skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
A lot of the strong feedback appeared to be a backlash to the perception that this was a marketing scheme dressed up as a public service suggestion. Offering an open letter of advice coupled with biting critique, rather than making a private offer, does strike a certain self-serving tone. While I generally love seeing how designers would, free of real-world constraints, re-imagine popular sites, maybe the authors didn't choose the best tone or format for their submission.

That said, when I find myself typing something venomous (more often than warranted), I try to take a breath and delete. Worked for Lincoln: http://www.examiner.com/article/an-unsent-letter
geocities.com sites are still there???
> this is a pretty paranoid panic button setup

It is not terribly uncommon for agents of the US government to forcibly enter homes and kill the residents, often under mistaken circumstances. And as this story shows, their reach is extremely broad.

So, I certainly wouldn't classify it as paranoid, in this day and age it seems like common sense.
Android and iOS continue to carve up the world
Your profession doesn't make your opinion any more valid than anyone else's, or less valid.

There is a point in being nice, it's part of being sociable. We could have all the best solutions in the world, but if we can't share them in an agreeable way then they are going to be useless

Think of a world where parents mocked their toddlers for presenting them with a anotomically and structurally defective picture of their family and home. Would the child continue to create with happiness or just associate experimentation with negative response?
It's not dead. It's pining for the fjords.

Sometimes, especially with new users, these things just happen. Develop a bit more Internet points and you wont hit the spam filter as much, I don't think.

Also note that I remember hearing that links to certain domains get flagged automagically.

Finally, in the future email an admin instead of posting an Ask thread about these types of issues.
I haven't been able to follow discussions of this case closely, but from the samples that I have seen, the dominant narrative seems to be that the similarities between Samsung's devices and those of Apple are like the similarities between the Great White Shark and the Orca: of course they're sleek & hydrodynamic, of course they have dorsal fins, of course they have sharp, pointy teeth — they are filling similar niches, and given enough time evolution can make sea-dwelling, top-predator mammal look like a sea-dwelling, top-predator fish.

But now it looks like the designers of the orca have been studying the shark in excruciating detail.

If these design elements of touch-screen phones are so obvious and natural, then why do deep, point-by-point comparisons like this?
Yes that would be a valid reason to make that request, but the commenter above was misleading people that they had to login, which is wrong.
I meant that Apple is well known (in good or in bad) to the general public, despite the secrecy about the company itself.

IMO that is what lead to the success of tea leaf readers disguised as Apple analyst - i.e. the gp complain.

Instead of reading my religious rambling, have a look at the rambling of Samsung lawyers in the same line of reasoning: http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/05/samsung-accuses-apple-exp...
The real question is, why release the footage now?

One likely reason is that they are loosing this case in the court of public opinion and this video may have been thought to make him out to look like "the bad guy".
So, are you saying that a discipline that does not involve the physical world cannot necessarily be an engineering discipline?

Personally, I don't usually see people favoring the word "engineer" over programmer or software developer. As for myself, I see them as synonyms.
Google+ Demographics: One Year On
Yeah.

I can't wait until those christian revelation ministry sites (one in particular I can't remember the name of) get a hold of this stuff. They were excellent at abusing DHTML.
There is no doubt that the velocity Amazon ships features is a challenge to both OpenStack and CloudStack.

OTOH, I've been very impressed with HP Cloud (which is OpenStack based). It's true that it isn't yet feature-comparable with Amazon (if you use all the features of Amazon), but for most EC2/S3/CloudFront users then the HP Cloud combination of Compute (Nova)/Storage (Swift)/CDN (Akamai) matches up well.

Following the dev list, and it is clear that OpenStack comes from Operations rather than Software roots. For example, there is a lot of effort and discussion around the command line tools, but the edge cases in the actual web interfaces aren't well documented at all. (I"ve heard that CloudStack tends the other way, but I don't follow that as closely).

I recently ran a survey[1] that showed that over 50% of users have resources with more than one provider. To me that shows that there is room for things like OpenStack.

[1] http://fifthvertex.com/2012/08/07/cloud-tools-survey/
Anybody else bothered by the constant use of i-Phone rather than the actual branded name, iPhone?
Yeah, and leave the "web" for spiders, correct?
Engineering was long before software appeared, but is this a good enough reason not to reuse the word? Some software just happens (alas), but some is engineered—that is thought upon, designed; time is spent thinking how different parts are put together and how they will interact.
Closer to a "Please don't be evil, kind sir" bit.
As a trained electrical engineer, working as a software "engineer", it is my opinion that those quotation marks I just used are necessary.

I may be an engineer, but I'm not employed as one, even if it says so on my business card.
After this public humiliation it seems unlikely they will be able to pull similar nonsense at such a scale again.

They've destroyed Megaupload and got away with it. I' not sure I'd call the result "public humiliation", at least not for them.
I assume he was giving advice for when he advertises it other sites other than HN
Seems to be either limited to chrome, or the author didn't bother giving instructions on how to enable MediaStream in Firefox...
"Underlying our approach to this subject is our conviction that 'computer science' is not a science and that its significance has little to do with computers. The computer revolution is a revolution in the way we think and in the way we express what we think. The essence of this change is the emergence of what might best be called procedural epistemology­ the study of the structure of knowledge from an imperative point of view, as opposed to the more declarative point of view taken by classical mathematical subjects. Mathematics provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of 'what is.' Computation provides a framework for dealing precisely with notions of 'how to.'"

-- Preface to the First Edition of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/front/node3.html)
I would suggest we are not even talking about software patents but design and dress patents. I dont really think you can compare low level kernel algorithms to a visual design and dress patents. So to me thats an unfair comparison. In fact according to to other documents Ive seen, these are all dress patents being argued over.
hi, ok, so here's an example (taken at random from the pueblo nuevo archive i linked to above) - http://archive.org/details/pn014

i don't particularly want that album (i probably already have it thanks!) but it doesn't mention a torrent that i can see (the etree files have torrent in the links). and that's the same for all netlabel files (not many) that i have checked.

in comparison, http://archive.org/details/SPBB2006-04-29 (bluegrass etree!) does have a bittorrent link (bottom right).

i don't understand your opensource_ comment, but pueblo nuevo is a netlabel. so it seems to me that etree have torrents, but netlabels do not.

(this is just in case it helps / it's likely i am confused / no criticism intended / thanks for doing all this)
Ask HN: Citypulse wants to know, where are you?
A few months back we put together http://www.citypulse.com.au for a local competition to use some open data provided by our local council.

We're about to add some additional features, the first being multiple city support. Where abouts are you based? Is there anything in particular you would like to see added?
Stage 1 Meaningful Use Attestation and Barriers
Rob Anthony from CMS and Dawn Heisey-Grove from the ONC gave a presentation, Data on Stage 1 Meaningful Use EHR Attestation and Barriers.
I never really liked the term software engineer, and I think by the very definition of engineer it doesn't work. I've always refered to myself and others as a programmer, coder, or developer.
Indeed - I find Ryan Singel's attitude to be completely and utterly baffling. From his Wired post:

"Soghoian suggesting that if Quinn Norton ever wanted to write about about encryption tools in the future, she ought to “step back, take a deep breath, and pull the power cord from your computer” isn’t just rude and obnoxious, it’s border-line sexist"

Out of context, I can't really see what he's getting at. In context, the idea it's 'border-line' sexist makes no sense at all. Singel has chosen to infer sexism under the mis-guided impression it's targeting one of his writers, but in fact the quote is pretty clearly intended to be read as a criticism of all technology journalists.
Exactly what I was thinking. It must be a graveyard of autoplaying music, hit counters and flashing graphics.
What Is It Like To Be A Programmer At Zynga?
Isn't this a bit too useless? I could have made this in about an hour (with colors!). Why should this be on hacker news?
The world does have, rightly or wrongly, "process engineers" who use metrics to modify and optimize processes, physical or business. Just look at how widely the attempts to employ Six Sigma have been.

That said, being able to measure something isn't sufficient; one also needs the control to modify the thing being measured in a way that has deterministic effects on the metrics. GP's metrics have that feedback loop with respect to software, which pushes it towards engineering. Process engineers have that feedback loop, even on business processes. Your manager does not; most of their actions do not create deterministic results.
>I'm less sure that reading them specifically via git is a major revolution.

You're very right. The hard part is knowing where to look in the documents, not where to go to find the documents.

In a former life I spent a bit of time with my nose in the CFR. The hard part was finding the which regulations pertain to me, googling for "47 cfr 73.3526" was a cake walk.
hah, finally!
SEEKING FREELANCER - Remote, UK

Looking for a freelancer to help me put together the first version of my SaaS product. Web application + potentially iOS version also. Wireframes & mockups are ready to go.

I'd like to pay great attention to UI/UX even in the first version.

E-mail is in my profile.

Thanks
No PINs for credit cards in the US.
clickable link http://www.citypulse.com.au
I'm not entirely sure the value of the DNT header in the first place, even if Microsoft doesn't end up completely derailing it with this move... The kinds of advertisers who would voluntarily opt out of tracking behaviors in response to user preference probably aren't the kind of company who would do things with that information that you need to worry about. I can appreciate the intent behind it, and any move toward increased user privacy is a move in the right direction, but I don't think that leaving it in the hands of the advertisers is going to be a particularly effective approach. It may even be detrimental in the sense that a naive user would turn that option on and get a false sense of security.
Chrome uses Bit torrent on its installer?
Open Software Foundation (or "Oppose Sun forever"), they were never about "open source" but was a corporate group originally formed to fight AT&T/Sun and later Microsoft/WinNT. Despite millions of dollars investment in R&D and product development, they didn't produce anything of value. They also failed miserably in competing against Windows-NT. Except BSD, none of "traditional UNIX" had much to do with open-source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_wars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Software_Foundation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USL_v._BSDi
Yes, there's been a trend recently of "I'm redesigning X, completely from scratch, because it needs it" with the implication that X's current design is badly in need of improvement. This is going to bring the designer both positive and negative attention, and deservedly so. Typically the redesign is radical and makes bold, often false assumptions about the product, which makes these posts seem particularly self-serving.

I think that these designers could do just as good a job of demonstrating their creativity by using a fictitious brand (and possibly even drawing comparisons to known brands in the article). It is not classy to drag someone else's brand through the dirt.
It clearly cares about non-English speaking people, as there's many articles in other languages. As I say, I don't think the vast majority of people consider wikipedia as a "community". They consider it a place to find facts.

However, you don't dedicate 90% of your home page to 5% of use-cases.

Is it that hard to have a small dropdown language selection in one of the corners? I don't see why "language" needs to be the main thing on the wikipedia homepage.

Also I'm not sure going forward that language will matter that much. Chrome can already translate webpages to whatever language you choose with pretty good results.
Ask HN: Comprehensive security checklist for developers
In the light of the recent Amazon and Apple incident, and considering that HN is full of insightful comments regarding security buried in many discussions:

What would be a comprehensive security checklist for developers?

i.e. everything from OWASP, Schneier, best of the security web etc.

For example, just to get started:

1. Use bcrypt.

2. Use different non-guessable private email addresses and passwords for critical services.

3. Self-host critical email addresses.

4. Two-factor authentication.

5. Disable iCloud Find My Mac or disable iCloud completely.

6. Use FileVault2 or full disk encryption.

7. Set your system to log out after inactivity.

8. Set your screensaver with password to show after 5 minutes.

9. Use a passcode on your iPad.

10. Master server should not have access to backup server.

We tend to focus on securing the app we develop, without thinking too much about securing the suppliers we use, or reducing surface area, or considering orthogonal vectors.

There are many great checklists covering certain aspects of security, but it would be great to have all of this in one place.
It's so over-the-top though it seems to have had the opposite effect. The intro to the video indicates the footage came from a source within NZ law enforcement; perhaps he had a change of heart and felt the video needed to be seen.
Search Engine Optimization Services
Bitmiles is a search engine optimization services provider company and it is specializes also in web design & development, software development, graphic design & multimedia services in india.
Take a HTC Nexus One (2009)/One X (2012). While they are basically rectangles with plastic/glass screens on the front, the shape of the corner are a distinctive shape, the color and materials used are distinctive. While both are "inspired by" the iPhone they is clearly distinct designs.

In you look at the S in almost all cases where there was a decision point in the design process, the decision was duplicate what the iPhone did. When you have things like the corner ratios being substantially similar, the edging being substantially similar, even the power adaptor and cord being substantially similar then its well over the line "inspired by" line and into "we copied it" terrain.

Hence why one company is being sued for design patents and the other isn't.

The sad thing is with the Galaxy s3 Samsung have shown that they can produce a distinctive phone with its own design language. With the s1 it seems that they went out of their way not to do this.
While OPs statement might apply to single player video games where there is just one generic campaign. I feel the need to mention that this is not the case with all games, specially sandbox games such as Minecraft and multiplayer games such as Starcraft and Call of Duty along with a ton of other games.

Let's Play videos are great for the gaming industry, specially indie game developers. For example, Minecrafts success was partially due to all the Lets Play videos that were created on Youtube. Its essentially free publicity for video games. The prime example of this would be Seananners[1] who made a video that currently has 1.5M views. In addition, Lets Play videos allow players to preview the game before they buy it to get to know the game and see if its worth purchasing. A trailer is not always enough.

Disclaimer: I launched a website dedicated to Lets Plays 2 days ago (http://commentato.rs)

[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bAMaNYrJ4o
To the above few parents, keep this idiocy on reddit, please.
I'm being asked to login and I have a fucking G+ account.
I've read before[0] that it is actually a violation of a stores terms with Visa to enforce minimum transaction sizes. Those stores could potentially be reported to Visa and have sanctions placed on them (like an increased transaction rate). Interestingly, a merchant is allowed to offer a discount to people who pay by cash but they can't charge more for people paying by credit card.

[0] - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11697094/ns/business-consumer_ne...
Would be great if someone could build a 373 security questions app, which basically goes through a huge security checklist with you, and gives you a score at the end.
It seems you got the major things right, you site is looking very pro.

Can I play patio11? Charge more, something like 9/29/99 so you can get the business users that don't care about spending money as you and me.
Wasn't this exactly what it was though? A design led initiative?

I don't think they ever had any intention of it becoming a default wikipedia/mediawiki design - it was simply a way for a design team to show their chops by saying 'this is what it could have been / could be'.

I can totally understand the frustration from the engineers and developers who get that 'the design team always think they know best' feeling - hell, I've been there countless times - but I don't think they meant for that.

But reading some of the comments in that thread, I felt awful for them - nevermind a lack of constructive criticism, some of it was just out and out hate.

I'd like to think if they were ever taken on to design a site they'd be able to sit down with the developers/UX team/marketers/SEOs/whoever and come up with something that works for everyone. That's a lot of what being a good designer is about.

(For the record, there really has been countless times I've been given a design from a designer and almost wept with frustration. Mostly with agencies that employed print designers who've been forced to now design for web.)
They may not have understood what effect it would have.
Remote wipe is a feature or Find My Mac.
Are you arguing that it's Amazon's fault, not Apple's, that this "hack" happened?
The DNT header was likely to be ignored to begin with, but this just seals it.

The only way that the DNT header even stood a chance was if it was only enabled by a select few individuals who are greatly concerned with their privacy. By defaulting it to 'on' for users who don't particularly care about their privacy, or understand any of the implications, they essentially guarantee that only a handful of sites will even consider honoring DNT.

Assuming they actually stick with this, DNT has lost all of the little meaning it had to begin with.
And, software architecture is not architecture.

;)
Two helicopters, AR-15s, police vehicles, dogs, ninja-clad police, FLIR, and beating him up all over...... copyright infringement. Does anyone else see a problem here?
An the same goes for antisemitism. In America, [publicly] write anything critical of the Israeli government and you are labeled an anti-Semite.
But you still can read the content right?
IMO so readily putting people into groups of 'approval' and 'disapproval' based upon such limited information is a mistake. Quickly writing off others as those people seems close-minded, and you can miss out on a lot of opportunities with such an attitude.
Web Design Showcase (Esther)
That....is fucking awesome.

And since US law is a much larger project with more forks, I feel as though it should use Mercurial. :)
I used to burn some time when my son was young by sitting him in front of the attract loop of games in places like Dave & Busters. The more things change...
Raspberry Pi creator Eben Upton on how and why to get kids coding
Microsoft just can't win, can they?
Worse, it conveys the intent of "Please don't be evil and/or I never change my default settings"
Android Game Development Tutorials
The Curious Case of the Sexy Image
But surely this depends on your perspective of 'real work'?

The guy that spends 13 hours a day shovelling fish heads probably thinks that my 9 hours in a chair in front of a screen doesn't really consist of 'real work'.
With the recent amendment (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/06/default-do-not-trac...) to the spec of DNT that the header should only be honored if the user has actively chosen not to be tracked, I guess we've just created more data that is transmitted with every HTTP request and subsequently ignored on the server.

As IE10 sending DNT isn't a response to a conscious user decision ("I accept the defaults" is not consciously deciding "I don't want to be tracked"), servers are basically free to ignore the header if the browser is IE10.

This also means that IE10 will for all intents and purposes always be tracked regardless of what the setting is set to and whether the server in general honors DNT or not (currently I know of only twitter to do so).

Way to go!
Yep, you can't enable the tab feature without first taking a photo of yourself with the app.
Yes, you are completely right about that - of course it does not apply to any type of game, however I would say it could be the case for any game that has some kind of story or plot or levels embedded. There are quite a few titles, that I did not buy thanks to those videos: ranging from Indie-title like LIMBO to AAA-titles like Diablo III - I think Lets Play Videos are great! - Of course you cannot replace a good session of multiplayer-fun with friends(or strangers) - but I still believe that they might potentially harm (sectors of) the gaming industrie, even though I like them a lot!

Heads up for you website! (just as a feedback: why the mandatory signup/registration?)
Interesting suggestion.

I do really enjoy seeing creative individuals do unrequested design comps, but I think you hit the nail on the head: Don't drag someone else down to do it.
The fact that Asperger (sociopaths) are 10 times more prevalent in coding expertise might not help.

This is not an accurate characterization of Asperger syndrome or the hacker community. Wikipedia offers the following definition:

Sociopathy is the result of social conditioning which leads to a lack of natural human values. It refers strictly to a social condition where a person knows, yet has been socially conditioned to disregard, the intrinsic human values which are believed to be universal.

The somewhat similar characteristic of Asperger syndrome is a lack of demonstrated empathy. In the case of a harsh review of someone's project, this could manifest as statements that are accurate from the author's perspective but do not take in to consideration how they might make the reader feel. I don't think being blunt in a review is a sign of disregarding universal intrinsic human values.