skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Online video conferencing services for small users?
Do you know of any online services that help you do one-on-one video conferencing, with credit card handling built-in? I was asked by a medical professional if there was a way to do consultations over video chat.
The team is two founders and a contractor. Without talking specifics, the distinction between acquire and acquihire is IP/revenue/traction. Acquihire means "we don't care about your product, market or IP, but we do need talented engineers who demonstrate they can build".
Countless articles are posted here every day that exist outside the guidelines.

Fully agreed with the factual statement you have just made there. But fully agreed with tptacek that the guidelines are worth preserving. HN doesn't have to become the general discussion site for the whole World Wide Web. I appreciate his taking the time to express an opinion on the scope of the site guidelines (which, empirically, appears to be shared by other participants here) and will bear that in mind as I decide what to submit, what to flag, and how to discuss submissions here.
Sorry, I should have made the context clearer.

They never went back to the issue later. They were discussing whether a specific Apple patent should be invalidated because of the prior art. They were sick of dicussing it, so they just moved on. Hence, the patent was not invalidated.
How Privacy in America Went Virtually Extinct in Just a Decade
Where's the coupon code for HN :) I'd suggest doing this and then having a link to your PayPal if we feel it was worth more.
And by "investors" they mean this blogger, right?
No worries...the Original link was just a stub.

________________

The article currently is just a stub. I imagine this is related to the heart bypass surgery he underwent a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185898/Neil-Armstro....

reply

corford 1 hour ago | link

It looks like it's true :( More informative article here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/neil-armstrong-man-moon-dea....

reply
Ask, not tell press to cover you: Sarah Lacy x FeedGen
Ok, I see it now. I suggest a tooltip-style balloon popup that tells users that they can change visibility by clicking the lock. Now that I know about it, though, I'm pretty happy :)

One other suggestion tough, once a track has been saved, there doesn't seem to be a way to change the privacy settings (eg, to make my track private, I basically edited it, deleted the original and resaved - if there is a simpler way, it isn't clear what it is).

Other than that, I like it. I think its still a little simplistic, but its an excellent start and you did say that you have a ton more planned - great work! I'll be looking forward to seeing this progress.
I recorded a beta test for recon.io: http://brinx.it/fqA

Hope you enjoy the feedback.
Nothing nerdy about math’s role in society
Now that Evernote has acquired PenUltimate (handwriting app), I think you'll see some really good integration on the iPad where you can use the stylus to write your notes, and it will end up in Evernote automatically.

http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/25868-news-penultimate-...
Consider that what you call innovation is seen by many as natural progression built on the shoulder of others and what you call blatant copying is in the same category. You just place each in different adjective narratives. The jury glossed over looking at prior art because it would "bog" them down, isn't that a tad more alarming then all the narrative provided for who is the "good" and who is the "bad" guy in this...
That's one small step for a man... one giant step for mankind.
- RIP Mr. Armstrong
While I agree that mediocre can be "good enough" (e.g. I don't see any reason to buy high end headphones, when I am perfectly happy with ~150 Euro ones), I think this should always be a decision made consciously, not one born out of stupidity or ignorance.

If those people don't require any of the things that make a "Samsung iPad" different than the Apple one, then fine, go save a few bucks, but don't chose it because you just assume that it's all the same.
The concept sounds great, and the technology works really well. But, having just used it for the last couple months, the ballpoint pen is so bad that it instantly degrades your handwriting. My notes may now be digital, but I can't understand them.
Slideshow: Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon
You should blog about it. I am really interesting in knowing your workflow and the reasons.
I thought it was Qualcomm that supplied the offending chips.

Anyway, it's not a straight Apple win on the standards-essential patents. The jury didn't find that Apple violated the patents, but they did, at least, uphold the patents. The jury just determined that the patents were exhausted, so Apple couldn't have infringed.

This should give Motorola (Google) pause in their lawsuits too, since they had asserted standards-essentials patents against Apple too. I'm not sure where they are with these cases though, it's getting too hard to follow.
When they answer this question, my experience is that the answer is "it's a trade secret."

Even when you start with, "look, the only way to get this number is by scraping it from my online resume --"

"I'm sorry, that's a trade secret and I can't tell you where--"

"No, look, I don't care, but take me off your list."

"Oh. Right."
Lest anyone think the problem is solely with juggling accounts across different geographies, here are some examples of how broken the whole Apple ID user experience is, even for people whose digital life never leaves the US:

- It's impossible to merge accounts or move purchases from one account to another, even if they are associated with the the same credit card information

- If you have ever at any point used an email address as the alternate contact on an account, it becomes impossible to make that address the primary contact and ID on that account

- If your Apple ID was created with an Apple email address (e.g., ...@me.com, ...@mac.com), it's impossible to change that email address

Millions of people have content scattered across multiple accounts in part because Apple merged several formerly separate accounts (iTunes, Developer, .Mac, etc.) into the Apple ID system. Yet Apple has made it impossible to unify your user experience.

To add to the absurdity, several Apple services still demand that you create a new Apple ID in some situations (particularly when your account was created for a service that pre-dated the Apple ID system).

And then there are the cross-border problems. ...
Meta: Is it just me, or is tech journalism becoming exponentially more vapid every day?
What perfect PR for Samsung. It reminds me of the story where a company hired actors for a PR stunt where they used pre-launch devices in public to create buzz for the product. Who was that?

EDIT: Maybe it was Samsung I'm thinking of. Evidently they have done stuff like that before (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110325/12360313633/samsun...). Netflix has done this too (http://www.avclub.com/articles/netflix-apologizes-for-hiring...).
What's your method for making decisions?
Some tips I learned listening to SendGrid's co-founders.
If it's non-technical people speaking about the differences between to technical things you can almost guarantee that they are trying to compare apples and oranges.
Working for a startup to strike it rich is about as reasonable a thesis as starting a startup to strike it rich.

Both of them are unusual, but not impossible.

Indeed, working for a startup is more sensible than starting one. It's zero risk (you're getting paid), and there's a potentially huge upside. And for career progression, there's nothing like it. People that started as interns at our company are now being paid market rates for jobs that would have been another 5-10 years ahead in their career had they not been in the right place at the right time. Hell, we even relocated one, expenses paid, to the other side of the world.

And if you're the HN type, it's the best place to learn about starting companies, and the fastest way to build a network to help you start and fund your own company.

So by all means, start a startup, but there's NOTHING wrong with working for one - it's way better than a corporate gig.
http://pastebin.com/MZMfBrzd
I agree that time will tell if they were able to clean the ship succesfully. But all the complaining about how radical the changes are for powerusers at least suggest they are honestly trying for once.

I like the curve analogy. It seems to suggest that good UI is like a partial ordering of usecases, where there is a clear relationship between complexity, position on the learning curve and popularity of the usecase.

From that perspective one might say the traditional windows desktop starts off its learning curve with too much complexity and puts system maintainance tasks too far down on the curve.
Yes, can we get the titled edited?
Tim Cook specifically stated the reason they took action is in alignment with Apple's values, with innovation being the big one. Looking at the products Apple cranks out I don't think anyone can deny they value innovation (even if it means stealing along the way). They used the existing system in the best way they could in alignment with their core values, despite the fact it might confuse the customer, they lose sales etc, etc. Good for Apple.
I think it's possible to say with some confidence that his life wasn't in vain. He, along with his colleagues here and on the moon that day, haven't inspired just one generation - but every generation that came after.

What an achievement. May he rest in peace.
Lance Armstrong has not been stripped of his medals/achievements. The USADA is not the UCI.
It's a bit annoying, and you shouldn't have to do this, but you can read it in privacy mode within your browser (in which case you won't be asked to login). I have a somewhat orthogonal issue that requires this. My Google Apps administrator has disabled Google+, so it asks me for a login when accessing Google+ pages despite the fact that I won't actually be able to read the article even after logging in.

Fortunately, Google+ pages still show up rarely on HN.
Awesome; nothing like a well dressed man. Being well dressed should never be seen negatively and if you're going to pay more than peanuts for a suit, it should fit well.

Good luck with the venture!
> just like the PC fanatics revel in talking about how amazing Windows is,

Hm, let's see. You could probably say I am a PC fanatic. "Personal Computer". I don't really care if the PC is from Samsung, Dell, Lenovo or Apple. I don't think Windows is amazing. It's ok as long as it is supported by much 3rd party software. I personally would chose linux anytime I am not forced by some proprietary (quasi-) monopoly software to use a specific operating system.

> I still can't understand how these people think, and how they judge quality, I think for some people, mediocre is good enough.

I happen to use an android phone. It has some annoying bugs:
A touchscreen that is activated in a pocket while receiving a call will sometimes behave very erratically. Sometimes (once every few months I get kernel panics [1], I think caused by the proprietary graphics drivers. But still the inconveniences are not that big that I would use some completely proprietary and locked down smartphone. If you think android phones are "mediocre" then maybe you are looking for the wrong qualities. Try comparing them with software freedom in mind and tell me how again the devices running android lose vs apple devices.

[1] http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24118 (I don't use the galaxy nexus but it seems similar enough)
Average Joe PC user is the guy that fills Apple's pockets. And Samsung's for that matter.
Death Takes a Policy: How a Lawyer Exploited the Fine Print
Woah, as a 17 year old, that blows my mind. I cannot wait to see what humanity accomplishes in my lifetime. Personally, I'm hoping to see the first man's footsteps on mars.
> No, but they should follow the GNU/Linux model of desktop UIs

Not to completely dismiss this but … have you noticed how much extra burden this places on developers and how this is almost always cited as one of the reasons why the OSS desktop experience isn't as good as OS X? There are many parts of the desktop experience which require more than cursory integration and that becomes a much harder problem to make generic and plugable.
> AFAIK there are no DRM or geolocation limitations on farming equipment yet.

There are limitations on where you can use seeds, though. And countless regulations on what fertilisers you're allowed to use. Modern farming possibly has as much if not more controls and restrictions in place!...
Just took 30 minutes of my time. I actually _felt_ like I was reading about our landing on the moon.

(note: Even though it wasn't the point - this is first time I've read a magazine from (virtual) cover to cover in several years. The advertisements and discussion of prince charles possible wife were fascinating.)
Can't buy love online? 'Likes' for sale
Here is the Google Moon view of his landing site:

http://www.google.com/moon/#lat=2.460181&lon=23.708496&#...
Neil Armstrong's death should be a wake-up call for the world
The writing's been on the wall for a very long time now. This is just another symptom of the continuing clamp down of OS X.

The App Store was the first manacle, and Gatekeeper is the second. It's no longer the default that you can install apps from outside the Apple walled garden. I'll go out on a limb and guess that a couple of OS X versions from now they'll move the override to an obscure command line. The next one after that it will be removed completely.

The sort of Kafkaesque nightmare this poor guy just went through will become the norm, with no way to escape it.

Personally I moved away from the Apple ecosystem a long time ago to Linux. At first I felt bad for the people left behind, but with each new story about non-upgradeable and repairable hardware, needless (and dangerous) patent litigation and the continuing iOSification of OS X, I feel less and less sympathetic towards them.
I've been on HN for so many years as a lurker and finally member. I don't recall what a "black bar" is? From what I've Googled I guess its some sort of solute to a fallen hero of tech or science? What does it look like?
They are different conversations. The first is about humanity returning to the moon, having stopped going, and the other is about people in the first batch.
In general the purpose of the markets is to provide capital to businesses that need lots of money to get started or do something new. As far as what the markets mean to Facebook or yahoo at this point, who knows. They aren't likely to really need additional funding at this point. The markets are just the place where their stocks trade, and it decides how much money the CEO has and makes (by virtue of the price of the stock).
That is beautiful. Gives me chills. Very sad to see Mr. Armstrong go, but his legacy will be remembered as long as the moon is.
Yes, that is correct. The orange header bar is usually replaced with a black one when someone of importance to the technology & science field passes.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=644954
Oh, they read, quite a lot. The problem is that they're not only devoid of any sense of ethics, but almost completely tone deaf to how they actually come across to the target audience they're allegedly trying to recruit for something or other.

Basically, their thought process seems to go about like this:

"Hmm, slow day. I think I'll just go spam 3,000 inboxes of random developers in an attempt to fill a position in some faraway state most of them not only don't live in presently, but would never consider moving to in a million years. They'll be so glad to hear from me! And it will make a great impression not only for our firm, but especially for the Client we recruiting for."
I expect Samsung's lawyers will focus some effort on this, the Foreman set him self up as an unacknowledged expert witness. And if the Jury member's statements are strictly correct, then a lawyer would argue that the Jury debate was tampered by evidence that was not introduced at trial. Judges go out of their way to point out to Jurors that the job requires considering just the evidence that was presented at trial and nothing else (which is why evidence rules see a lot of fireworks).

So the argument will go, this juror set their self up as an expert in the minds of the other jurors, gave testimony (evidence) on the veracity or relevance of the evidence presented, and that materially influenced the verdict. The client, Samsung, was denied due process because the were not allowed to cross examine this testimony.

Now it sounds simple but its not really as simple as that, because the Jury is expected to debate the evidence and trade opinions on whether or not they believed it. So what the lawyers would need to prove is that by creating the impression of being an expert, this jurors opinions carried undue weight with the other jurors and rose to the level of effectively new testimony. Its hard to prove a jury tampered with itself :-). I've got a fuzzy memory of something like this being pursued in either the Enron case ore of the AT&T cases but sadly I don't have access to Lexis.

More likely the speed of the verdict and the inconsistencies in the verdict will be sufficient for the court to take some action.

I do know that there will more motions and what not but I am not at all comfortable predicting the outcome :-)
It looks like a black bar. At the top of the screen.
I'm saying that we the news posts that we currently have don't give us enough context... the cnet post [1] doesn't explicitly say that they never went back to it. They explicitly decided that the patent was infringed, so they must have had some further discussions. From the article, though, it's hard to determine which patent they were talking about - likely '381.

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57500358-37/exclusive-appl...
This article is kind of old (September 2011), and I notice that the last stable release of F# was April 12, 2010. Is F# still a maintained project at Microsoft, or are people moving to something else? I know a lot of the more functional JVM languages (clojure, scala) also run on the .NET CLR.
And the photo spread on the tony new Watergate building. Complete with photos of John Mitchell enjoying his new digs there.

And the several pages on the girl troubles of the Prince Of Wales.
Going into my final year at Edinburgh uni, studying Comp Sci.

I've always felt that I'm not nearly as talented as the folks around me, however I've loved computers since I was 10, I'm still in love and I'm always writing programs.

Ever since I realized I'm not the most talented at comp sci (mainly the mathematics) I've had problems with my self-esteem. As such, I find this article incredibly comforting. Thank you!
The computer that put Neil Armstrong on the moon (1960)
From a usability standpoint, Windows 8 seems to be one of the easiest full desktop OSes I've seen, the windows key takes to to a large icon screen with all of your programs, and you click on the one you want to run. I think that some of the decisions made to accomplish that goal hurt productivity for more experienced users, and those experienced users experience that as a hard interface. I had the same reaction when I had to use windows 7 after years of a tiling window manager and the terminal.
Whilst I have huge respect and awe for Neil, his life will be celebrated by the people at large.

I think the Black HN bar is best reserved for more obscure but important characters who will have particular meaning for people in this site.
Editorial: Engadget on the Apple vs.Samsung ruling
"This is the type of computer that went to the moon in the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. There was one computer in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and one the mothership (CM) circling above. It was the first use of integrated circuits, as still displayed in the timeline cabinet to the left. It's cycle time was 1 Mhz, 11 instructions. It had 1K of 16 bit words of erasable (RAM) core memory and 12K of read-only memory (ROM). The ROM held the "Colossus 249" flight control software. There were no disks or tapes in the flight system."
Thanks Chuck, and thanks against for all your excellent help, ideas, and feedback!!
To be honest though, a lot of the questions were checkboxes. Did this device infringe, Y/N...

Once they had their criteria for evaluating infringement, they could hammer through the devices pretty quickly. I suspect that most of the deliberation was on if the patents were valid or not. If so, how then to evaluate if a device infringed?

I'm more curious to know how they determined damages... it seems like there should be a worksheet or something on that.
Staggering how much ignorance there is about this case:

1) It was NOT TECHNICAL. It was predominately a lawsuit about trade dress and UI driven patent infringement. It is exactly the same as judging whether a Nike shoe has been copied or not. You don't need to understand the technicalities of the manufacturing process.

2) The Samsung standards essential patents WERE considered valid and infringed. Just that due to patent exhaustion Apple was exempt from infringement.

So maybe you should understand the very basics of the case first.
Recruiter spam != bombarded by job offers. Far from it, in fact. The majority of third-party recruiter emails I receive are for openings that have very little to do with my actual skillset[1]. Even the ones that do match never worked out for me.

Getting bombarded my emails from internal recruiters at major companies is a different story, but still far from being offers.

[1] I'm particularly tired of the ones who were sending me 6-month contract Django developer openings just because I put Python on my resume.
I am extremely skeptical that a lawsuit that few people are even aware of will have any effect on either company's brand image. A lot of Apple's products could be called "iconic" - people with little interest in technology differentiate between an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4. I'd be surprised if anyone could tell a Samsung from an HTC. A lawsuit isn't going to change that.
The key to fixing Yahoo is changing Yahoo's culture. That's exactly what she's doing, one step at a time. Why not start with some low-hanging bureaucratic fruit? These are the kinds of issues that drive top performers nuts.
I have the 1680x1050 (IIRC) 16:10 T61. That was the upgraded screen not the standard at the time. It was perfectly acceptable, and has decent viewing angles, but not comparable to the IPS panels of previous generations.

On the Lenovo blogs almost any post will have comments complaining about the screens. Lenovo's response has been that they could only get better screens if they had large orders and that doesn't happen (apparently it would take tens of thousands of orders to get a screen manufacturer to change tooling for a 16:10 run). But somehow Lenovo charge $1,000 to have 16GB of RAM in a laptop (the most expensive place I have found for buying the RAM as a component is $200), yet don't offer better screens for any money.

I am very grateful for Apple making screens an issue that can no longer be ignored on decent laptops. I'm very happy with all other aspects of the Thinkpad, but the screen made me seriously consider an Apple product instead. Lenovo are just lucky that some of the non-screen aspects of the Apple products are sufficiently annoying to this Linux user that I didn't switch.
I don't know, but this question just strikes me as more than a little entitled. If PG wanted to change the color scheme, I imagine he would choose to do so without the pressure.

Neil Armstrong was a great man, but there are many great men and women who leave us. Where do you draw the line?