skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Brent the author here. I'm 6'3".

I can move the Surface RT away from me to the point where I'm fully in the camera, but then I can't reach the keyboard. That doesn't quite work.
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I understand. However, this is a savvy blogger who is looking for publicity. Facebook contacted him to defuse a potential PR situation, he didn't call them. You'd imagine they would be smarter than that, after all they are the world experts in virality and social media. Like I said, it's anybody's guess.
I don't agree with the article's conclusions, but it offers a good look at the challenges facing the console industry.

At this point it's simply too early to write off the consoles. Sales are in a slump, but we're obviously at the end of the current generation, and exciting new stuff is yet to be announced. It's important to recognize that the hardware out there is from 2005.

If the next slate of hardware comes out without addressing any of the issues brought up in this article then they'll certainly be in trouble, but even Nintendo's Wii U, a product from a company with a history of being extremely conservative, is pushing things forward with interesting social networking ideas that I haven't seen elsewhere. I fully expect the next Microsoft and Sony hardware will introduce new ideas that will also keep them relevant.
Brent the author here. "Even the smallest issue" - errr, if the big selling point of the tablet is the keyboard, and Word can't keep up with me typing, that's not a small issue for me. I can understand how it would be a small issue for most folks, because most folks don't use tablets for Office. I wanted this tablet because it was specifically marketed as the work-friendly tablet.

If I move the tablet far enough away that I'm in the picture, then I can't touch the keyboard. That's a problem.
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a guy i know built a wind powered pump to water their family's potato field. A storm came an the field was flooded. :)
Marco Arment was more showcasing the differences between the Apple store and the Microsoft store. At the Apple store I can be left alone by simply walking up to a display and playing with a device. Maybe a sales person will come up to me and ask me if they can help me, let them know that I am just checking things out and they leave.

At the Microsoft store you can't get a single moment of privacy with a device to play with it. The sales person will continue to talk, they will take over from whatever you are trying to do/play with, they want to discuss specs, they want to showcase very specific pieces of technology, they never leave you alone, even if you end up straight up asking.

Granted, Marco's post was slanted in that he is an developer for the Apple eco-system, but that doesn't mean that his post didn't contain the truth. I myself have experienced exactly that at the Microsoft stores. They try to hard to copy the Apple stores, but fall hard.
Exactly. There is no shortage of material to decide on. From articles like http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html, to books like The Practice of Programming, to software like Unix and UTF-8, the invention of UTF-8, with many books in between, their abilities and accomplishments are obvious. There is also no shortage of articles like http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spr09/cos333/bea... written by people whose opinions I respect, lauding their abilities.

By contrast I have no reason to believe that the average programming language researcher is smarter than the average CS prof. It would be astounding if this average was anywhere near Pike and Thompson.
I don't think there is going to be much argument here. The notion of "fat" plugins -- Java, Flash, Silverlight -- has, for the most part, proven to be one that didn't work out, especially as mobile devices have become ever more prevalent. The essay here [1] could just as easily be applied to Java applets, or really to any platform which attempts to provide an similar functionality.

Whenever Jobs wrote the "Thoughts on Flash" essay there were many spirited defenses of Flash given. What stood out to me is that there were not so many defenses given of Java applets, despite their being similar in many respects. The reason for this is because the problems with applets were well understood by just about everyone. Fewer seemed to be aware (or accepting) of the fact that these same issues were present with Flash.

I think the overall lesson learned is that full-stack, in-browser VMs were an interesting experiment that ultimately failed. Java has its place on the server, and certainly much good which can be said about it. (And bad, of course.) But as an integral part of the web?

No.

[1] http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Those graphs were really confusing.

The email volume line graph. Are those data points per hour? every half hour? How can they have a seemingly continuous line graph for this histogram-style data?

The "<20 words" graphs.. they don't look cumulative but the labels make them seem like they are. The correct labels should be, for example, "20 <= w < 30".
This would sadden me if Yahoo offered the world anything of value.
One of the primary responsibilities of a journalist is to avoid editorializing.
> we all know the truth is that he just irrationally hates all non-Apple platforms

That sure looks like an absolutely rational portrait of someone else's mind.
Kinds of Focus
Wow, you give me hope I could land a job in Europe!
Google Cancels Android Event
done,
here it is - https://github.com/Agilart/Agilart-Run-Time
Thank you!

:-]

If you have a Trulia account and use any of our other apps (www.trulia.com, m.trulia.com, or any of our iOS/Android phone/tablet apps http://www.trulia.com/mobile/) and save a search or a property that data will get synced to the Windows 8 app and will show up on the main page (what we call 'the hub').

You can create an account from within the Windows 8 app from the charms bar.

Also to change your location go to the map view by tapping on a map tile from the hub.

Once on the map view swipe from the bottom to reveal the app bars. In the bottom app bar you'll see a tap target for search filter.

Once you filter your search and are on a new location swipe again from the bottom and tap 'Near Foo' from the app bar at the top.

This will take you back to the hub populated with your new location and nearby cities.

Search filtering from the hub is coming soon but we didn't have time to get it in the first release.

Thanks again!
Brent the author here. Thanks, I really appreciate that comment - especially in light of all the flack I've gotten for the review. I'd read Marco's post, and I was disappointed in that too. He has valid points, but it's tough to hear them through the rage.
Shouldn't accelerated graphics result in screen redraws that are... faster?
For a troll, everything is troll bait .
Usually when people say "big and complicated", they mean C++, which Rust is much simpler than. We put a lot of effort into keeping Rust as minimalist as possible without sacrificing the language goals. It's certainly a bigger language than Go, of course.
You're creating an inaccurate view of the author's desires that is not supported by anything he wrote or showed us.

He wanted Word to not be laggy—completely reasonable and basic, nothing that would require laptop-level productivity.

He wanted programs to give an indication that they are doing something, when they are doing something—completely reasonable and obvious.

He wanted programs to not take minutes to launch or set-up—completely reasonable, etc.

____

I think your suggestion that Surface/Win RT's performance be compared to that of an iPad is spot on. iPad creates documents, video conferences and sets up email quickly and without problem in all of my experiences and in all of the reviews on the web that I have read.
Good point. If you post virtually anything online in front of an audience of any size, someone is going to vehemently or ignorantly disagree ("Puppies are cute;" "NO THEY'RE NOT"). I wrote about the problem here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/trolls-comments-and... but have noticed it elsewhere, too, and the larger the size of the audience, the more likely it is to have some number of vocal and ignorant members.
That's no reason not to use a better algorithm. Weaknesses in MD5 are already well enough understood to make it useless for many applications, and weak crypto algorithms only get weaker, as new attacks are discovered and as technology progresses to make a broader range of things feasible.
Yeah, that was a bad choice of words; what I was getting at was the emphasis on immutability.
If it was a comment section I wouldn't care but each submission is highlighted individually.
You're right.

However, given that your problems other than the kick stand are rather odd bugs specific to you (haven't seen anyone else have the problems you had with Mail and saving in Word) would you not consider perhaps getting the device replaced over straight up returning it?

As for Word being slow...I agree that is inexcusable. If I were you I probably would have tried getting the free update to the final version from Windows Update to see if the problem has been fixed.

I dunno. I guess I'm looking at it from a glass half full perspective because I like mine and don't experience the problems you do.
Exactly that

I'm thinking the 125k in California may be a better deal, except the cost of living may be higher there (not much public transport, housing is expensive as well, etc)

But the UK income taxes are huge. Ireland taxes are similar. Continental Europe has smaller taxes (but then salaries may be smaller, so 'take home money' can be similar)
> The reality of the current market is that slates are media consumption devices

This isn't true, especially for tablets with 10" screen-size. The "media creation" apps are there, in Apple's App Store, and on Google Play, and people buy them and use them. My tablet has totally replaced the roll of journals, planners, and notebooks. I do all my UI sketches on my iPad, wite my school assignments, take my notes, keep my journal, etc. And millions of other people do the same on these devices; or at least they want to: Creation apps sell.

> A person who types frequently enough, fast enough, and in sufficient quantity to experience a bottle neck with Windows RT's version of Word as a critical purchase feature, is an edge case...or rather not part of the targeted market segment at this time.

No, Microsoft is marketing the Surface as an iPad alternative that can Do Buisness Things: It's got a USB port, and it runs Real Office.
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Sounds like you want a touchscreen laptop.

If you want to be running Visual Studio etc then you'll need a touch screen laptop. Dell Latitude XT3 would be good here.
Weak article. Typical bias/stereotype that has little strength or meaning that I care about in it. Talent exists but no matter how talented you are, there's education for a reason. And tutoring is just a boost for that. No genius just absorbs information by himself.
I'm unsure of whether you're correct, our bodies are designed to be in this reality and this is (presumably) what feels most natural to us. I think it falls down to genetic memory, the idea that we inherit parts of our subconscious self from our ancestors.

We would know the world is not real, just as you know your skin should not be made from potato peels, it would be a natural and instinctive reaction to instantly realise if this was to change.

Unless of course, I'm perfectly wrong, perhaps living inside of a Matrix style computer program which dictates everything I do and me telling you this is all some control method for the masses to stop you eventually inventing this system.

It's lucky it's Halloween, because when you think about it conspiratorially, it's kind of spooky.
They are not competing against first generation offering. This is not some child thats needs love and support. This is a commercial product from a for-profit company at a high price.

As for your phrasing of his complaints as "the smallest issues" He is going through the two most obvious and common usecases. Typing a document and saving that document, and checking his email. The device is locked down, its one of the few uses they aim for and you are allowed to do.
Well, I guess you were wrong. $850K when I just checked.

This is not to say the idea is good, though. It does seem like an extraordinary price premium for something that's available through other means.
In order to respect user intent, we must ignore user intent which may be expressed via a recently added user setting, because the setting's default value interferes w/ our profit margin.

Orwellian.
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I have a visualization tool for c# - https://www.codeperspective.com . I found that left to right rank graphs work really well when showing order of execution as most programs have very little high level recursion.
I'll take that wager. I mean that literally--put your money where your mouth is.

Email's in my profile.
The wordiness of legalese may actually be a place to pad. Also, extraneous terms and clauses that might sound plausible and have no bearing on what's actually being claimed.

Collision attacks are mitigated by careful examination coupled with a forbidding of extraneous data and a skepticism about possibly extraneous data - but I am not comfortable assuming they are defeated by it.
Are all the HN upvoters are retarded? This is not Surface RT. RT does not have a classic Windows Desktop environment. It only has metro.

This is a Surface Pro, which has not been released yet. Slowness is totally understandable because that guy installed an OS X on an iPad, which is the same thing as using Win8 full desktop environment on Surface RT hardware.
LA is still in California, one of the world's biggest economies. Rural Tennessee, North Dakota or Alabama locations with 'on site' jobs might not pay close to Goog/FB money.
Just pity the people coming out of university at the wrong time.

I chuckled at this, because I went into a CS program after the bubble burst and when jobs looked pretty scarce. By the time I came out things were rolling along nicely. I went in because I genuinely like this stuff, but the job on the other end is a nice perk.
That looks pretty amazing!
I've been using one on my lap for 15 years to no ill effect...
That is the most misquoted movie line ever. Read the whole scene: http://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Good_Will_Hunting#section_3

Will is specifically insulting the guy for memorizes passages from books and not thinking independently, and the student is bragging that his degree will make him rich anyway. No one is downplaying the unique opportunity to learn from peers at college.
I don't really understand why they need to limit the number of beta testers - I think it was said that only about 1000 users will get access to the beta client.
Well said. Except I'd make the following corrections:

s/[(]yes.*exam.//;
s/.flawed.//;
$d

I'd add that sometimes the "end" may be pointless, though you might not see it as such while working toward it; years later, in hindsight you might realise it was the "means", i.e., the process of working toward it, i.e. the "hard work", that was the point.

Interestingly, there's no "hard work" in taking a test you do not prepare for, e.g., an IQ test.
Another vote for: You really need a different name. Open is taken; a small token variation on that word will mislead folks.

How about "streamed captions"?

Also: The rebroadcasting copyrights have to be fraught with issues. Any comments on that?
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That's the biggest puzzle this option presents.
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Brent, Ben here. Your original blog post is explicit that the critical issue is PowerPoint compatibility. This doesn't come up among your reasons for dissatisfaction. I'm not skewering you, only pointing out that the rationales you articulated are different from your unarticulated expectations...though your articulated expectations were rather low.

The referenced post, however, implies an expectation to replace both an Air and an iPad with the Surface. Your post today implies that this is still the case, i.e. you intend to purchase a Surface Pro when they become available.

I'm not saying the performance of the Surface is excusable. But mainly because Word ships on it and a full function keyboard is an available option. This implies that the Surface is suitable for full speed touch typing while running a Word document (i.e. processing complex XML and accurately rendering arbitrary fonts and graphic elements with full compatibility with the desktop version). Consider the steps Apple took to avoid creating this situation with iWork when initially released - incompatible file structures meant no requirement to support touch typing without discarding document structure.
So, in order to have an opinion, one must have credibility? Credibility in whose eyes? Yours? Mine? This is, in my opinion, an utterly ridiculous comment in it its elitist and exclusionary tone. Are but a dog on a leash? I ask because you've basically just stated that corporations are beyond criticism from individuals. So, apparently we should all be corporate zombies like you, just toeing the line, never questioning... Yes, that is much better for the world.

The irony is that all the people hacking on Marco for giving his opinion are doing exactly the same thing right here. So let me get this straight - as long as you (or anybody) agrees with a stated opinion, then that opinion should be allowed to exist, praised even. But once you disagree with that opinion then you will come up with countless reasons why that opinion should be removed. Hypocrite.
You could equally say that just because a class declares that it "implements" an interface, it doesn't mean it does what you would expect from it.

In practice, there is no language that can save you from people with malicious intent to confuse you.

In practice, this is rarely an issue.
I could see that. I pledged at the "cluster" level ($1000) when the project looked likely to fail, then when it crossed the finish line I backed off to the "personal cloud" level ($500).
Ask HN: Best book on agile management?
Hey HN,
My team and I need to brush up on agile management theory. The book should help us be better at organizing and optimizing work (software development projects for our clients), leading agile developers and other knowledge workers, kanban & scrum etc.

If you can recommend a book, please shed some light on how it helped you. Also advice for which book not to read is equally welcome.

Thank you in advance.
> But from the multiple Surface reviews posted here over the past few days

You mean all those negative reviews that get upvoted to the front-page.

Thats what happens here, the positive reviews usually get ignored, get flagged, or die quickly. Unless it's an Apple product.

"Surface RT" is not "Surface for Windows 8 Pro". Windows RT is a stripped down version of Windows designed for lower power CPUs. It's also designed to be 100% Metro based. You can't install non-metro apps on it, you can't even buy Windows RT, it has to be pre-installed on each device.

"Surface RT" is a touch-based device for holding in your hands while surfing the net and using the typical social apps.

The use-case of an attached keyboard and the fully fledged Office app suite is not what this device is primarly for.

What makes this even worse, is that the preview version of Office is not yet fully reliable, has not been ported to Metro, and opens up in Desktop-mode. There are still bugs to work out.

While the guy gave a good review, it does not represent the typical use-case for Windows RT devices any more than the iPad would represent the use-case of a Desktop PC.
Did you even read the article? It is about failures in grid construction and of failures to construct proper trading areas (resulting in chokepoints in the grid).
The app mentioned in the post was Office, produced by Microsoft, which is the same company that makes the Surface tablet.

In my opinion, that is unacceptable. If MS couldn't optimize apps that ship with Surface, they shouldn't have released it.
When people say programmers are loan paid on average, they are including a large fraction of the population that do not have CS/engineering degrees from US colleges.
It was funny, but in a somewhat disturbing, manic way. I skimmed much of it, but the reference to Weekly World News caught my eye and still can't figure out the point of the tangent even after going back and thoroughly reading most of the article.

Section 8.3.10 starts with possible numeric encodings for answers, but then jumps into a philosophical question about admission tests for religion and ends with the reference to WWN and the headline: "10 MORE COMMANDMENTS FOUND! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY!"
Was it supposed to say something about the secret to getting a reply from him?
I'm sorry to see the event canceled, I was looking forward to it. Hopefully it won't be pushed back too far.
Perhaps they're right and you're wrong?

Tabs are used for tabulating stuff. Spaces are used for spacing stuff. Indentation is a form of tabulation, so use tabs. Similarly to when you use a word processor, do you hold space down for long enough to center your text or do you use the "center" alignment? Right tools for the right job.

Hell it's not exactly hard to fix in vim either - just load the provided vim extensions as per the instructions and it just works without screwing up the rest of your configuration.

The amount of time I've had to spend dredging through fucked up merges where someone has added 5 or 3 spaces to the start of the line instead of 4 gives credence to why you should use tabs as the tab means "indented one level" rather than "n spaces depending on how the user or editor fucked up the file".

Anyway, rant over - sorry.
I like how the article refers to a tropical storm as a "huge superstorm". I wonder what they would call a category 5 hurricane.

I also hope this means I get the day off :)
I was excited when I heard Microsoft was making a tablet and entering this market. Apple doesn't face any strong competition in this market, and because they are so far ahead of their nearest rival (Samsung?) they don't really need to innovate for a cycle or two, and their designs could stagnate.

But the Surface will not be true competition to Apple. This product fails in too many ways, and I predict that the iPad will remain dominant for at least a few years to come.
Specifically, when cont ed is required by law, most people fulfill it by attending bagel eating sales seminars and not learning. Where not required by law or custom, these things don't get attendance and smart growing people pursue actual learning instead.
The designers of Go rejected exceptions because, while seemingly simple, they are exceptionally hard to do correctly, and worse, it is extremely hard and subtle to distinguish between code that reasons about them correctly and code that does not.

Raymond Chen has a good break-down of the problem here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/01/14/35294...
Product fitness
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