skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Secretly seems a little strong... is there any sort of effort to cover this up, or did they just not mention it in the patch?

I don't fault them for not mentioning it in release notes - if I make a change to my apps that the user won't notice, I don't mention it in the release notes.

To the extent that they introduced a security bug, they should admit it and fix it. But that's a technical lapse, not a moral lapse.
I've seriously considered using a longboard and public transportation as a replacement for my bicycle. Sadly, the geography here in Pittsburgh is rather hilly, so a skateboard isn't practical unless you're commuting within one of the "plateaus."

Still, for flatter locales, I could see longboards being viable modes of transportation.
Converter for those interested.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Gra...
Is that really what's it's like, or is that just what it looked like in a movie about its early days?
Well it's nice that these Chinese citizens who have saved 800,000$ CAN cash are allowed to buy Canadian citizenship with the interest from their money. But it doesn't sound like it's so bad a deal for them if they want to live here so bad to take it.
Seems like a lot of users not familiar with skateboard/longboarding are weighing in their opinion on the safety issues presented by this product.

This product presents no more danger to the user or the general public than does a normal skateboard/longboard.

So obviously yes, just like a bike or skateboard, don't expect to just be able to hop on and cruise from day 1.
Actually, imagine how much worse this could be: person on youtube posts (bootlegged | police harassment) video under one account, family video under another: bam they have you.
> twisted ankle/etc is possible. But at $1200 a piece, I'd really regret the loss/damage that might cause the to the board.

I value my ankles and epidermis at several dozen times "$1200 a piece". I consider your stance to be the utter epitome of foolishness.
The final version of libcelt is bit-for-bit compatible with Opus. Unlike SILK, there was never a "stable" version of CELT (we routinely broke the bitstream on almost every commit), so CELT development continued after the two codecs were merged, right up until the Opus bitstream was frozen.

That makes Opus a strict superset of CELT, and we've stopped maintaining libcelt, so any existing users should switch to libopus.
Hi, I really need your services as of the other day!

But I live in Alameda - will you service my?

My car broke down, and its the only car we have - my wife is a stay at home mom and I bike to work and we have been trying to figure out the best way to deal with the car issue and as a long time HNer - I would far prefer to try and support your startup than randomly call unknowns and have the thing towed some place.
I want to find a new job that's more interesting, but every time I try it's impossible to wade through the piles uselessness obfuscating everything.

Then I think about how much trouble it'd be to market myself and how much of my private life and interests I'd have to make public just get someone interested enough to get me a detour around said piles.

Then I go back to my current job where I'm woefully underpaid and build mountains of Rube Goldberg-esque trash to satisfy the idiotic short term thinking justified by the fake jingoism of the business and marketing types that run the company.

Remember folks, if you can build something wrong to reduce the cost of developer time, it's always worth it!
You Can Now Stream 'The Killers' New Album 'Battle Born' for Free on iTunes
Definitely check out http://www.whirlpool.net.au. It has a feature where you can enter your area code to give you a list of available plans, as well as very active forums where you can get an idea of service levels, etc. There are LOTS of really good DSL providers in Brisbane. For reference - I'm on aanet, paying $50/month, ADSL2+ (6Mbps down, 256k up) with a 100GB cap.
Here is the link: https://apps.facebook.com/horoscopes/

It is also on the iOS app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/horoscope-astrology-experts/i...

For iOS it launched on Aug 28, and it was at #5 for the Lifestyle / Free section for a while. It's been a really fun ride and I've learned a ton about growing apps on FB and mobile.
Then why is there a national remembrance of these 3000 dead people and not of the two million other people who died in the US in 2001?
I guess it depends on how much capital is required to qualify, but perhaps if startup teams were allowed to pitch at accelerators (plane tickets, no visas) and receive a funding option, then this would be a way in for them to start gathering later-stage investment interest. I'm not sure if "VC" referred to in the article means "any accelerator/incubator/super-angel program" or "proper VC firms".

For those startups that don't require VC money, I just think that the government has no clue how to deal with that without it being exploited like the last visa, so they figured they'd throw something out there that they could pull off with their majority government.
> Amazon is, to my eyes, the only company playing in the same league as Apple

I think it's a bit premature to write off all other Android tablets entirely. In 2009, Android phones also seemed like they weren't in the same league, and none of us could imagine living in a world where Android outsold iOS devices 2-to-1, but it happened.
The problem is that the US health care system routinely bankrupts patients.

This is unclear as well. This stylized "fact" only became a talking point in the last election, and is drawn almost exclusively from a deeply flawed study by Elizabeth Warren.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/06/elizabet...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/will-hea...

Among other flaws, the study doesn't measure causation or even correlation.
Ah! I see it now. Will take care of this and push it soon. Thanks digisth. I am trying to figure out how to give you an upvote. I clicked the triangle but it doesn't show you having a point. HN newb here so would love to be enlightened.
Random idea given that the header is "Backlift Blog." Why not make those two separate links that change color/opacity/something on hover where "Backlift" links to the home page and "Blog" links to the blog.

I don't think it'd be confusing and from a usability standpoint it's nice because you know people click the header to get to one of those two places. Since you can't anticipate which their going for, put them side by side and they're very likely to find the answer their looking for. Just a thought.
Lower cost of talent (than large tech ecosystems in US), rebates on R&D talent, delinking of health care and employment, etc.

There are also advantages to living in the US of course, where this Canadian is currently working.
Ask HN: How do I increase traffic at no-cost or low-cost?
My company has a new "Mobile Promotion App for Bands and Artists" and we are stuggling increase increase traffic to the main website (http://www.moupp.com).

We expect Bands to register here and fans to download and use the app. Page relevancy and A/B Testing can only come when have some traffic.

Pl help.
Probably none. But perhaps as a foreigner finding it difficult to relocate to the US you may find Canada a possible second choice, whereas right now it's just not even a possibility.

>> An initial source of candidates could be frustrated foreigners in the high-tech sector in the United States who have not been able to land resident status there.
Verizon's Mobile Security App Gets Suspiciously High 4.7 Star Rating
> Zuckerberg might note a "potential" for revenue in mobile but he's not getting any today.

This isn't true any more. The new version of the Facebook iOS app includes sponsored "your friend liked [brand]" callouts periodically in the news feed.
Where did you go? Is it better (i) for civil liberties overall (ii) overall overall?
Their PreQL demo during the Disrupt was pretty amazing. Im looking forward to using their API for several ML experiments.
I assume it would be the obvious one: getting to live in Canada :)
Explosion on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers
Jeff Bezos, inheritor to Steve Jobs’ crown?
Buzzinar Sales Page Slice Show
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's Stock and HTML5 as His Biggest Mistake
I hate the whole 'networking' thing, too, because I associate it with people who replace functional skills with schmoozing skills, and I also hate how concentrated in California and New York things are, because I'd really rather not move, too. Plus moving to San Fran or NY, a huge chunk of any salary increase just goes straight to rent. Blah.
This is so cool. I don't even care about the practical implications of using the board in the city. I just want it for walking my dog. $1199 to you. First kickstarter project backed.

Skateboarding today is forever evolving and the electronic skateboard should evolve with it. Way back when the mega jump was created guys would hold onto motorcycles to gain enough speed to get super air and do insane tricks. I wonder if this technology could give professional riders the ability to gain infinite (or seemingly) amounts of speed.
User registration is unnecessary and often a detriment to growth
The point he's making is this:

If you put in <x> effort into HTML5 you'll have a slow, shitty version. If you put in <x+y> you'll have a nice fast version.

If you put in <x> effort with a native app, you have nothing. If you put in <x+y> you have a working, fast app.

You get a working prototype faster with HTML5, but that's not a fair comparison with a native app which took more work to get working at all.
Definitely agree. Android tablets are vastly improved with 4.1 and project butter. Kindle Fire 2 is still choppy and sluggish from the preview videos I've watched. It's too early to dismiss Android tablets.
Don't Buy The Amazon Kindle Fire HD Hype
Once someone says "NDA" the conversation is over for me, unless they're representing an established company.
How to Change Password for Windows Vista
Have you ever forgotten or lost your Window Vista assword by accident, this will help you recover password and get into the user account again.
United States Shape Overlays in Google Maps API v3
Rant warning...

Since when are computer programmers too good to want ideas to work on from people who may have valid business domain knowledge?

In my opinion software and programming skills are worth LESS THAN NOTHING if they don't have a business idea to monetize them... And last time I checked, my programming colleagues rarely possessed valuable insights into what problems non-programmers are willing to spend money on.

Tell you what, if anyone wants has ideas like the one posted above, please send them to my email address because I would be more than happy entertain your start-up ideas in my spare time. If its not a good fit I would love to take the time to discuss it with you as it will probably be a good learning experience for the both of us if nothing else we will both make a new friend or connection.

email: imechura AT gmail DOT com
Show HN: Launching my DIY class scheduling website platform for small businesses
These comments answer some questions I have concerning FLAC...

starwed wrote on September 11th, 2012 at 1:29 pm:

Isn’t FLAC already* open and royalty-free?*

Dusk wrote on September 11th, 2012 at 1:40 pm:

FLAC is a lossless codec — it typically generates output at a bitrate orders of magnitude* higher than lossless codecs such as OPUS, and there’s no way to “dial it down”.*

natermer wrote on September 11th, 2012 at 2:30 pm:

You want to archive audio with 100% quality using Flac.

Opus is for were you are willing to give up some amount of audio quality for the ability to massively increase compression ratio. Using low bit rate Opus may yield a 3MB file for a song, were as FLAC may end up being 150MB for the same audio.

What I do for audio is to store it using flac, but encode it on the fly using other codecs for streaming for transfering to devices. That way I always get the best audio quality possible to go along with the best compression possible.
Court To Twitter: No Time For Appeal, Hand Over Info Or You're In Contempt
Conversation with a very technical friend of mine about filling positions in my bootstrapping company:

HIM - you need a technical cofounder

ME - don't I know it ... perhaps you could learn objective C and not only work with me but have tons of high paying freelance work available

HIM - that's a huge time investment. Maybe you should learn objective C and then you wouldn't have this problem any more.

ME - I would genuinely enjoy that. But then who will go out and talk to bands (my first target customer) not to mention doing all this design work, architecture for the product, finding more staff, managing projects, marketing the product ...

HIM - Lot's of people can go talk to bands. Get a college kid to go talk to bands. Developers are what's hard to find.

The thing is, he's probably right ... but there is a structural problem in how we make these decisions about working with other people ... it is nearly impossible to assess expertise in something that you are not knowledgable about. So we often either massively overvalue stuff other people do; i.e. "set up a C corp" is quite a small undertaking and isn't how I would evaluate a business cofounder, or undervalue it "anybody can go talk to bands" displays a lack of specific understanding of the music industry.
"Hardware" is such an open ended subject that the question can't be answered reasonably. Hardware encompasses everything from interplanetary spacecraft communications to electrical power generation and then some.

Again, it depends on what you want to do. Just like software, electrical engineering has many specialties and sub-specialties. You can build things from individual basic components (think of this as assembly or C programming) or wire modules together (CRUD plumbing).

I don't know the first thing about Macs but if I assume you mean that you want to be able to connect external speakers to the line-level audio output of a Mac, you should understand the basics of wiring and building circuits. Pehaps look online for an LM386 project. Not much theory involved in doing it that way, just learning how to read schematic diagrams and solder circuits.
There are various basic braking techniques like dragging your foot or reverse pushing. More skilled riders will periodically slide the board sideways to create friction and control speed.
This is similar to Canada's provincial nominee program. Skilled workers, usually already working in Canada under a temporary visa, are put forward by companies for permanent residence and cut the line.
Paul, any chance we can see a video of you riding one? :)
Retina iMac Speculation and Mathematics
Strange phone number: asks for Agent Code, gives encoded coordinates.
There is a remark about that in Robert Makee's Story, a screenwriting manual.

He describes a similar situation and points out that the reason why the scriptwriter got into the profession very likely was to learn the difficult craft of translating their own abundant ideas into scripts.
Congrats on launching Eddy, been watching you develop this great platform over the past few months and have to say it looks fantastic. Perfect for teachers, instructors etc.

Go team!
Hey HN - we just launched our rough MVP yesterday. Looking for some honest feedback on our website, our product and the overall vibe/pitch.

My motivation for building a relatively lowtech CRM/CMS'y startup was that I couldn't risk it all cos I have a young family. It's my first startup so I had to build a bootstrapped B2B product in the style of 37signals that is a better solution for a well known problem in a crowded market.
Of course they consider it a top priority. The law legalizes many of the illegal things they've been doing.
Another happy customer here. What really surprised me about YM was they told me upfront how much a service would cost and while getting the service came the most pleasent surprise of all, the mechanic said I did not need front brakes, just the rear, and the quote YM gave originally was chopped in half! And finally, the guy was so nice and friendly, it felt like you were dealing with the owner.

And before I got the YM service I did call the dealer and a few other shops. The dealer would not quote me a price until I brought the car in, had the wheels taken off and "inspected", this despite the fact that I told him I need a quote for replacing all four brakes and rotors on car type x - it was such a turn-off. Especially when I asked what the inspection would cost - $150 if I don't get it serviced there.

Really glad to see a company improving my experience, saving me time, and saving me money on a chore I don't enjoy.
I really don't think a dynamically typed language is desirable as the primary development language for a mobile platform. Static typing is just too useful and makes it a lot easier to optimize too. Java is still quite a bit faster than JS.

Something like Kotlin seems like a good choice to me, if it takes off.
I thought the "Have an impressive track record of expertise / success in the relevant industry" implied that he does in fact value business domain knowledge.
Startup Weekend Manila 2012
Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.
Techcrunch mobile is down
That looks very nice Eddy! You guys have come a long way. I can see anyone who runs classes using it and loving it.
The above link is incomplete, its throws a 404 Not Found error. Here is the corrected one http://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-Quora-members-were-able-...
But the league isn't just hardware, it's services, content and distribution
sadly, if you live in cape horn you can't play. sidenote: all the "..grr...flash...grr.." comments on here made me chuckle (hint: right-click). it sounds like a good album.
> I think Bezos’s best line at the event was this one: “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices.”

I had the opposite reaction. Hearing this line, hearing about the ads on the lock screen, and seeing this slide (http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/09/amazon...), I immediately knew I wouldn't be switching from an iPad to a Kindle.
The only thing I use my iPad for any more is the browser and the Kindle app so Amazon's pitch makes a lot of sense to me.

But if anything I'm thinking of downgrading to an e-ink reader. I spend way too much time looking at backlit screens in a typical day already.
Google: We didn't know you could patent round corners
With a jack, some stands, and some ingenuity, you'd be surprised what can get done

I know from personal DIY experience there is a lot that can be done without a lift, but in a lot of cases, not having a lift may turn a 45-minute job into a 2-hour job :(

I'm curious as to how they handle fuel spillage and if they have to reschedule in inclement weather.
That's an interesting improvement given Gruber's snarky dismissal of Amazon because of the quarter's earning numbers recently:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/07/27/amzn

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/07/27/amzn-profit-corr...

The whole Apple is superior to Company X because Company X makes far less profit might be what his target audience revel in, but is non-sequitur and gets old fast. How would he have reacted a similar comparison with, say Microsoft when Apple was not doing so well?
Like Gruber, I really like the "we want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices" line. I often heard people deriding Kindles as merely vending machines for Amazon and I found myself slightly put off by that. But with that one line, Bezos really flipped a switch in my head to the point where the Amazon method seems much more fair to me as a customer than the one time hardware purchase model.
Giving VC firms the power to dictate visa eligibility creates perverse incentives in the fundraising cycle. If you want to say if you raise $x from accredited investors you can get visa for one or more founders that's one thing...

As a side question what's VC success rate with entrepreneurs-in-residence?
Which Google and Google Play offer plenty of?
The 7" Kindle Fire HD: Neat, cheap, buggy.
"I'm curious as to how they handle fuel spillage and if they have to reschedule in inclement weather."

My assumptions -

Fuel spillage - For oil, lay down a tarp or a tray. Gasoline, otoh, evaporates very quickly, even faster than water. No evidence, no problem.

Inclement weather - use a tarp, put on a coat, or just HTFU.
Change the logo colors, to something that attracts more attention
Sounds like he wasn't very good at managing the relationship with you. Steve Jobs turned on the charm when he needed it - he was so good at reading people that he knew when he could treat them like crap and when he had to really suckup.

Sounds like you're partner didn't have anything like that. That's too bad because there's no relationship more important than the one with your co-founder.
I'm not sure: "we want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices" is true.

Amazon does makes a decent margin above the marginal cost of the $299 kindle fire HD and on the kindle fire HD LTE:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-blogs/other/4395833/BOM-b...

It's hard to tell if they profit even after including fixed costs, but they might.

But pricing it's low end model slightly above it's BOM is a signal to competitors: "we don't care to profit from sales, if you'll compete, you'll lose".
I think Segways are great for sightseeing tours, and I've done (and enjoyed) a couple on my travels. Segways basically created a new way to sightsee.

I can't imagine how tours would be able to operate 12-15 mile 2 hour "walking" tours otherwise. You're able to see a significant part of a city from eye level without a huge amount of physical effort.
This is definitely an attractive home page, musiic. And, very impressive for a new programmer! The arrows and animation look great.

Some points:

- Try to avoid using html tables. They're generally frowned upon for things that aren't data.

- The spaces between your words and your colons are not consistent.

- Your : formatting on the "Repeat Email" row is off in Chrome.

- Place limits on the length of input in your textboxes using the maxlength attribute.
True, most successful Canadian startups get bought out by American investors anyway and moved to the States.
As another (rather skilled) inline skater, I'll second the ideas in the above post. When I was a newb, rocks were Teh Evil. Now rocks just spit away, if I don't just avoid 'em in the first place.

Physical skills have a learning curve. Whether riding a bike or driving a car, some significant skills acquisition is needed before safe use. For cycling, first there's existing cultural folk knowledge on learning to ride a bike (e.g. what you learned as a kid). If you want to be a properly skilled commuter, then you'll really want to brush up on additional skills ala Effective Cycling or a similar program.

I don't see this longboard as being particularly different from either cycling or driving, except that it's new. Living in a very hilly part of the USA, I love that they've designed for that from the get-go.
A friend from work who gives private swimming lessons at her house was asking my advice for a site/service just like this one.
I've forwarded the link to her and I'll post any feedback she gives. I don't have a need for it but it looks nice and professional. Way too nice for an MVP. :-)