skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree. That part of the announcement was very defensive. Haven't seen them talk about the competition that much since the AntennaGate presser, when they compared other phones' attenuation issues. And that's when they were in damage control.

Disclosure: Apple fanboy with enough AAPL shares to count on one hand
Shell has spent decades working on this tech after south africa and Nazi germany used this technology when they were cut off from oil supplies. Since I am an actual Energy Economist, I'm glad to see this happen. I think Gas to Liquid technology could be critical in some possible futures as a method to store energy in a dense compact fuel that works with massive existing infrastructure.
Cause its not apple... they dont even try to hide their pro apple bias anymore. The worst though is silicon valley insider, they posted 5 anti win 8 articles already..
To each his own I guess, the only time I ever use the Metro UI is when I'm searching for something, which usually consists of hitting the start button, searching "Chrome" (for google chrome) and then hitting enter. Any other time that I've used the interface it was just for development or testing. How often do you see yourself using it?
Lol at the logos on that page
I think he was just pointing out that Hacker News can be somewhat schizophrenic on this topic. "WTF why won't Craigslist improve, it is anti-innovation" vs. "Why did MS change their UI?!?"

And yes, before someone makes the statement, HN is made up of individuals with their own opinions etc. etc.
I'm not going to pass judgment on the ethics or usefulness of this app, so I thought I would try some constructive criticism.

1. The top-right page curl to switch between Romney and Obama has mismatched alt-text.

2. Instead of being partisan, maybe you would want a "HotspotsForAmerica" that would just remind people to vote for the candidate of their choice, instead of telling people who they should vote for.
I see a lot of comments about cheap logos.

Serious Question: how do you define/identify a cheap logo? I mean look at logos of most popular brands like Google, Facebook, Ebay, BBC, Microsoft, Paypal, Yahoo etc they are all extremely simply, just fonts with colors on them, nothing that could be called creative. Maybe even a non-designer could replicate them in five minutes. However despite all the simplicity, these logos are still stuck in our mind and do represent their respective products. So it really worth spending $$$$ on logos while starting up?
That's the upgrade price. AFAICT they haven't announced pricing for an installable new copy of the OS.
Well looks like this is judgement day for MS then.

The price is much lower than for previous versions of Windows, this makes me suspect that we should start expecting new releases of Windows much more frequently, similar to how Apple does it.

With the radical changes going on in Windows 8 it wouldn't surprise me to see a tweaked and improved Windows 9 in less than 2 years.
BUSINESS WEBSITE DESIGN
I need someone who is experienced in coding for business websites and unique blogs. Would love someone who could create a unique concept site for a business while implementing all tools for successful blogging. HAS TO BE SEO EQUIPPED!!! Needs coding that enables optimal search engine results. Description of the website: one that acts as a landing page for my business as well as a blog with daily updates allowing users to comment. Include shopify, or some equivalent as I will be selling several products through the site.

FOR AN IDEA OF WHAT IM LOOKING FOR: DESIGN SEE HUGHANDCRYE.COM AND FOR SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS SEE TRUTHABOUTABS.COM
To run desktop apps, you can go to the desktop. I've been using it as my primary OS for several months now

Disclosure: MSFT Employee
Delete our lives?! Oh noes.

Honestly, if you give one company that much power, then you're the foolish one. Same thing with a Kindle account, iCloud, SkyDrive, Twitter.. If you have valuable information in the cloud, back it up!

I personally tried to "delete my life" a while back and the only reason I still have an (unused) Facebook profile is because it got reactivated at some point.
Critical infrastructure managing software vulnerable to Unauthorized access
Ask HN: Anyone Skip College? Or had an interesting Gap Year?
My little sister and cousins are seniors and juniors in high school. I would like for them and other high schoolers to know what type of opportunities are available for them than just college, or going straight to college.

There are a number of books on this topic, like James Altucher's "40 Alternatives to College." I am aiming to write a book filled with people who actually did it.

I want to interview at least 200 people, in tech and outside of tech, currently full-time employees and entrepreneurs. Is anyone open for an interview via Skype? Please reach out to me via email.

Also, do you know anyone you could connect me to for an interview?

Thanks!
Very promising and innovating instagram client that expands the idea and functionality of the main instagram app. Looking forward to use it!
Of course, 1% of your time is spent in Metro if you use it on a desktop, and that's generally when you're searching for something.
Yup, fine print:

Offer valid from October 26, 2012 until January 31, 2013
and is limited to five upgrade licenses per customer.
To install Windows 8 Pro, customers must be running
Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.
I suspect that you can buy a used license for Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 easily.

Really, just visit a friend/relative and find a dusty old PC that has a license sticker on it and ask if you can have it.
> they are a place many startups get stuck.

Yeah sure, this is true. Anyone remember the dotcom swoosh era (http://lekowicz.com/library/logohell/logohell.html )?

Startups also get stuck on UI (custom, bootstrap, jquery-ui, yui), backend (node,ruby,java,groovy,php) and database (mysql,postgresql,redis,mongo).

For most businesses the logo is just something that shows up in the top left corner of the website, it really doesn't matter all that much as long as it is clean. I bet if you took this logo (http://kevinohashi.com/sites/default/files/Review%20Signal.p...) and had it up on your site without mentioning you paid $30 nobody would have noticed/cared.

What you have is just a cheap logo. And that's OK. Like a cheap car or a cheap UI it serves a purpose. Just like if you built a web application using out-of-the-box bootstrap the majority of end users will not even notice.

That doesn't mean logos should only cost $30, or that for the $30 you spent that you have a great logo. Then again, maybe you don't need a great logo. A great logo should be instantly recognizable and fit with the message that is your company. http://speckyboy.com/2011/06/15/30-of-the-most-iconic-logos-...
This was over a series of years. There are lots of reasons why we stopped working on the different projects, but I'm not sure I believe there was any less potential in them - especially Prospector.

While I agree that they've gotten very good at identifying potential good team/product pairings, that just means they have relatively few false positives. It makes no claim to how many people they pass over who may in fact have an amazing team and product. As the noise in the process increases, you're bound to end up with more and more people who for completely random reasons didn't end up being what they wanted that day. This isn't a purely objective process (thank goodness).

All other things being equal, anything that relies on the judgement of a few people has an element of serendipity to it.
The Verge gave it a pretty solid score (8.8/10): http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3537710/windows-8-review

The Surface, not so much (7.0): http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface...
No, but there are plenty of developers willing to build applications and then sell them for a dollar on the app store (or free even.)
That's still a bunch of extra work for a small program, considering you have to worry about security and data protection. Making sure that you don't leak anybody elses data.
From the article:

> a 2006 launch PS3 can still update directly to the latest software

A few other tech companies could take a leaf out of that book. Look at the state of the iPad 1 for example...
I've been running Windows 8 since they release the RTM version to TechNet subscribers on my primary laptop (about a month now).

Short version - outside of Metro it's basically Win7SP3 and it works great. Metro is every bit the usability disaster that people have claimed when not running on a touch screen.

The good news is that you really don't have to interface much with Metro at all. It replaces the start menu, but it does so in a manner that works with how I'm used to dealing with the start menu already. That is, I already just hit the Win key and then start typing until the thing I want pops up, and that behavior has carried over.

So, yeah Metro is awful for all the reasons everybody has already laid out. Despite that, Win 8 has been a solid performer and I won't be loading Win7 back on this system.

My primary home system will continue to run Win7 until I am comfortable that my production applications will all run successfully (and by that, I mean "games").
YC-Backed Parse Bets On Windows 8, Supports Back-End Development For Its Apps
--- I admit I hadn't thought of splitting it among all the players, since I was the one that footed the bill. That works and is totally valid even in my rather rough $1/hr of fun metric. Good point! Same with Dominant Species and Android and other multi-player games, then.
You might be right in general that logo matter very little to a number of startups and they shouldn't spend a lot of money on a logo before they're successful. However, your startup is one that need to appear trustworthy to a consumer and appearance / design actually matters a lot. When I look at your logo, I don't feel reassured that your web hosting reviews will be professional / trustworthy. Other niches need not worry as much about the trustworthiness of their product but you would have more success with a stronger logo design.
Ask HN: What skills did you bring in with your first employee?
I am curious to see what skills you sought from your first employee? Were they a dev generalist? UI? or other?
The Taskbar and Start Menu have worked so well in the past, why change?

Perhaps the price might be a hint that it's worth less than previous versions..
Companies will continue to separate themselves from the chaff based on price alone. Price defines what you're worth to the recipient and much more. It also often dictates quality & what you see here is representative of that.

Could you get a great $5 logo? Certainly. Nike did alright with their $35 one (ignoring inflation & stock later granted to the designer).
failing? MS has been holding 70% to 85% of the desktop market for decades, even by conservative estimates.
I keep putting it off and leaving the link in my bookmarks. It seems like a fun little project.
Honestly, I would suggest you get a Facebook account and start playing around with it. The answer to all your questions are "it depends". In part it depends on how Facebook evolves over time, in part it depends on how much they want to curate their content, in part it depends on what their friends do with the content your children are incidentally a part of.

More than any of these, however, it will depend on how well they understand the implications of their actions online. You're going to be in a much better position to communicate about these implications if you understand exactly how they're interacting with their online identity. This means having at least a reasonable understanding of how interacting on Facebook works and, like it or not, Facebook is complicated enough that the only way to understand it is going to be using it.
> Something existing to your level of liking is perhaps the best reason to change it.

This seems... ridiculous to me.

Computers are tools enabling us to do certain tasks with greater ease. If the computer does this fluidly and with minimal effort then it is a good tool. On the other hand, if a new version of the tool adds to the effort required to achieve the same or similar tasks then the new tool is not as good as the old.

This has nothing to do with resisting change, but resisting change for change's sake.
From the site: limit is $100 per transaction
Upgrade copies of Vista and Win7 can be installed on an empty hard drive with minimal tweaking, but I guess being kosher with the licensing is important for some users.
Windows OEM licenses aren't transferrable from the PCs they're sold with. Retail licenses are transferrable to another person, once.
The 40 dollar price point is probably less about convincing Windows 7 users to upgrade or purchase it in lieu of, as it is about getting Windows XP users to upgrade who would never upgrade to Win 7 at its current price point.

And concerning the the 15 dollar upgrade for recent purchases of PCs with Win 7 this is a quick little money grab by MS. They already sold the OEM the Win 7 license so they aren't cannibalizing any potential existing sales.
People looking on auction sites, doing web searches and outbidding each other is them doing the work. The price remains stable because the seller only has to spend a fixed amount for the ad campaign that led the user to a particular website. Doing it your way would introduce uncertainty: what amount of time to spend, how low to bid, how many people to pay for monitoring what people want or how much computational resources to allocate to do it by machine. Investors would run the other way.
Here is a nice list of famous logos and their costs : http://stocklogos.com/topic/famous-logo-designs-and-how-much...

interestingly twitter's first bird logo costed only $15.
Whether or not "design" is important to the business is irrelevant. What we're talking about it the designer's time. If a company who didn't really need an app for their business, but just wanted one for good measure, and hired an app developer, do you think $5 is fair payment? Can't developers accept that there are a plurality of opinions on the value of apps?
Django 1.5 alpha 1 released
I usually do a quick check (search) before submitting to make sure that i don't "repost" anything.

Anyways: No big deal

And yes, let's leave it on. I also "upvoted" :)
I'm trying to download it from GB and looks like it only allows from the US. So I hopped on my US-VPN and still redirects me to the GB site. Anyone have any idea how I get around this? (Note - I have a valid US credit card and am prepared to pay in USD)
Oh wow, you're comparing the industrial revolution to a minor OS upgrade. I guess we feel the need for revolutions in our lives, but this is a bit too much.
You should spend another $30 and replace the Drupal favicon on your site.
A Solution to the Supernode Problem
The reason we don't achieve lofty visions is that those who would pursue them are being smothered by nationalism. It is ironic that the Apollo mission success is being held out as the ideal (as it always is) because its success is what heralded this crushing nationalism to be brought down upon all our heads.

But I know, no one wants to hear this. That's because they're nationalists. All they can see is nationalist solutions to problems, and since that IS the problem, nothing will change.
Show HN: Printavo v3, listening to customers and growing
Been going for about three years now on the side, learned to code in Rails from Michael Hartl's book, got help from friends and have been getting tons of feedback. I find using Uservoice's idea generation tool was the best along with emailing all customers a few days after they register to get feedback.

I also found that a good amount of people will sign up and abandon the site quickly and I'm going to put in a JQ tour to help guide people around the app. Also been testing out Olark to gauge converting users.

Anywho, I just launched the latest, responsive Printavo update with has a ton of cool things screen printers need and use on a daily basis.

Any tips on converting more users are more than appreciated.
This guy also wrote great articles about Haskell and Erlang on defmacro.org. I wonder why they don't use any of that in RethinkDB.
Recollect Gives Social Media Ephemera Permanent Placement
If you're not willing to honor the license, what possible point would there be to paying for the software in the first place? I'm willing to be a Win8 crack is live on thepiratebay within the week.

The discussion was about whether or not MS has decided to reduce their retail OS price from the ~$100 it is at right now. AFAICT, they have not.
> If the computer does this fluidly and with minimal effort then it is a good tool

I strongly disagree that Windows 7 matches this description. I find managing windows to be very difficult, for example: no Always on Top, no Focus Follows Mouse, etc. Multiple monitor support is lacking (no option for second taskbar, etc.) Windows 7 also defaults to Reboot without explicit user permission. Some of this is fixed in 8, some of it is not. The point here is that Windows 7 is most definitely NOT "minimal effort" or "fluid". At least, not for me.

> On the other hand, if a new version of the tool adds to the effort required to achieve the same or similar tasks then the new tool is not as good as the old.

Is there any evidence that Windows 8 adds to the effort required to achieve the same task compared to Windows 7? I don't think so.

Also, huge swathes of the world are starting off their computing experience as Mobile-Only. Kenya has very few desktop computers as compared to cell phones, for example. Microsoft is preparing for the new paradigm while not forcing it on anyone (desktop mode, you could keep using Windows 7, etc).

The point is that just because the Windows-7-using elite of the world are happy right now DOES NOT mean that the product is good to leave as it is. There is huge room for improvement.
What else were they supposed to do? Let it compete against Windows 3.1 instead? Just not release it for another three years?

Well, maybe the second of those would have been a good idea: spend a few more years adding features and polish. But presumably they wanted basically that OS out there competing with iOS and Android. And perhaps they reckon more people will buy Surface and Windows Phone devices when the UI feels more familiar on account of using it on desktop and laptop computers.

And, actually, it's hard to see how Windows 8 would get more users, or make more money for Microsoft, if they wait three years instead of starting to sell it now and gradually improving it over those three years. I can see only one way: if the wait lets them make more radical changes that they can't apply to an OS that's already out there being used. But there's a limit to how much you can change at once without alienating everyone, and Windows 8 may be pushing it already.
This is not a logo. Ok, maybe in today's world of photoshop=designer, but typing the company name, setting it in two opposed weights, two complementary colors and adding a bit of cliche clip art over (of course) the 'i' ...does not make a logo that is worthy of praise.

Does it look terrible to most people? Probably not.
Does it look good to anyone? Probably not.
Memorable? Probably not.
If this were my logo, would I be bragging about what a great logo I have and for $30? Probably not.

Obviously there's a market for both approaches. Designers say they cringe at this type of work, and I do, but we've done it to ourselves by lowering the bar without anyone sticking up for the standards.

And you want to talk about a trade war? Another topic for another time.
Microsoft has a problem with not specifying fallback fonts for non-Windows machines: http://wsld.me/KPlc

Looks like they're setting the font explicitly to 'Segoe UI' and nothing else in many spots. Telerik, a .NET CMS provider does a similar thing.
Clear your cookies maybe?
I appreciate CSS frameworks for taking some of the complexities out of tedious tasks. Without pre-built frameworks, I would still be using my own half-baked custom boilerplates. I agree with your sentiment about the direction of design. Am i the only one who is already sick of all the metro copies out there? I have never wanted to design a web site/app that looks exactly like another brand, e.g. Microsoft's Metro.
> Why is it hard for designers to accept that there are plurality of opinions on the value of design?

Really? As if that doesn't apply to literally every other profession? I certainly don't mean to say that the logo is the end-all solution to a user's experience– that's ridiculous. People can pay $1000, $10k, $100k even and still end up with shitty branding but the point isn't that quality necessarily scales to how much you pay. It's the fact that on the other side is a person providing a dedicated and unique service who is effectively being bet against (1/6) for less than minimum wage.

And unfortunately, yes there are developers who will work for practically nothing. Unsurprisingly, they are quite underrepresented in places like this and on virtually every other plane because the work they can do for that sort of money is just like 99.999% of $5 logos– total garbage. And what kind of a living do you make when all you can make is garbage?
Google's Products Reflect Its Character
Change your language setting to en-US?
Full availability of integrated source code for Samsung Exynos 4 family
Add Jill Stein please.
And given the political character of HN probably a lot of people here are voting for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate.
BMO only uses the first six characters of your password for online banking.
I was just using the BMO iPhone app to check my balance, when I mistyped my password. I had hit the final key too many times, but had already clicked sign in. To my surprise, I was logged in anyway. After testing in a browser I realized BMO only cares about the first six characters of your password.

Astounding.
While critiques are awesome, those sorts of comments actually provide valuable insight.

Judging by frequency/consistency of topic, they can be used as a launch point for improving a product. They often include insight into what people making snap judgements (hint: we all do) think about your product/website/etc. While longer form critiques give excellent advice, short comments such as these provide a different take, which actually informs the critiques as well.
The Infinite Canvas
Ask HN: Best thing to show a 10 yr old to spark his interest in programming?
I'm planning on teaching my little brother how to program and would love to get ideas of what to show him first to really pique his interest and make him excited to learn more.
I don't think regular users will like this much, and forcing them to go into Metro will only make more people hate it, rather than like it. Fan bases grow when the growth is natural, not when it's forced.

http://www.foolproof.co.uk/is-planet-earth-ready-for-windows...
I didn't intend on comparing to the industrial revolution specifically. I more meant it that the wealthy are happy and content with the way things are, the poor are not (and not merely because they are poor, but because there are better ways of doing things for everyone, not just the poor).

The comparison was meant to open the discussion to the idea that many of the world's future computer users are not familiar with, nor care about, the workflow in Windows 7. Windows 8 may be better for them to use.
Is there a geolocation map of all of the hotspots that have supported either candidate? I would assume that would be more interesting than the configuration to a lot of people.
Talk to people that do stuff and they will often tell you about problems they have. if it is something you think you could do something about. talk to more people who do the same thing and see if they have the same problem. Is the solution already out there? could you do it significantly better?
They may also have an idea about a solution to give you a starting point. Is it a big enough problem? would it be worth your time building a rough MVP?