skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Property rights are one of the foundations of a modern, successful capitalist economy. De Soto's "The Mystery of Capital" is a great read about some of the problems that occur when there are no property rights. However, they are one component in an economy, not the component. And, sadly, there is no clear, easy line dividing collective rights from individual rights, although we have a vague idea where it is (communism was a colossal failure, being way too much about collective stuff, and ignoring individuals).

By way of example, in Libertopia, perhaps it would be ok if I ran my own high-explosives & toxic sludge storage business in my apartment? Back in the real world, other people's rights to not be exposed to risk they didn't sign up for trump my property rights. Supposedly, in Libertopia, 'contract law' would take care of things, but in practical terms, how are you going to set up contracts so that you pay the people N meters away M amount for the risk they're taking by being around your munitions storage facility / smoking lounge? It's simply too complicated, and far easier to just have a local law that says "ok, this is not a part of town for munitions dumps".
Google also has not yet been convicted on monopoly abuse charges. Microsoft has. More than once.

And, quite frankly, their continuous defiance and misconduct does not help its image of a serious company.
This seems to be an emotive issue, but I'd want to point out that you haven't refuted the article at all.

The article references several studies that show, statistically speaking, that two-career marriages are harder than "traditional(?)" marriages. Responding with anecdotal evidence and feelings doesn't invalidate the original argument.

It's easy to accepts studies when they confirm our own world-views. Disregarding studies that go against personal philosophy (based on gut-feel) is just confirmation bias.

Why not go with it? Studies show two-career marriages are harder. So if you both are working just factor in that you may have to work just a little bit harder on your relationship - which is not such a bad thing anyway.
Your project was a huge inspiration for me when I first stumbled upon it! I am now using a totally different approach for my "scheme on php" project but your project gave me the notion that it was actually plausible. So thank you!
Have there existed good alternatives or proposals for alternatives to google that people haven't heard about possibly because google doesn't return them?
True, but the free site is also more annoying than Python's: "Downloading the GNAT GPL Edition is free of charge and requires a brief sign-up process."
The fact Microsoft can still get away with their abuse of monopoly is sufficient proof there is not nearly enough grumbling about Microsoft.
I've used Posterous for a very similar purpose. It's great when startups solve a genuine problem.

(pity the application form isn't wufoo!)
Does anyone else find it highly entertaining that this post has resulted in a deluge of posts arguing various facets of economics?

I can't help but wonder if this is a generational thing. I seem to recall that not too terribly long ago major geek pasttimes included hacking the local phone switching equipment and cruising usenet. Now we're on to debating economic theory esoterica. My how the times have changed.
No, it couldn't have been leaked just the same. If you think that, you should talk to some journalists.

Top news reporters have vast networks of sources that help them dig up that sort of information. That particular story may have leaked one way or another, but without well-connected journalists, many of the leaked stories we read would never be told, or would be lost among the thousands of rumors and innuendos published on blogs daily.

There are very few web-only sources that get quality leaks. It's fairly common for a website to break a story that the big dogs passed on, then to have it take off, but to actually get the information before the MSM is fairly rare.
so funny to see this site the week after my friends and i made the "bacon explosion" for the superbowl. definitely was good, but makes you feel kind of gross eating it.
Oops, yes, will fix. Edit: fixed.
I checked this out, searching for nytimes.com with yahoo google and Microsft. The results were mostly the same.

All sets of top ten results were from nytimes.com. The layout was almost the same, in fact it looked like Google and Yahoo were based on the same template. The speeds for yahoo and google were basically the same. Microsoft seemed a tiny bit slower, but they didn't mention the actual speed of the search, so I don't know for sure. The number of results were different. Microsoft had 1.8million, Google had 32million, and Yahoo had 59 million. Google had a mini search bar under the first result, nytimes.com, that let you search in the site. That feature is nice. Even though the sites are almost identical, I still preferred Google's results. The other sites seemed ugly.

I'm not sure why that is. It could be that I have used Google for awhile, and just gotten used to their format. Or, it could be that Google does more effective research on how users interact with the site.

For example, I remember seeing the video from Google tracking eye movements while searching. The eye movements were mainly focused on the top left corner of the search result. Yahoo's site design interfered with that eye movement. They have a giant red Yahoo in the top right corner. It stands out, and I think it is annoying and distracting.
Gorilla gestures point to evolution of human language
While the kindle's proven to be a big sales hit for Amazon, I think it's likely that a hybrid video/music player will win out as an entertainment device over a hybrid text/music player for most consumers
I think this is a "straw that broke the camel's back" type of thing. Three guys getting some extra phone calls on one night will cost your company 80 million dollars? That means there is something seriously wrong with your business.

80 million dollars buys a lot of custom software to automate this sort of thing.
Given his pricing, he doesn't seem to be assuming that at all. He's assuming that some fraction of them will pay $7.50 per mo or 40 cents per day, etc.

This also has the bonus effect of greatly reducing delivery costs. More revenue and less overhead.
There's definitely something missing from that story ...

How did the 'attacker' just happen to have a wardialer and know to use it that night? Why couldn't the NOC just shut off that one guy's service? Why can't I find any reference to this in the news? (they always love a good cracker story). How was a company that big operating in such an ad-hoc manner?
What this guys said: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7vvti/what_on_g...
Maybe we will get more investigative reporting from nonprofits like Amnesty or Greenpeace.
I've put together a little survey to see what people prefer for markup. Check it out: http://luciddesign.co.nz/2009/2/9/textile-vs-markdown-vs-tin...
You stole the idea right out from under me. I've been writing a book on this for a year now.

All very good points you make here. The biggest challange for most people will be refusing to identify themselves with the nation-state in which they live. People who don't share their fellow citizens' patriotism and national identity risk alienation and shunning. Plus, there is the issue of what we 'owe' our country, in return for all the many benefits we enjoy by living here. Some say we owe our loyalty.
So it's bad if I buy links and keywords-laden posts, but it's OK if Google does it themselves. Maybe it's just OK if I buy posts on Japanese blogs only?
Well said. I think it's funny that he accused you of an ad hominem, when his whole argument is a dressed-up variant of "I don't trust the bastards, therefore, I assume that they're wrong." You're saying something relatively uncontroversial, logical and restrained; he's arguing from little other than a base sense of mistrust.

Alas, once again, the comment questioning the value of the experts' knowledge is the top-rated one in a thread. If you ask me, the biggest threat to HN's discussion quality is the anti-intellectual tendencies of many of the loudest voices.
You cant use compete.com as a source by itself. It is best used to compare. So if it is always off by x% (or a range of %), you can still have a rough comparison to other sites.
Didn't they already try this?
They claim cannabis use increases the chance of getting testicular cancer by 70%, but the initial chance of getting testicular cancer is well under 1% to begin with. Even if the premise is completely true, it is interesting only for academic purposes.
'and the only way it makes code better to read is by forced formatting (the forced white space)'

Indentation is required when writing in any language as a matter of courtesy. Python just doesn't ask you to delimit your blocks of code a second time by unnecessarily requiring brackets.
The Age of Artificial Brains
China faked their space walk
What Would You Pay For Enterprise Customer Service?
PBWiki recently rolled out a new level of customer support, is it to expensive? $11 per user monthly seems pretty expensive.
Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect
Cool. Would you say formal education has made you a significantly better programmer? (The definition of 'significantly' in this context is up to you to decide.)

I'm completely self-taught, but I've wondered if I missed out on something valuable by not going to college.
I went to Iowa State University. The tuition was 1300 a semester when I started, and 1800 when I left. All national merit scholars get a full ride, including room and board. And the engineering college had plenty of scholarships for women. It was a great deal.
If he had written the negative review on a piece of paper, should the paper company be the one getting sued?
That Amazon removes a layer of complexity (in this case, billing) is a huge plus. If I had to pay $30/month to use the Kindle, I probably wouldn't have bought one.
Google Testing Blog: To Assert or Not To Assert
NASA builds mountain climbing robot
I don't think their drm has been hacked in the sense that it can be removed. Basically, people discovered how they could load mobipocket protected books onto the kindle. People still haven't figured out, however, to copy drm'd books from one Kindle to another.

http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/mobipocket-books-on-kindl...
Umm, did you look at the graphs? SO is not gaining on EE.
We are all capitalists at heart but I’m always baffled by this company who makes Billions of dollars, claim to do no evil and put on schemes to keep the hard earned dollar of engineers. It is a shame!
Maybe, in the end that's still the same advertising based revenue that NYT is having problems with, except that the problem of making money off of ads is farmed off to the smaller blogs instead the paper itself. It may be that the smaller, more flexible blogs are able to hit on a balance that is able to fund both themselves and their news sources, but my suspicion is that if the ads aren't enough to support NYT on their own, they still won't be able to support it when they're spread out among a bunch of smaller blogs. If might work as an extra bit of revenue, but I don't see it becoming a main business.
I noticed two friends who use their mouse to repeatedly select and deselect text in web browsers as they read pages online. This is absolutely crazymaking for onlookers, but really satisfying for them.

I do this all the time. I hadn't ever really thought about it.
Interesting situation... Should the title's "Spolksy" be changed to "Spolsky"? If it isn't changed, the title is inaccurate. If it is changed, your comment won't make sense to new viewers anymore. (Except now your comment would still make sense, because of this comment! Fun stuff.)
PowerShell ABC's - Z is for zh-CHT
On the other hand, they effectively pay Mozilla to make Google search the Firefox default homepage. They also distribute a free mobile phone operating system that is heavily integrated with Google services. And they make a web browser (advertised on the main Google page of other web browsers) that incorporates features important to widespread adoption of Google applications (Gears, high performance layout and Javascript engines, robust process model).
I wonder if the number of applicants to HBS has decreased. If so, it might be a good time to apply if you are interested.
Yeah.

I refuse to comment on Reddit, though, so I rehashed it over here.
"Leaked NYT Memo" seems false. More like a speculative post by someone external to NYT?
It's probably just the opposite. A lot of those people who got laid off are probably heading back to school, and while it might be hard to get a job now, the value of having HBS on your resume lasts a lot longer than this recession will.
Look to biology for the future of computing
Paying Mozilla to be the default search engine is merely using money from a successful business to promote the same successful business.

They also distribute a free mobile phone operating system that is heavily integrated with Google services.

You might have something there, that is very similar to some of the things Microsoft and Apple both do.
List of hacked passwords reveals '123456' is most popular
Yes because 2 YC startups sell tickets. Therefore any legal issues regarding activity of such is important.
ok, you know how all my posts about Hacker News being doomed rocket to the top spot on the site?

and this question isn't even on the front page?

THAT is why Hacker News is doomed.

if the people reading Hacker News WERE ACTUALLY HACKERS they would have already demanded an API, and this would be the number one topic of discussion. real hackers are more interested in getting an API than discussing why or why not their site is or is not doomed.

my blog posts on blah blah blah Hacker News is doomed SHOULD NOT be less interesting to hackers than a question about getting an API.

doomed, doomed, doomed.
"These subscribers might even be issued a share of stock in the first year."

I wonder, could this work? NYT is trading below $5 today, so that's like ~10% discount on a year's subscription.
I thought the term was vicariously lazy (http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3394)
It seems like there will be a sharp decline in the number of applications because of the effort required to produce a video introducing the founders, even if it's a simple video. That is a Good Thing though because it will probably filter out most of the low-quality apps (a 13-year old single-founder applicant probably wouldn't take the time to make the video, for example).

On the other hand, if you ever wanted to Goatse PG, here's your chance.
weird, you literally explained my startup.

I dont want to give too much away too much, but here are too examples of stuff we hope to make possible:

* link your Dopplr account, so you get news based on where you're going a few days before your trip

* fun stuff, comics and games will be brought up to the web era. xkcd and various other syndicated comics will be displayed (assuming they match your interests)

What do you think?
Why the strong refusal?
I love De Soto's work check out his foundations site for more:

http://ild.org.pe/en/home

Common law has a pretty good alternative to contract law for the kind of cases you mention. This is known as Tort law.

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

Most people know it as the law the dodgy lawyers who advertise on TV practice.

It is however a really neat concept that deals with just about anything outside of contract law. It was even used to handle things like pollution in the days before the EPA.

In your example your high-explosive and toxic sludge storage business could easily be sued under Tort law.

Local and property owners association bylaws can absolutely be used to spell out these offenses. However the wider regulation happens, the more it becomes silly.

For example smoking regulations could probably be done a lot more realistically through tort law than through blanket bans on smoking in bars and restaurants throughout a country. Using Tort would allow courts to look at individual circumstances. Thus one punitive ruling against a restaurant on behalf of an employee with lung cancer could effectively ban it. However a similar suit from an employee of a cigar bar would probably be dismissed, because an employee couldn't reasonably expect to avoid second hand smoke in a cigar bar. Thus allowing cigar bars to exist.
I think it is very shrewd how they emphasize making it EASY to pay for each article. I would absolutely click a little 'pay $0.10' button. The trouble of pulling my credit card out of my wallet, typing everything in, worrying how the website is storing my info, etc. is a much higher cost than the $0.10. Eventually someone is going to figure out how to do easy large-scale micropayments, and it will be huge. Maybe iTunes will just expand scope forever.
Really, we should be embarrassed as a society that those who openly espouse the subjugation of women to be no more than child-raisers are not immediately laughed out of town. Instead, we give these misogynists a podium from which to preach their idiotic and oppressive doctrines. We should give no more quarter to misogynists than to racists, homophobes or others of a similar bent.

It is especially despicable that people like Michael Noer get to use prestigious magazines such as Forbes to launch their screeds from. I would live to think we've progressed past idiocy like "whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career," but apparently not.
?! Outside of setting world records for texting, pretty much the only thing 13 year olds do these days is post videos of themselves to the internet. The effort required to make a sub-minute intro video has almost reached zero.
Oh, I actually hadn't noticed that part. Honestly I think a 3 app limit will anger pirates so much that their propensity to pirate will be just as high as if they didn't have the option for the cheap to free version. Microsoft's methods of price discrimination are less dimwitted than we give them credit for. But I think this one really is as bad as it seems.
I do too. In fact, that paragraph was kinda freaky to read because I'd just gotten done highlighting it a couple times.

Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I only do it on webpages and not in Word docs or PDFs. So I wonder if it's a way of compensating for the lack of visible vertical reference points in web text.

Like, with Word docs and PDFs there is a page divider that any given text is visibly distant from. Maybe the lack of that in long web text is a problem.
One problem with simply suing people who cause damage is that in some cases, it's possible to do a lot more damage than you can ever pay for. For example, if my munitions dump business blows up and levels a city block, killing 50 people, I have no house and no business left to be sued for. I'm essentially broke, and no one is ever going to get more than a pittance from me (I may have even blown up with it). So in that case, it may make sense to prevent the damage before it happens by banning my bad business idea. Of course, you can't prevent everything bad from happening, as that would probably lead to an excess of silly regulation. It is, in other words, a balancing act, that must be constantly watched over and tweaked.
This is exciting.
I wonder what it will be like?
Has anyone ever been to anything similar?
It seems like any service that lets you post a video and access it from a fixed url would be sufficient (so long as the video is as private as the submitter wants it to be). S3 could work just fine, if you made the file public and put it on an obscure path.
Excuse to be checking my nuts.
Taleb raises a lot of valid concerns about the state of mathematical finance. You wouldn't believe the number of financial models that assume normal or log-normal returns, despite a vast amount of evidence to the contrary. Value at Risk (VaR) is a terribly deficient risk metric, and I've never met anyone who actually believes that Black-Scholes is an accurate model for predicting options prices, yet both of these are widely used in the financial industry.

My problem with Taleb and all the attention he's been getting lately because of the financial crisis is that I think it's a logical jump to go from those criticisms to "these models are bad, because of black swans". Black swans are defined as unpredictable random events with large impact. 9/11 was a black swan, but I don't think that the financial crisis we're seeing today is a result of a black swan. Insurers ignored systemic risk and over leveraged based on bad asset pricing, but were those assets priced poorly because of black swans? I think that's a tough argument to make, because mortgage foreclosures don't seem nearly as unpredictable as say, terrorists flying airplanes into buildings.

There also seems to be a bit of observation bias in concluding that events are black swans. Prediction markets can't be right 100% of the time. To quote the article: "What does it mean to say such a prediction is right or wrong? In 2008, the day before John McCain was scheduled to announce his VP choice, the Intrade prediction market gave Sarah Palin a 4% chance. Was this right or wrong? Unlikely events will sometimes happen just by chance."
I should've selected the example more carefully. If the first few seconds of the video is of a 13 year old, then the app can probably safely be discarded, so it's still a decent low-quality filter.

Also, if you put "almost zero" effort into your intro video, then it's going to suck. I don't know what YC is looking for in the video, but it seems like you'll have a higher chance of them funding you if they see that you have at least one naturally-charismatic founder, in addition to a very skilled technical one. The video can show your charisma, just like the application can show your technical skill.

It still seems like the total number of fully-completed applications will decrease because of the video. But again, that's a good thing.
I suppose that also means no more Startup Schools in Cambridge as well?
A lot of the fuss about Virtual Goods in the past week has been stirred up by a paper released by Vili Lehdonvirta.(http://virtual-economy.org/blog/why_do_people_buy_virtual_go... | PDF - http://www.hiit.fi/~vlehdonv/documents/Virtual%20item%20purc...) Quickly put, the paper does a great job breaking down the attributes people find valuable in virtual goods. Jeremy Liew's only real expansion on the paper is the addition of "Building relationships", the use of virtual goods for gifting.

I have to give credit to Jeremy Liew [1] for this article, he understands virtual goods probably more than any Sand Hill Rd VC does, and he puts it in laymens terms well. To get a little more in-depth on the topic, check out Vili Lehdonvirta's contributions, that's where Jeremy got a lot of the content for this article.

[1] - Disclaimer: Jeremy Liew has said nice things about my apps before.
Bruce Perens: Combining GPL and Proprietary Software
1. There is no practical basis of marriage rights for procreation. This is proved by the prevelance of men and women who remain married without having children, and the vast numbers of unmarried parents.

2. I wish that you would define what you mean by "contrary to the American experiment." No one is advocating gay marriage for all states. Many people are demanding their own state government recognize civil marriage as distinct from religious marriage, and that all citizens have equal rights to civil marriage.
Grumbling doesn't effect change. I'd say that there's more than enough grumbling, and precious little else.