skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's forced deregulation by circumventing the rules.

One interesting argument is that deregulation increases the supply of drivers hence making them inefficient. As they are inefficient the prices increase. Interesting POV.

However given that the American Medallion system doesn't seem to be working, there aren't enough drivers and a medallion is worth so much, screw that theory.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/ny-cab-medallions-w...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab#Regulation

Uber have hit a nice niche in America where they're taking advantage of over regulation. And the really odd thing is the cities saying Uber is A-OK, they're just idiots. They should deregulate instead of making a special Uber clause, it's bad government. But that's the way it works I guess, the ludicrousness of local politics around the world always makes me sad.

Note that their success isn't really anything about customer obsession, the only reason for their success is because of regulation. You wonder whether that's a happy accident or the entire private car thing is a cover and they're deviously cunning. All respect either way.

Speaking from a country without these sort of onerous regulation where a taxi is a trivial and cheap thing to get in minutes, any city getting rid of the medallions will put uber out of business practically over night.

The problem they'll face is that as grow they will probably put themselves out of business by encouraging mass deregulation, and then they'll be expensive with no value add. Their customer base will dwindle as new customers won't want to pay the premium for a chauffeured car and that'll be the end of it. Probably a good 5-10 years away yet though.
There's a lot of work behind making something so bad: http://www.bountytowels.com/en-US/Assets/js/home.js
Why would Canonical do that? This is one of the streams that help pay designers and developers. When I bought my phone I did not complain about not giving the money to EFF or GNU. When I bought my car I did not wish for a slider about donating some to Audi OR Costco OR give it to the gov. It's just, well, not something a bussiness would do.
As long as Uber is proving a useful service in a lawful manner, not ripping people off, the the city should let the consumers decide whether they should stay in business.

If they are such a threat to the DC cab industry the cab companies would do well to adopt some of the techniques that are making Uber so successful.
My list on proper web app creation
Instant Cash Plugin / Twitter Tweet Turbo
Since I already agreed that free enterprise is pretty awesome, I'm disappointed you felt obliged to given example where it works pretty well and ignored entirely the cases where it doesn't. I've seen you do better than picking one phrase to object to while ignoring the main point, and I wish you had done similarly here.
And you don't think corporations themselves lobby government entities? It is a little silly to generalize this down to unions. The problem is government influence, not who did the influencing.
Being profitable is not a 'shortterm end'.
Hands are people who work with their hands; thus "hired hands" are hired workers, or hired sailors. These uses have existed for over 300 years.

There is one person working, thus a single hand. (Albeit that single hand has two hands.)
I really like the paint metaphor + graphic. It takes a lot of effort to find explanations that work so well when explaining computing concepts to novices or people without a deep interest in mathematics. We need more of that. Granted, it's from Wikipedia, but I didn't know about it until now.

Unfortunately, the explanation contradicts itself pretty quickly when discussing man-in-the-middle scenarios for D-H. So it was useful in that it prompted me to find out where the author went wrong.
The title is pretty accurate. This isn't the type of site you get when you have a "digital agency" designs your site. It is the type of site you get from an "ad agency".

I've done a little bit of interaction design consulting for old school ad agencies. It was a pretty silly experience. Large advertising agencies that have slowly added web, mobile apps, Facebook apps, etc. to their list of services as clients expectations have changed. These agencies are still organized in the Mad Men style (copy writers, art directors, account directors, project managers, strategist/planners, media buyers, etc.). Traditional ad agencies are very very very bad at doing the digital work. The "creatives" guard their turf as owners of all the concept and design work, but they have a very poor grasp on the technical side of digital work as well as standard user experience design patterns. User centered design isn't really a part of the culture.

I was asked a few times to do wireframes for projects. They wanted me to trace and annotate completed and approved visual design comps.
Part of the problem is that the "disruptive" businesses (by design) often don't spend time thinking about or solving the difficult problems in an area, especially by coming up with working solutions to the problems that caused people to call for regulation in the first place. Many regulations can probably be replaced with something better, but they were often initiated by real problems, and it's important to understand what those problems were, and figure out how to avoid them or sidestep them. Many "disruptive" businesses don't have the historical knowledge or skills to do so, and are hoping they can just close their eyes and ignore the problems, which tends to lead to short-term success, but medium-term reoccurrence of similar problems.

You can see that with AirBnB, which I think is based on a good idea, but also utterly fails to deal with many of the actually hard problems in the space—those that involve things other than operating a website. Real-world problems led to hotels being regulated in the first place, such as health/safety and noise problems, and so far AirBnB hasn't done much to convince me that they even understand the problems in that space, let alone how to address them.
The problem is that the DC cab industry was so corrupt that they ended up heavily regulated. Now those regulations do not allow them to do things that Uber does. The fix isn't to outlaw Uber, but to allow the taxis to compete in the same way.
>iOS6 Maps work great for me

If you serve shit on a plate to millions of people, you're inevitably going to meet a scat fetishist that doesn't mind.
If it's ever any harder than "apt-get remove --purge" then you'll have a problem worth complaining about. Until then, meh.
I used to use this theory. I now prefer summer, sun and rock hard clay (had to sledge hammer the spade in for the first few cm). Why? Because the destruction you cause tramping clay everywhere is terrible - 2 or 3 kgs stays attached to you and you can't even shake it off the spade. No one who digs clay (as opposed to soil/sand where I don't really have an opinion) would choose to do it in the wet. My 2c. Now I'll go back (quite literally) to finishing this trench before the rain arrives.
iOS Maps is already far better than google maps. Further, Google maps hasn't really progressed in the last decade

Sober up, then post.
It's union politics which gets their legislation passed. No one would support price-raising taxi cartels if the question weren't coated with rhetoric about wages and welfare.

Let a taxi union explain it:

http://www.nytwa.org/campaigns/stopillegalpickups
In libertarianism, presumably labour unions are free to flourish and do what they like as organisations in a market free of government intervention.

Remember also that the history of labour unions predates their acceptance by government by a long margin. Trying to banish them or remove government support, or even as Adam Smith noted, making forming one a crime punishable by execution, does not seem to have stopped the formation of unions throughout history. So I don't think their existence is down to government, except in the reactive sense.
Just my two cents here, maybe it's worth thinking of offering a more loose relation to specific fields for gittip users instead of projects/corporations, which isn't related to being compensated for being in that field. Something like the tag system on Stack Overflow, for example. Considering the broad scope you mention the platform could have in the future, it could look like this: upon sign-up, a musician adds tags to his profile, #music and #acoustic, a programmer adds #programming, #python and #opensource. That way you let your users build your categories, and your users get a nice filter for their interests, and as you mention in the side note, companies can get ad space by donating in the fields they care about.

(I decided to give feedback here, since the issue is more about projects than communities, and I don't want to mess up the issue content.)

Edit: I forgot to address the issue of people tagging themselves with a specific project. Maybe it's me, but gittip seems to be oriented around people, which is why I find the projects aspect confusing. I think a much simpler solution is currently in place (and maybe should be encouraged for this case in the future), where companies/teams/projects can sign up with a single account, and people can decide to donate to that account, and the companies/teams/projects solve the money split internally. I know you've done a lot of thinking on the projects aspect, and there's been a lively debate on the issue, but personally, it seems as it adds a lot of complexity to the system, with relatively little benefit.
Though I agree with your sentiment, I don't think the apple stores is anywhere near the footprint they need on the ground . There aren't that many stores, and they are significantly focused on the US.
It's not that difficult to install software either.
They could have made it opt-in and saved themselves a bunch of bad press.
Okay, I give up. I can't figure out where the original 75km came from looking at the google map.
Everyone is forced to lobby to ensure their interests are represented.
We support price raising corporate cartels for electricity, natural gas, cell service, cable, water, and in most cases mass transit.

There are already places that have banned internet delivery coops and places have tried to outlaw selling solar energy back to the grid.
So I'm curious what you do with a basic understanding of, say, the RSA math.
Apple has a schedule by which they fix bugs; if an exploit is not "dangerous" (such as a remote web browser vulnerability), they do not seem to alter their schedule to fix it, even if it helps people jailbreak: they treat it like any other bug.

As an example, 5.1.1 was subject to Rocky Racoon for many months throughout the beta releases of 6.0. This exploit requires physical access to an unlocked (as in, not at the lock screen: PIN code already entered) device; once the device is unlocked, you can just use it, getting access to e-mails, the address book... whatever you'd like: it isn't really a serious security hazard to also be able to jailbreak it.
Is this extension's UI appealing?
I wanted to build a chrome-extension about saving multiple tabs in a click, that a lot many other extensions do, but with a more simpler and elegant design.

Want to get opinions and suggestions from everyone out there who shares the some idea of having intuitive design and ease of use while developing applications.
Warren Ellis: How To See The Future
Taxi Magic lets you request a licensed cab from an app. But licensed cabs aren't allowed to charge cheaper prices.
The most popular ones are run by IANA, ICANN, and Verisign.

But nothing stops most of us in the free world from choosing an alternative root system. Other than the support cost of a minor config change in our OS or application software.
Spreading your personal data across many vendors is bad idea and average user is aware of this problem. How hard it is to remove data from centralized facebook? It will be a nightmare in case of decentralised networks.
With the low average pay in India, how did he afford to do it. Did he have his expenses paid by someone else? Food, housing, equipment and (maybe?) power/water. Those costs, while potentially small where he lives, have to add up over decades.
Yes, when your business is gated by a staggeringly powerful and wholly unaccountable entity, it's in your self-interest to get on their good side, regardless of the underlying ethics involved. Ric Romero has more at 11.
Non-driver here, so I use taxis and private car services almost exclusively in northern California (My many thousands of trips over 10 years have probably moved from the class of "anecdote" into "data").

I've used Uber a couple times. It's pricey ($49 for a $33 taxi trip) but fantastic for those who can afford it.

Uber is better than taxi's in many ways:

o Taxi will frequently not take a trip if it doesn't like where it's coming from ("Bad neighborhood") - Uber doesn't tell the driver where you are until they accept the trip.

o Taxi will ask where you are going, and decline the trip if they don't like how much they'll make. Uber driver asks you where you are going, after you are in the vehicle.

o Taxi will sometimes take a trip, while they already have one - resulting in 30-45 minutes extra delay - hard to do with Uber when you can see where they are traveling.

o Taxi on the peninsula is usually 30-45 minute wait. Uber is < 15 minutes on average

o Drivers in Taxi's can be somewhat "eccentric" on the peninsula (As in, some of them scare me, they are so crazy). Uber Drivers are professional, rated.

o Vehicles in Taxi's are pretty craptastic sometimes. I've had to have the driver open my door (god forbid we get in an accident) - ubers vehicles professional Sedans.

o Airport Drivers will sometimes try and scam you for a 50% surcharge when they are still "in zone". They even try and pull that on someone like me who flys in and out of SFO on a monthly basis - I can imagine how many just accept it. Uber charges are identified before you book your trip.

o Lots of taxis will not take credit cards, or (try to) charge you a 10% surcharge - some of them would even RETURN to SFO when they discover you don't have cash. Uber is 100% electronic. No cash/credit card required, just your Smart Phone.

I love the electronic receipts, rating on the driver, certainty about when the vehicle is arriving.

On the peninsula, you pay about a 50% premium (or more, depending on demand), which is represented in the much higher quality trip you get.

I think if Uber was prepared to stick with that "premium" market, then the commissions wouldn't have a problem with them. Their concern is that, much like AirBNB was a trojan horse to get into the Renting Apartments/compete with hotels market, Uber is going to start competing with regular taxis - and for someone who has paid > $1mm for a medallion (http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/why-taxi-me...) they are going to demand some sort of recompense and/or action be taken.

My guess is that there will be a strong correlation between cost of medallions and the resistance to Uber in any particular market.

What I would love to see, is that TAXI services adopt the uber model of source blind/closest taxi gets the trip/rate your driver/GPS location of Taxi/electronic receipts. It would be good for the industry, good for the customers, and good for the reputable drivers/services.

The only ones who would lose out would be the crappy services, with poorly maintained vehicles, and lousy drivers .
ML, a functional programming language developed in early 1970 used underscores as wildcards too.
Ubuntu's goal has always been Linux for the Masses. Now, if the discussions are accurate, unknowing users will be searching "my_girlfriend_michelles_porn.zip" and see that information passed to Amazon. It's not what most people would want, and in the land of choices, Ubuntu has in minutes made it a lot harder for me to recommend them.

Xubuntu is pretty nice... but I might end up moving to Debian if they start pushing this out.
Huh? This has nothing to do with unions. DC does not have a particularly strong or notable union in the taxi industry. The lobbyists fighting Uber are almost certainly paid for directly by the small number of large cab corporations operating in DC--not a labor union.

I guess we can debate the merits of unions, but it has nothing to do with the fight over Uber in DC. The guy mentioned elsewhere in these comments who was arrested for trying to outright bribe the taxi commission? He wasn't a union boss, he was trying to buy favors for his own business.
Including my dorm room (it was port restricted), my college apartment, my father's house, and my current home, I've always had a publicly accessible IP address.
Apple Wants Another $707 Million In Damages From Samsung On Top Of $1 Billion
One thing I want to emphasize here is f.lux. It works. In fact it works brilliantly – it has had a profound effect on my sleep quality of the last year.
We support price raising corporate cartels for electricity, natural gas, cell service, cable, water, and in most cases mass transit.

Most of those are natural monopolies that require some degree of regulation for equitable service.

Livery service is not a natural monopoly.

There are already places that have banned internet delivery coops and places have tried to outlaw selling solar energy back to the grid.

What does that have to do with the price of bread in Peoria?
The funny thing is that in this case, I'm pretty sure it IS one or two taxi corporations behind these rules. DC doesn't really have a taxi union.
Zimbabwe residents synchronize toilet flush
But isn't this what libertarians truly are opposed to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law?
> rid of the medallions will put uber out of business practically over night.

Really?

When I get Uber, I get a great car-ride and an experience. The driver is dressed for business. I don't get:

* some cabbie's chatter
* crappy radio
* some odd smell that I can't describe
* seats without holes

This is what I think of when I get uber. There's nothing to stop taxi's now to compete on the above things. I love Uber because of the professionalism of the drivers. The App that powers it is a nice-have.
Oops, I meant integers form a group. Minor mistake.
Some things are worth knowing just out of curiosity. I always found the RSA algorithm fascinating in its own right, despite the fact I have no intention of ever implementing it myself. I'm not a mathematician nor a computer scientist, but I find an appreciation of certain algorithms not unlike the appreciation of art. Pointless in a pragmatic sense, but intellectually satisfying.

I can't speak for this article specifically though; I think there are better explanations out there, not to say that this one is bad. It is a difficult topic to explain after all, especially when you don't know the level of math background your audience has.
Wow, that page ... was creepy. Gauh, does this mean I'm a libertarian?
What's WRONG with it?

> When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.

You're implying the article is useless, and that it shouldn't be here. Justify that, if you're going to go through the trouble of making a post.
looks good to me. seems to be inspired from one of the JS links you have mentioned. nice effort, try using a bit soft color tone.
Or even better: xmonad
And yet I'm somehow the only person on the face of the internet that's never had something revealed on FB that I didn't want to.

Either this makes me lucky enough that I should consider playing the lottery, or these concerns are overstated.
As an aside, many of these things you describe licensed cabs doing (refusing to pick people up or drop them off certain locations) is illegal in DC. Perhaps the Taxi Commission would be better off enforcing the rules against its own cabs than trying to keep out competitors.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate having your local viewpoint!
As a liberal I find libertarians downright revolting. When will these society supported and overwhelming rich (or "going to be rich") technical males realise that the government created the industries they worked in through decades long investment where the free market failed to do so. When will they realize that their entire philosophy centers around a sociopathic psychological bias (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis) and should essentially be known as a little more than a psychological disorder? When will they understand that free markets are not natural phenomena but the artificial creation of governments for the benefit of society and subject to the corrupting influences of market participants which turn most free markets into cartels without the pressure of regulation holding it back?
Yes, I think all employees involved is a huge win. In our company of 3, we do that. But one thing that's problematic from the customer's point of view, is:

"Who should I contact to solve my problem?"

The ideal experience in my opinion is a single contact point, with the authority and knowledge to solve every issue you have.

That's of course unrealistic, but I want to find a way to approximate that. The closest thing I've heard is Alla Klein:

http://code.dblock.org/alla-klein-a-fake-person-in-charge-of...
Right. Because corporations can't lobby to get legislation passed.

I will never understand people that bash unions. They serve an important counterweight in society.
A friend of mine, Omni5cience, made a nighttime- and mobile-friendly fork of Sleepyti.me:

http://omni5cience.github.com/sleepyti.me/

I made a buttonless varient of it that works like a clock (the wakeup times stay current):

http://sidnicious.github.com/sleepyti.me/

We both love Sleepyti.me and it’s awesome to hear that you’re making some money off of it. (If you’re uncomfortable with us keeping the same name drop one of us an email.)
Here is my theory, probably wrong but I'll throw it out there:

Traders (as opposed to investors) are besides themselves with annoyance at the way the market is treating Facebook. If you bought at 18 and sold at 22 you made 22% on your investment in about a month. (annualized at 264%, woohoo :-) And yet if you're a trader there aren't any signals or technical stats or any of their other tools that they use to tell you to do this.

I've observed when this happens people lash out and tell the people who bought at 18 they were insane, and that it went to 22 was a fluke of chance, and that FB is crazy. Etc etc.

Except that there is a lot of randomness in the world, and in trading, and as folks have pointed out here repeatedly it is unpredictable by its very nature.

So while FB gyrates it will infuriate the traders, they want consistent rise, or consistent fall, or rise to peak followed by slow fall to minimum. Too bad.
Honestly, I think the dark colors should be changed to something lighter, fixing the fonts as well. Other than that it works as intended.
It's public to every app on your phone. Imagine if every app on your phone could listen and log as you entered passwords in your web browser?
thanks for reviewing.. will definitely add the option of changing the color tone in the options page in next revision.
Web Form Analytics Tool
It pains me the HN approach to these kinds of problems: Hospitals aren't great, so therefore they're death camps. What's the recommendation then? Stay at home the next time something happens to your health? You'll fare better that way? "Read 3 books" about every procedure? Lots of my patients have poor medical literacy, are scared, and wouldn't care enough to read even if the first 2 factors were absent. I'd love it if everyone was an expert in his/her disease process, but that's like asking for zero highway accidents.

I look forward to the improvements we can make, including with systematic improvement of things we take for granted (the wonderful Pronovost study). But I feel like it's impossible to have a blogger-style discussion about these kinds of things without everyone being a know-it-all that doesn't actually provide anything in the way of solutions.

The OP problem is so beyond complicated that I'm not even sure how to approach the headline.