skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> It should be white text on a blue background. That's what I see.

Let's let readers judge for themselves: http://i.imgur.com/6Qtch.png

That's gray.

> Perhaps it looks different on different computers.

Yes -- something that's not true for black text on a white background.

> I am NOT a designer though, so I won't even pretend to argue the current design is optimal.

In that case, a more conventional design might be a better choice -- one in which the contrast between text and background is sufficient to render your pages readable.

I've always favored sites that set themselves apart with their atypical content rather than their atypical color choices.

There are many examples of practical color choices. Everywhere you look, there are sites with reasonable choices. HN, for example.

Or visit the most popular web sites:

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/most-popular-websites

Notice anything? All of them have black text on a white or very light background. No exceptions.

More on this topic:

http://contrastrebellion.com/
i love divvy. and its cross-platform.
Couple of questions if anyone has bought it and can answer:
1) Extending the fog of war metaphor, do places gradually 'fade' or 'grey-out' or similar the longer you are away from the area? Or is it a case of once-seen always seen?
2) This seems great for the devices that have GPS, but I'm sceptical of it's value on say, my iPod Touch, which IIRC relies entirely on Wi-Fi triangulation.
Holy fucking grey-on-grey. Even if it fits the fog meme, STOP IT.

http://contrastrebellion.com/
Classic compilation. Always check for cpu builtin functions (rtfm gcc) first though when you need this kind of optimization "in real life."
People like to point this out to make it clear they are actually recommending the product because it is useful and not for financial gain.
Yeah, I agree, it's not a monopoly. But they do have the most advertisers, so the alternatives aren't as good (for now, at least).
You can do this with Blender and I'ts free.
Cool! I can't wait to load the last two years of my running tracks!
Former conversations:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2570269

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3452408

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=513935

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2630593

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4590134

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86419
virtualenv is a symptom of the disease, not the cure. People get stuff working with a specific version of all the libraries and of Python, and then they forget about upgrading. And why should they upgrade? It will just break their code in mysterious ways. It would be different if the compiler could tell them about changes in type signatures, but it can't.

In the real world, monkeypatching happens. And you may not always know that your libraries or framework are doing it, either. Ruby on Rails does extensive monkeypatching, even of core classes such as String. I don't think you can patch str in CPython due to implementation issues, but that's not the point.
The common thread of this sample (N=2) seems to be that they are Russian.

Therefore, don't interview any Russians and you should be safe!
Nokia lumia 610
Nokia Lumia 610 is ideal for young people looking for an introduction to the affordable
end Lumia and Windows Phone
http://news.psdmate.com/nokia-launched-new-nokia-lumia-610/
I will never understand why random articles describing well documented commonplace things make it to the front page.
The compass remark was obviously a symbol, and the intent is clear from the allegations made previously.

He is being downvoted because obviously none of this has any to do with an actual compass and is merely adding noise to the discussion.
1. You're comparing Persona to an imaginary world where most websites don't rely on email providers to prove authentication. I'm comparing Persona with the actual situation where people use the same password everywhere. Persona isn't perfect, but it is much better than what the vast majority of websites use, and it allows even better methods to be implemented where needed. Furthermore, Persona is more usable, and therefore more attractive and more likely to be deployed widely.

2. Yes, it can. It can delete password reset notifications. If the notification contained the password in plain text, then there would be no easy way to find out whether Gmail logged in to your account on X. If the notification contained a password reset link, there is a possibility that the user would subsequently discover that their password was no longer accepted on X. But given that most users use the same password everywhere, Gmail already has a huge potential for evil, as it could just use the passwords it has already collected. Users that worry about Gmail can use an alternative email provider or their own, after all, email and Persona are both decentralised. Website developers that worry about Gmail can use other authentication methods on top of Persona, such as in-house two-factor authentication.

tldr; if Gmail is evil, both Persona and current systems can't stop it. If that worries you, use your own email server, and use other authentication methods on top of Persona on your websites.
Google's Answer to Siri Thinks Ahead
I saw a news story in, I think, the Star Tribune with a picture of the new Maps app locating the Guthrie Theatre at its old location at the Walker. It hasn't been there for 3 years.

Admittedly, I haven't used the new Maps app, but only because I've avoided upgrading my phone to iOS6 solely because I've heard the new Maps is so terrible.
Yup. I blame the bubble.

I think many of Japan's woes are really a direct result of its earlier success. Post-WWII Japan was extremely poor, and succeeded incredibly because they had a crazy-good work ethic, a relatively well-educated population and tradition of industrial development, and were willing to make sacrifices; as you state, "they were hungry." However the success that followed resulted in changing the very attitudes that engendered that success, and the bubble with its excesses accelerated this change greatly. Japanese confidence, lifestyle, etc, are all now firmly that of a rich, "we've succeeded! time to kick back!" country ... just in time to get the rug yanked out from underneath it.

The instincts and mechanisms that got them so far aren't well prepared to accommodate the changing world, but having tasted wealth, the country isn't really all that eager to toss out what made it wealthy, even when that clearly isn't working so well anymore... "better the devil you know..." etc.

This is the fate of all successful countries to some degree,
but what I wonder is: without the extremes of the bubble, could Japan have achieved a more nuanced transition, becoming a rich country, but maybe remaining a bit more flexible and wary?

I don't think it's really true that everybody thinks "nothing will change, everything continue smoothly, nothing bad will happen." Japanese people very much see the country's malaise and feel worried about the future... but merely recognizing the problem intellectually isn't enough. There has to be a change in "gut instinct" too, and that is much harder. I suppose one way to do it is to increase the pain level to the point where continuing as-is becomes intolerable, and something has to change; unfortunately that seems to be route Japan is taking... :(
Same could be said about salt — and salt really seems to be way worse. It is everywhere (but you can avoid it if you cook your own food and take care of what you put in it). It's quite an addiction too, as one can feel food to be tasteless when not using it (because we end up using it in excess everywhere).

I wonder how abundance of almost everything we want (foods, variety, condiments and abuse) will affect our (my) generation when we're old…
On a similar note:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321842685/ref=s9_simh_gw_p...
Well documented -\-> Easily understandable. I'd rather read this than an RFC. Can you point me to a better summary of SSL?
Try bug.n.
I'm on linux, with awesome wm, partly because bug.n doesn't have a 3 column mode and as such it's pretty useless on a 2560x1440 monitor.
If you've enabled location history, you can look at this data in the web interface at http://google.com/latitude
PageKite looks interesting. Although when I read the list under "without PageKite, you would have to:" it seems easier than PageKite. Crazy I know. :) (The catch I think is getting that static reachable IP. Most people do not have that. But I think there are workarounds.)

Question: Why the base64 encoding instead of a simple gzipped tar file? Also why instruct people to feed untrusted stuff from the internet directly into bash via curl? That is definitely not safe as a matter of policy.

But I like the idea of PacketKite. Nicely done.

Also curious about Dalpay. Are they a good alternative to PayPal?
Perhaps it fits yours, but not mine. I consider gamification as adding mechanisms to some other activity (such as participating in a community) to turn it into a game. While the idea was inspired by a game, I don't see any more "gamification" here than I do in keeping track of, say, how many friends one has on Facebook. There's no reward system, no leader boards. It's just a record of travel.
Nimrod 0.9.0 has been released.
There's a difference between buying food, a necessity, and an app, a luxury. And when you use your McDonald's example, you're assuming that the person you're conversing with is willing to pay $5-$9 for a meal at McDonald's. Many people who won't pay more than a buck for an app won't be spending more than a couple bucks on a meal at McDonald's anyway.
Large amounts of sodium are bad for you, of course, but it doesn't fill you with cheap energy and mild euphoria.
Old Maps vs. New Maps
Ask HN: What programming language do you recommend starting with?
Where should a beginner who is interested in coding start? Is there a language, like latin, that can help form the basis for understanding other languages and make learning easier?
This article's title should specify that by "work remotely," it means "live together with your coworkers in an exotic location remote from company headquarters."
Funny you should mention Catalyst, because the last time I tried to return to Perl (2007?) I tried Catalyst and the experience was not positive.

The page reads like a "me too" of web development. The term "Modern Perl" sounds like it will be innovative and different from other options on other platforms. I would love a compelling reason to use Perl again! But I never see one. The innovation is happening elsewhere. Calling things "modern" doesn't make them that.
Handbrake Cluster
25% of the world is a lot of travelling and expenses for a $1 payoff.
That's assuming the user has js enabled. What I like about this is that it's just one line. No inline script (that would be just bloat for the user with js turned off.)
Finnish isn't an Indo-European language so learning English is a bigger step for Finns.
I can see it now; Soft drink cans with sugar will start having to do pictures akin to the smoking ones. First there will be the small label warning, then the larger ones, then the full blown pictures of somebody out of a horror movie type extreme. Heck even a picture of dirty British teeth (I'm a Brit so I'm allowed that one pandering to cliché). It will happen eventually.

But that is only if people start using it irresponsibly, like anything, be it water, any vitamin, in excess will not work out great for you. It is when it starts having a noticeable effect upon many that laws and acts change. That is one drive of change, but probably the first sign will be insurance forms asking how many sugars you have in your coffee and how many per week/day.

But as long as I don't have to hovel outside a fire door in the poring rain to get my sugar fix then I'm not too worried about my addiction, worry causes more ill health than the excess sugar I consume and in that I raise my cup (though I did use brown sugar and I'm talking the supermarket version).
http://plnnr.com/
Yes patents should be abolished. They are not good for the advancement of mankind as a whole.
Off the top of my head, a large part of his problem seems to be the need to overdramatize issues like this.

If he's that biorythmically dependant upon sugar, then the likely problem is that he's not getting sufficient sugar elsewhere in his diet. He could reduce the sugar in his tea while adding fruit and likely achieve the same end more effectively (while upping fibre intake, for example).

But phrasing this as a problem of addiction to a "poison" is a loaded approach that closes off less dramatic and likely much more effective measures. And honestly, if his weight's not a problem, then relax and enjoy your addiction--you could have it a lot worse :)
Like I said, a scraper can easily decode your appendStyle parameters. Do let us know when you perfect perpetual motion though.
If those bridgestone tyres happened to be the ones that came WITH the car as you purchased it, there would likely be strong backlash against Ford.
>I consider gamification as adding mechanisms to some other activity (such as participating in a community) to turn it into a game.

Perform action, receive reward, repeat, collect more rewards.

That in a lot of definitions is a game. Fog of World, you perform an action by travelling, unlock badges, repeat, collect more badges. That sounds like the very definition of gamification.
Do you expect Rails developers to have their own pet projects that they put a lot of time into? I agree it would be strange if no one had any forks, had never done a pull-request etc.
"Extra frustrating because I know just how bad taking in these quantities of sugar is."

Well, the same thing can be said about anything. Drink water in excess and it can and will kill you (the dose makes the poison). These pieces are frustrating because they take something (fats, sugars, carbs, etc.) that is perfectly healthy in moderation and within a balanced diet and position it as a vice when in fact the vice is the person's over-indulgence. A better title would have been: "Something that I consume too much of will kill me one day".
I'm guessing probably more than 95% of the code I've written is covered by NDA's but it would be good if there was a formal study.
Citation! <anecdote>
In the case of vanguard, you don't have the option to have the old, ungamified, version. (Can a game not be gamified?) In the case of walking around, you can still do it the same way you always have, if you prefer. What's the problem here?
For those reading, I haven't been involved day-to-day with Everlane since early this year. I now help run Dev Bootcamp (http://devbootcamp.com). That's just to say I'm speaking for myself only, not for Everlane.

Funny story: Everlane started off doing something similar to Svpply and Pinterest and quickly realized the only way to win would be to catch lightning in a bottle. Congrats on Pinterest for pulling that one off. :)

Exposure is always a major challenge and nobody's going to begrudge a new source of traffic. Assuming a company is aiming to "go big," though, they fall into one of two categories:

1. They have momentum
2. They don't yet have momentum

For people in (1), their inclination will be to double-down on whatever's working today. New platform? Come back to me when you can send 10k potential customers our way.

For people in (2), focus is the priority. You're small. You don't have much cash. Every second counts. Opportunity cost is everything.

The "tl;dr" of everything below is this: merchants aren't interested in a third-party aggregation or discovery service until it can delivers thousands of customers to their (virtual) door.

Read on. If you dare.

Those people are going to focus on 1-2 highly-leveraged opportunities. It's a classic chicken-and-egg: they won't want to devote energy to playing with a new "product discovery platform" until that platform can return 10-100-1000x the opportunity cost.

This is entirely ignoring the branding implications of embracing a neutral, product-centric, third-party platform as a main customer acquisition channel, FWIW.

Svpply tried to get around this by side-stepping the content creators and letting their users find and post content. Pinterest got around this by having less-strict editorial guidelines so that users could post super-viral but less-commercial content, e.g., "Check out Lindsay Lohan's new haircut! (photo) (photo) (photo)."

Those are thin wedges to base a whole company on, IMO, but maybe I'm just risk-averse†. It obviously worked for Pinterest.

If I were advising someone in group (2) I'd tell them to find what networks their current or potential customers are spending time on and focus exclusively on those. If there's one network, all the better -- focus exclusively on that one. Odds are "that one" isn't whatever you're building.

For Everlane, we got a lot of benefit out of focusing entirely on Tumblr (http://tumblr.everlane.com).

Through a combination of well-crafted editorial (Michael) and "stupid viral tricks" (me), Everlane's tumblr was, in late 2010/early 2011, the largest in the men's fashion category and one of the largest in the fashion category.

Today I'd consider Pinterest a viable platform to experiment with, too, but in 2010-2011 Pinterest had no traffic at all.

†: I'm kidding. Early on at Everlane everyone and their uncle was pushing us to be a "discovery platform blah blah blah" and when we said we thought the opportunity was vertically integrated commerce they told us we were insane.

Well, except our seed investors and early employees. God bless them. :)
Not all VCs are equal, and I apologise for lumping in the good with the bad. But there are plenty of examples of venture capitalists (and angels too) taking advantage of inexperienced entrepreneurs. And in that case it helps a lot if you get to write the contract.
Buried lede: sugar is bad for you.

While the entry notes some well-known harms of sugar, it fails to note a few thing points:

- Sugar withdrawal can be modestly severe, but it's not physiologically habituating, and a couple of weeks of abstinence will get you through the worst of it.

- Quantity, quality, and timing matter. Keeping total carbohydrate low (~50 - 150g day) will minimize much of the effects. Keeping sugars/carbs mostly low-glycemic minimizes the negative impacts. Consuming carbs in the morning or post-exercise (when body stores are naturally depleted) puts them where they can be utilized immediately (liver and muscle glycogen stores, not converted to fats).

- Much of the sugar in the standard American / standard western diet (SAD/SWD) is in the form of hidden, added sugars in processed foods. A teaspoon of added sugar in tea is minimal. The 10 teaspoons in a 12 oz. can of Coke (or any other soft drink) are rather more. Or the sugars in various canned, prepared, baked, or other foods. Make your own food or eat raw / natural / unprepared foods and you'll greatly reduce your sugar intake.

- Exercise, both strength training and cardio, change how your body processes sugar, and greatly reduces the negative effects of same.

Something's going to kill you. Need not be sugar.

You have agency.
You're comparing Persona to an imaginary world where most websites don't rely on email providers to prove authentication.

I'm comparing hypothetical mass-adoption of Persona with hypothetical mass-adoption of alternative password reset policy. It seems like a fair comparison.
I found Stickk and chains.cc aren't bad for kicking habits. I'm currently trying to quit sugar. If I don't, I give $200 to a disliked politician.

It's depending on me not lying, but making that committment has already made it a lot easier.

17 days in so far, and hasn't been hard, after total failure before.
Personal anecdote: I just started a ~30-50g carb a day diet 15 days ago. I had maybe 2 days of withdrawal from all the sugar/carbs I used to consume, but afterwards had way more energy than I ever did in recent memory. (Assuming you eat the right amount of fat/protein.) After 2 weeks I've also lost 10 lbs (4.53 kg). I recommend everyone give it a try to see how it changes your daily routine and general sense of health.
Siri gets even more interesting if you use Siriproxy, which allows you to write your own code to extend Siri's vocabulary and define custom actions. It's not friendly for non-technical folks, but it's great for hackers.
I was very impressed by Siri the other day. I asked "Find me pictures of Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat"

And Siri responded by asking whether I wanted to search for "Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat", getting the spelling exactly correct.
Where to begin ...

>> not having a Github account at all would be kinda weird these days

and this ...

>> if you're a Rails developer and you don't have a Github account, I'm still probably not going to read your resume.

Thanks for the heads up hansef.
Has it been fully implemented? The bug says that it's resolved.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=674373
Firefox Retina/HiDPI Support - Fixed
I suspect that for most people in the US their first meal at McDonalds was purchased by their parents. And they probably know quite a few people in real life that would endorse McDonalds.
It's an interesting thought experiment. If all patents disappeared tomorrow, what would you do differently at your startup? Probably nothing?
Ahhh but if you offset that with cans of diet cola you they will reduce that excess sodium. Salt+soda balanced diets work. Also don't forget a little fat, milk before a meal will also actualy reduce the amount of food you absorb. Whilst were on about eating more then reducing your vitimin D by avoiding sunlight will effect the vitimin C's ability to take on and absorb foods. But a adict can argue anything, even a salt, sugar caffine, never going out addict :-).

Rule of thumb everything is bad for you, some take larger amounts than others so in that everything in moderation works best.

Also worth noting that if you work in a very hot enviroment were you sweat alot then as well as water salt tablets are required, signs of low sodium are headaches, aches, and flu like sympton feeling and generaly feeling shit, too much salt may be bad for you in general in the longterm but not enough can be more detremental.
Big thank you to Jonathan Kew for taking the time to get this done!

Here's the message from the bug of importance:

---

Jonathan Kew (:jfkthame) 2012-09-29 05:32:37 PDT

Pushed to inbound (parts 1-6):

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/66bc6...

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/8d715...

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/466d4...

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/4e892...

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/55064...

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/1d3de...

This should enable HiDPI rendering on retina macbooks, except when a non-HiDPI display is also attached (see bug 794038 for multi-/mixed-resolution issues).

Note that until bug 785667 lands, HiDPI users will experience some issues with plugins: in some cases, plugin content will be incorrectly scaled, and/or interaction with controls will be broken.

If you need to work around this until plugin support lands, go to about:config and set "gfx.hidpi.enabled" to 0 (and restart the browser) to revert to non-HiDPI rendering.

Unless this needs to be backed out for unexpected failures, please file new bugs for any remaining glitches in HiDPI rendering, rather than adding to this bug, and mark them as blocking the HiDPI tracker (bug 785330).
Upvoted. Sorry to hear about your buyer's remorse, but thanks for paying it and posting your thoughts. Anything more specific? Likes and dislikes?