skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well, I've gone to have a look at your blog, and it doesn't really seem to contain much that I would choose to read. I'm not necessarily your typical reader here, so I'm certainly not representative, but it's a data point. There's nothing about coding, or tools, and the news that's there is easily obtained elsewhere, probably earlier.

It's a blog - it's your comments about what's going on. While of itself that's no reason to be banned, once it has got banned (for whatever reason) there is no real evidence or reason to unban it.

As I say above, this is just my reaction - perhaps others will chip in with their opinions.
Hey HP, you used to have a smartphone, a good one by the way. Does the name "Pre" ring any bell ?
yes, euro-style . vs ,
How well do you handle long term data aggregation? Do you import from other tools?

I use a combination of RescueTime (always on) and ThinkUp (social media) to capture my data. Neither precompute aggregate data so viewing long term totals is very slow. I have 3000h logged in RT for this year alone and I have 3.5+ million rows of data in my ThinkUp DB. One of these days I'll get around to doing something cool with their data.
HP needs to get out and stay out of the consumer world.

I used to love their printers, no more. They're unreliable and consumables are too expensive. Their computers used to be high-end with good reliability and excellent customer service, now they are just another me-too box.

HP has become short sighted.
+1 Backbone. For me the more open-ended approach has allowed space to try different approaches to see where they fail, and refactoring. This open-ended approach seems to jive well with the spirit of js, and has definitely made me a better dev.
Sorry, but many, many people actually loved and bought other smartphones before Apple.

Apple stands on the shoulders of giants like Nokia, Palm and Blackberry (aka Crackberry).
the timeline C -> C++ -> Java -> Go is ridiculous at best, and this ignores work on exceptions or error handling in countless other languages that could have made it better.
If your looking for a web based API for manipulating PDF's, SaaSpose provide a commercially supported solution
I think HP rebounding from the Palm "incident" and somehow still managing to release a hit smartphone would be more miraculous then Apple rising from the Ashes.

I look forward to seeing what happens, but I'm very skeptical that a company such as HP has any chance at this.
For myself, Android phones have 2 major features that I would sorely miss if I switched to iPhone 5:

- a 4.7 inch screen is almost 50% larger than a 4.0 inch screen

- transit integration with maps

As far as I can tell, the only thing that I would gain by switching to an iPhone would be a CBC music app that doesn't suck.

But your basic point is correct: we've reached the point of diminishing returns. Any high end iPhone or Android phone is "good enough" and the differences between them are not worth the time or effort that most people put into them.

Here's my buying advice for smartphones. If you already have one and want to upgrade, buy one of the same kind. The pain of switching ecosystems is far greater than any benefit you'll get from switching. If you don't already have a smartphone, buy one similar to what your friends use. The benefit you get from a shared ecosystem far outweighs any difference between phones.
http://www.soyacincau.com/2012/01/10/sony-xperia-s-trumps-ip...
This is probably the worst thing author can do.
I personally close the page right away.
Are CEO's Overpaid?
Thank you! I will definitely do that eventually, but right now there is just too much stuff happening in my everyday life to find the time for writing. I will do it though.
I agree with the points in your analysis, but putting your example in a competitive marketplace should cause prices to reduce to the marginal costs.

Perhaps some of the local colleges can provide at that price, but we've created a system that values name-brand education, and the artificial scarcity at the top (partly, to protect brand identity) mitigates some of the downward price pressure.

Even still, if marginal costs are a fraction of tuition (and I believe they are, often) why are tuition rates increasing so rapidly?
That's solid advice. As for transit info, that did exist until Apple ditched Google Maps, but Google will release a dedicated app for Maps and all will be right with the world again.
Ok, then it's not for you. Simple. LO is an Office clone, something iWorkdoesn't even attempt to be. I don't want iWork to be an Office clone. LO sucks because of that. (And import/export is far from painful.)
A look at Facebook's HipHop "C++ like" performance
Not all of the "Chinese" speaking population live in the same country or speak the same language. Further, they also have different writing systems, with simplified being official in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, and traditional being used in Hong Kong & Taiwan.

There are also different phonetic systems, like Zhuyin/bopomofo. Some of these are taught in the educational systems and used as computer input method.

Apple choosing to support only one of these would be far more drastic than forcing all Latin alphabet languages to use the same layout. There could also likely be political ramifications, as traditional and simplified are the subjects of significant debate. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate_on_traditional_and_simpl... ]
The best site used by graphic designers for discussing corporate identity change is Under Consideration Brand New. They have their eBay article up....

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/ebay_set...

Of all the potential logos that could be done for eBay
this is the absolute most boring and risk-averse logo
that could have been both presented and selected.
Creator of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, engages with web app frameowrk
html5boilerplate recommends all the way up to 144x144, and here is a awesome psd template to make all the sizes in one fell swoop: http://drublic.de/blog/html5-boilerplate-favicons-psd-templa...
at archify you can connect you facebook, twitter & linkedin account, we then import all your streams into our database (elasticsearch cluster).
the same goes of course with the webpages when you have the plugin installed (works on chrome, safari, ff, ff mobile, dolphin).

the stats are not the main feature of archify, people can search online in their archify to find stuff again they have already seen, so you dont have to active bookmark anymore.
You mean the standards/convention vary by region. :)

On the other hand, if writing in English, it makes sense to use the conventions for English, not the German ones just because you might happen to be German.
haptic feedback? I only ever hear geeks asking for that feature, and it's YEARS off. NFC will only be as useful as the number of vendors who adopt it. Yes, increasing battery life significantly will always be a killer feature, but that's obvious. Predictive modeling sounds like software to me, and I'm talking about hardware features.
Oh, I see, so a diplomat is someone who holds a position in a faction (or whatever the name is) who basically says "okay guys, we need to do X for people not to hate us".

I didn't realize diplomats were in factions, I thought they were sort of independent, which is where my confusion arose. Thank you!
3GS came out in 2009, didn't it?
Look Inside Apple’s First Swedish Retail Store, Opening Tomorrow
Anybody saying the LG Prada is proof that the iPhone was not revolutionary has clearly never used an LG Prada. It was not a good phone.

The mere fact that nearly every smartphone on the market today has the same form factor as the iPhone and follows a similar UI paradigm should be evidence enough of the iPhone's impact. I see no reason to deny that.
Suggestion: They have to come up with a plan and stick to it. Through thick and thin. They have to be like Apple with the AppleTV. Don't make lofty pronouncements, call it a hobby, anything, but just keep plugging away incrementally improving it.

I don't care if it's a smartphone, a thin PC, or a mid-sized tablet with VoIP. Pick one and try to build it slowly, absorb punishment and learn from mistakes, but just keep plugging away instead of trying to hit one out of the park.
Everyone has skeletons in their server closet. A good company doesn't hide them.
I believe this story has been posted here before and the full story can be read here: http://www.goodthink.com/writing/view_stories.cfm?id=11&...
To all the folks with nice ads. Get them added to this list:

https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/exceptionrules.tx...
I've been thinking about this for a while.

One of my startup ideas are to get a number of recent graduates to start private, for-profit schools for 12-18 year olds (or something). Initially, rich parents would pay for their kids to go there, and kids with exceptional entrepreneurial passion could get scholarships.

And, if students from these schools were shown to excel at creating valuable businesses later, this project could be used as an example for other schools elsewhere.
How We Improved Billing Form Conversions on LessAccounting.com
You don't need to write your own data binding in backbone. Several smart developers have already written plugins for this very thing. I usually forget about backbone plugins when workin on a new problem, and get halfway down my thought process before remembering to check https://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/wiki/Extensions,-P.... To be fair, the backbone website does a terrible job of promoting these resources.
The only caveat is that a good large icon does not necessarily make a good small icon. Icon designers will do each size by hand to make it fit the format, getting rid of extraneous detail along the way. It would be difficult to model this actual process. But, for a quick and dirty process to get something running without paying money, a site like this would indeed be useful. There are plenty of favicon generators, but nothing for the modern age.
Works nicely since it is Firefox's default viewer. No more need to install a one, yay!
Perhaps depending on how important it is for that piece of code to be flawless, but generally yes.

The upside of all that is that you can craft a piece of code to be practically flawless, since you know how the libraries you are using are supposed to break if they break.
The author of the posted linked to this site which does some of the sizing conversions: http://www.xiconeditor.com/ but the tool you describe (and hopefully will create) would be much better.
South...but I agree that database migrations should be part of the Django core.
This approach made me think of MFC calls. Instead of having multiple return values you'd have a single return value and multiple out parameters.

It's been years since I've done any MFC work, but calls like:

HWND myWin = GetTopWindowTitle(region, out title, out size, out whateverElse);

Then you'd have to either assume that myWin was not an error code and just use the out parameters, or you'd explicitly check the myWin value each time.
Sorry for the lack of content here but I think the frustration of this got nailed:

http://www.b3tards.com/u/037e58b9e054b3c8dd7b/milksheep.jpg
in my experience "not being okay" with something is rarely a sign of maturity, and certainly never when the something is the name of an open source app.
Use of Real Name Online
I have contributed to many online communities using a username that I have tried to keep unlinked from my actual name. I also have a github account that I have been contributing through for my Master's project that is linked to my name. I have several personal projects that I have been considering open sourcing, and tracking on github. I figure committing code for personal projects on github could potentially help me career-wise in the future.

The only issue is that I would be contributing some code that I would post in online communities using my username that I have been trying to keep separate, therefore linking these two things. Back when I first started participating online, it seemed to be the norm to keep your online separate from your real name, but things seem to be changing...

My questions are:
1. Should I keep a separate github account for personal code that I post like this?
2. How much does having a github account help when applying for jobs?

I know there aren't any definite answers to any of these, but I'd love some guidance, as I'm sure some other people have had similar thoughts, etc.
French 3 Strikes: Court Fines First File-Sharer, Even Though He’s Innocent
I think Meg Whitman just recommended I start shorting HP stock.. It seems HP has lost all direction and purpose..

At least Leo had a vision for a services company.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4344720
These BOM calculations are inherently flawed because there's no way a third-party can know what it actually costs to develop and produce the many custom parts in the phone.

The A6 chip, for instance, may incorporate standard ARM cores and chips, but it was developed using a custom internal design process. Similarly, the new combined-glass-and-digitiser screen must have involved a fair bit of R&D spend and changes to the manufacturing process before it could even be produced in the required volumes.

Apple consistently quotes a 30-40% margin (not gross margin) on its iOS range, which is not unreasonable considering the additional costs it sustains in developing value-added services like iCloud and having a good support setup in place.

Looking at the court records that were unsealed recently I honestly don't think the real iPhone BOM has changed that much from model to model, with the exception that it's hugely profitable for Apple to continue to sell the older model (now the 4S) with cheaper-to-produce components.
Ok guys theres enough interest, i'll code it up this weekend so watch out for the Show HN post. :)
This was my assessment as well -- it's just a cleaner way to use errno.

I do think a language got this system right -- conditions and restarts in Common Lisp solve this problem very well. I'm a bit perplexed that I haven't seen this model adopted a bit more widely in the programming world, particularly given how much of a headache exception semantics are.
"I suspect your comment will seem obviously wrong in five years."

I suspect your comment too will seem obviously wrong in sixty-five years. Geez
Isn't the whole point of -Wall -Wextra to include all the warnings? It seems rather unfortunate to have to add a bunch more flags to do what I want.
Hasn't this been known for about 6 months now? Clover Trail isn't an Intel part, it's a PowerVR core licensed from Imagination. Intel doesn't have the rights to release the specs on PowerVR and Imagination has never wanted an open source implementation, even if Intel writes it.
This is an old post, as Backbone's Ashkenas rebutted here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4003069
I agree about Preview - but mainly I just hate having to download PDFs to read them. Most of the time I don't need them long-term.
I wish.

Maybe we should create one?
Do you have any opinion on using Monads for exception handling (like in Haskell)?
Is this surprising it anyone?

I'm more incensed about printers that don't come with cables and I'm amazed that monitors still ship with DVI cables.

Edit: now that I think about it I wouldn't even need one of the adapters even though I've had an iPhone since 2007. The only thing I ever use the 30-pin port for is to charge.
5 sales metrics every startup should adopt
35 Years of game console launch prices
Software Developers Hate Worthless Tasks
Personally I wish all sites used this instead of scribd/slideshare or opening up external programs.

This will just work on different browsers, different OS etc.

Plus you can send links like this: http://mozilla.github.com/pdf.js/web/viewer.html#page=6&...
To send a user to s specific part of the page. Right now usually you just send the pdf link and have to say, "check out the image on page 6".

Keeping the pdf in the browser and accessible to and from javascript opens up a world of possibilities.
Recent Story:

My 8 year old has an iPad that was setup by her and her grandmother. She recently had it replaced at the Apple Store because of a busted WIFI antenna.

A few days ago, she wanted to buy the 2.99 version of Draw Something. I happened to have a iTunes gift card worth 15 dollars. I opened her iTunes account on the iPad, punched in the gift card code, and the money was added to her account without ceremony.

So she goes to buy Draw Something,and 15 minutes later I hear "It's not working." I figure she must have broken something, so I take the iPad from her and click the 2.99 Draw Something button to download the app.

This is where the fun begins.

The App store asks for the username and password. We entered both. Then it tells us that the iTunes account has not been activated on the iPad, so we need to answer two security questions - I look at my daughter and my wife and only get blank expressions. I call my mother-in-law and she doesn't know either. So the next step is to reset the password by sending an email to a failsafe account - some AOL email address that nobody can access either.

Normally, at this point, I would just say we screwed up and start a new iTunes account - but why in the hell did they let us put the 15 dollar gift card on the account if they weren't going to let us do anything until the account was activated?

Epic fail.
XMLVM is an academic project and not run by google employees.
i agree with you about unqualified use of better - I think it applies to lots of areas of technology, and even areas of culture, etc...
It would be nice if people were more understanding that a person's opinion on something is in fact influenced by all of their various value judgements and an enormous level of subjectivity; of course given that people in similar networks will have similar experiences and likely hold similar value judgements this leads to the tendency to 'circle jerk' on an issue, and then something becomes 'better'.. The first time they meet someone who doesn't share these judgements a flame war errupts
How to build a SEO friendly Website | Search engine Friendly Websit...
Realtime Web Messaging over Animated Gifs
Its not automatic, you need to explicitly release. They are referring to the tools builtin in xcode which you will have to use manually to debug memory problems in Objective-C then move it back to your Java code as annotations.
I thought so too. But even -Wextra does not include everything. Some Flags can certainly be a bit annoying (e.g., -Weffc++). A project I'm currently working on has a really long list of additional warning flags. But for manual calls to g++ such a long list is not practical however with the GCC spec file one should be able to add something like -Wextreme.
I get the cord that connects it to my computer, and if you are in Europe you get the mini-usb adaptor. So, it is functional out of the box.

Like adestefan, I am a little more angry about stuff that is not functional out-of-the-box like printers and monitors that do not have the cables included. I can see if it is a wireless printer then ok.
True, but if you look at it like Apple vs Android, the Android camp has many releases a year. So if you're a consumer and you're buying a smartphone in 10 months, your choice is between the "outdated" iPhone or one of the latest Android phones.
You might be interested in this talk: http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/515569/aab5102c0daa0f5d/
Why should they? It seems like a ridiculous thing to be angry about.
> series of discoveries that led him to bring the final take-home exams submitted by his students

What? They have final TAKE HOME exams at Harvard?
"Lumia 920 has interesting hardware, and some important innovations that others should pursue as well - better low-light performance, optical stabilization, a screen that's better in sunlight"

Has it?

Better low light performance?
You mean what NOKIA(biased source) says their PROTOTYPE(vaporware) has compared with olds iphones. You mean the faked night photos that now display a "simulated photo" in the corner after people discovered the truth?.

Are you referring to the "RED camera in a van" optical stabilization of the fake videos NOKIA released and had to apologize for or are you referring to the real prototype stabilization that is worse than the Iphone 4S one?

If so I have some Unicorns and a Big Tower to sell you(it is in the center of Paris, you will love it!).

I find is going to be terrible hard for Windows to compete on phones, tablets are another thing, people need windows for a lot of things after all.
As I said, you can have both.

Also, you're not going to use it because no PoS has one ? Kind of a chicken-and-egg problem. Which can be solved by providing both optical and NFC.
How to re-open windows when you re-open app: OS X Lion, Mt Lion
That's surprising to hear, because most carrier stores only seem to push Android and iOS - not Windows Phone (which is the most ideally placed to become no.3).
The big problem with errno is that it's a global: there's exactly one of them for your program. As soon as you start using threads you are screwed.

Go aims to make concurrency right. That means you can depend on a global variable for propagating error information.

errno in C is ultimately because C doesn't have multiple return values, and the alternatives (pointer arguments as implicit output) are sucky. Go has multiple return values, and so returning an error is natural.
I'm crying. I always wanted one of these. I'm so happy.
The section about iOS home screen icons has an error. Retina iPad icons are 144 pixels square, not 114. I wrote a blog post [1] that covers that.

Also, I'd recommend using ConvertICO [2] instead of the X-Icon Editor. It generates much smaller files (4 kb vs. 32 kb).

[1]: http://taylor.fausak.me/2012/03/27/ios-web-app-icons-and-sta...
[2]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4164119
Very clever hack.
Hah, I have a bookmark on the CL approach I've been meaning to get to for months now. I guess I'll have to give it another whirl.

Ack, and your sibling comment is pointing me to a monadic approach... I'm sure "learn about monads" is also languishing on my to-do list somewhere.
Parsible: Straightforward Log Parsing
As if "the retina age" were an actual thing. How many people have them now?
A column of beauty is OMG totally PHAT for ever
Artist Skywrites the First Thousand Digits of Pi over San Francisco
Adding Technology Isn’t Always The Best Solution
I find iOS and the iPhone/iPad/iTunes interaction particularly frustrating - a case where it really should just work.

Some of my issues:
- Restoring from a backup does not, for some reason, does not consistently restore the folder structure - thus I spend an hour or two recreating the structure. Waste of time.
- iCloud syncs a lot of things - but for some reason does not allow me to sync apps. There should be an easy way to do this such that if I buy an app on my iPhone (and it is compatible with my iPad) it should be synced.
- Moving purchased music from one phone to another. Maybe somebody can enlighten me, but moving my iTunes purchased music from one device to another, as far as can tell, is still a stupid, manual process.
- In general, iTunes should be in the cloud - when I buy a new device, I should be able to enter my account information and then have it automatically pull down all my stuff - and offer me choices for what I want to pull. To me this seems so basic.

This is stuff that is all generated by the way my wife interacts with these technologies - and she gets very frustrated by the hoops that have to be jumped through to make it all work.

Next week, I'm likely buying my wife an iPhone 4S (AT&T or Verizon - suggestions from anyone in the Boston area?) I'm not looking forward to getting her setup - I anticipate pain.