
Ask HN: Suggest me good design tutorials & books for mobile app/Web app design?
I am a budding app designer and want to learn and get hold of art of design too. Can you please suggest me some good tutorials and books for mobile app and web app designs which could be good starting point?

Thanks in advance.
I wish someone made a virus which installed tons of anti-adware programs and plugins on target machines. Imagine - every single PC with adblock loaded with rules, wouldn't that be cool :) .

inb4: "but ads fund free open web" - I can live with paying subscription for every single site I really want to visit (even huge subscriptions if the site is that good). There are very few of those. AND many "free open" sites do not have ads even now.
Microsoft is being overly aggressive and has ulterior motives that don't align with their users. Very typical of their short-term Machiavellian style of thinking. Tactically they are making a questionable decision.

They are trying to break a very reasonable compromise that would have benefited almost everyone. Instead, as one of the largest tech companies that doesn't depend on advertising revenue, they are trying to use their power to cripple competitors. They won't win. Online advertisers are too powerful (and drive too much of the growth in the economy nowadays), legislation won't regulate the industry in a way that will hand Microsoft a victory. Meanwhile, IE's users will lose because their choice to be tracked will be ignored.
I've watched several Let's play games. They have caused me to buy games at a much much much higher rate than I would normally.
Sir Bernard Lovell dies at 98
Conan O’Brien Breaks Down The Apple/Samsung Trial
Student Makes Class Registration Easier; Receives Probation
The Minecraft youtube community is huge.

There are the well known groups (Yogscast; Mindcrack; the machinima groups) and then there are some sub-genres - RacefortheWool, Minecraft tourny, Redstone Development Foundation etc.

A few people noodle around on Minecraft, and then get bored. A quick look through some Youtube let's plays quickly gives a vast variety of game styles to try. People could try "superflat hardcore survival", or have a go at a Vechs map, or include redstone magic wire, etc.

Good quality let's plays enhance the game experience, and open up the game to different styles of play, or to new weird stuff the player might not have known about.
I always got a kick out of my three year old daughter referring to it as "Yourcraft", or "Daddy's Craft". She only stopped just this week.
AFAIK, they aren't suing HTC and Motorola for infringing on their trade dress and design patents though, only Samsung is getting that attack. And, it's not like Apple's the only one participating in the patent lawsuit game, it's a big web of lawsuits where they're all suing each other for something or other. We single out Apple in this mess because they're the most headline worthy.
That's because fear of being labeled is a deterrent from writing anything critical. To argue that this isn't a problem, find examples of people being critical and not being labeled.
I think this is largely a communication issue. I don't think people on here are inherently hostile, except for a few. Personally, I tend to chose rather strong words to get my point across. People who know me realize that I don't mean to insult anybody with this. It's just that I have strong opinions and try to emphasize them in discussions. You could call my discussion style harsh, but I'm really just trying to be as honest as I can and I don't care whether my wording is polite or politically correct or whatever, as long as it serves it's purpose. And there are quite a few people like myself.

There's also an exact opposite of that: People who choose their words carefully in order to be polite and constructive. That's what you describe, if I understood you correctly.

I personally think that most people here are constructive, no matter whether they're giving harsh responses or polite ones, because it's all feedback. It's part of the discussion. I think we (not just here on HN) shouldn't get caught up in social norms too much, as it only hinders the actual discussion. Words are just words and the way somebody tries to get a point across is a part of his character and others just have to accept that.

But still, there's a line in the sand and that's ad hominem attacks. This is what can truly kill constructive communication and should be avoided in any community.

However, just my 2 cents.
You can't do the math yourself? Rage comics were a thing in 2008. It was dead and buried by the time redditards decided to fornicate with its corpse in 2009.
Here are the Best Places to Live--in 2032 - Yahoo Finance
Show HN: Burner, for temporary phone numbers
I assume you railed equally against Google for making Android free given they don't depend on product or hardware sales for revenue but rather advertising? When you're a near monopoly, as MSFT was a decade ago, there might be some muster to your argument. When you're not, you'd be foolish to make a choice that came down on the side of making life easier for your competitors vs more challenging.
Rephrase your question- What problem a lot of people tried to solve but is still not perfect (almost all of them) - Then pick one you want to work on and make that better-
Usually in the US, everyone knows when someone gets fired. No need to announce. We just find out that the person is not there anymore since their desks are cleaned up secretly or they are walked out right away by security.
Look forward to reading these, have never coded games but been meaning to have a crack for years. Whats your opinion on the Ouya?
Once Starbucks are on the Square system, might that be the perfect opportunity for Square to flip a switch and ask customers for their bank details?

If Square could do a GoCardless with all those consumers that use Square, both Square and merchants could benefit massively...
We Are Witnessing the Death of GameStop
Faking transitions on gradients
I think the most fascinating trend here is that people are not purchasing anything but a smartphone nowadays.
3 Interview Questions You Must Ask
TouchDB-Lucene: Fast Text Search on Android for CouchDB
I always lead with my Amex, even if I know the place doesn't take it. Merchants need that kind of feedback from their customers. If they won't take Amex, I've got other cards, but I always prefer to use either my Amex or my Discover (another card with spotty acceptance).
This doesn't have to do with marketing Internet Explorer as being more secure / privacy friendly

Sure it does. When you're losing you need to differentiate, and Microsoft is choosing the "privacy first" route. It's fairly transparent, but it does get them a lot of press (almost all of the "they're really sticking to their principals" variety. At the same time I can't turn on my xbox without endless banners of ads).

From MS's perspective, that's a win-win.

And from a user's perspective it's a short-term win, long-term loss.

I think that the optimal response to IE and DNT is that every ad-supported site puts up a paywall for IE DNT users. If users associated IE with such a negative web experience, its use would quickly crater into the ground.
Fascinating considering data costs. It's hard to buy a dumb phone from a carrier nowadays though.