skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I believe it has been widely recognized that Zynga, GREE, etc earn most of their revenues from "whales". And I think it's an ok practice. But in order to get the money from the whales, it often seems that the rest of the players (the 99%, if you wish), have their experience hampered by constant dangling of offers in front of you. As a player, I'd rather pay a small sum once to avoid the virtual currency - and find other ways to create whales (e.g., as suggested, more like content creation, sponsoring and some vanity items).
This has got to be the lightest gray comment I've ever seen.
Indian Teenager Upsets Microsoft With Windows Phone 8 Trojan
Unfortunately I do not trust much of what I read about Israel, there is just too much propaganda from all sides. Everything is twisted for some cause. The only thing I know for certain is that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was probably a really bad idea since it has led to so many wars.
> I mean, remember when they introduced hats in TF2? Said they'd never, never, never affect gameplay? We know how that went.

Actually I don't know how that went. I play bit of Dota2 which has similar model and Valve has always contested that, in-game cosmetics will never affect game play and so far it hasn't. So I am very curious with TF2 hats affecting game play. Care to elaborate?
> a seemingly apparent affiliation with NAB's multi-currency merchant account.

NAB are the only Australian bank who offer multi-currency accounts.

Yes.

I checked.
> What does Google get out of this huge market share?

A larger ecosystem. People writing android programs for the Chinese market will probably also upload them to Google's stores.

I'm sure lots of the programs will be junk and/or uninteresting in other countries, but the better programs will probably be able to afford localization.
5 Lessons Learned from Chinese Startup Failures
Where does Analysys International get those stats? Are those the same numbers that Alibaba, Taobao, Google, Amazon, etc are seeing in China?
>> and now Hispanics immigrating at record rates driving out white Americans

I don't see Hispanics flying around in F-16's bombing white American colonies. If they do, I will be the first to speak out. What you seem to be talking about is natural change in demographics, where a group of people grow in population and the other group doesn't grow much. And then there is natural movement(like immigration in case of Hispanics).

Also if its oversimplification, please explain us the right thing.
Universal Solar Charger for Laptop
cheap Laptop Solar Charger for sale, this Universal Solar Charger for Laptop Includes 15 Laptop Adapters to work with most laptop models, including ASUS, HP, Samsung, Acer/T1, Dell, IBM, NEC, Toshiba, Sony, and 14 other adapter that work with most digital products, including: most brans cell phones, digital cameras, camcorders and tablets.
20 Amazing Diwali Pictures
This same exact thing happened to me earlier this week when installing a Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS 64 bit on a new Lenovo ThinkCentre box. The only thing I could do was go into the bios and switch it to Legacy instead of UEFI and then reinstall Ubuntu. Then it worked fine.

See more evidence of this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/141879/error-1962-no-opertati...

http://askubuntu.com/questions/91484/how-to-boot-ubuntu-from...
Has been implemented in v 0.3!
so what's your beef with @IDFSpokesperson then? those are press releases, just in Twitter not through Reuters.

@USArmy, @USFOR_A + @ISAF_RC_South + @ISAFmedia, @DeptofDefense, @StateDept, @NATO, http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/ ... all exist and post war content directly.

the IDF is doing the same.
Sober Advice for Startups From Cisco's Co-Founder
I've always thought AirBnB has as big a deck stacked against it (or bigger). There are a lot of cities whose main industry is tourism and collect 10%+ bed taxes. I can't imagine they'll give those up easily.
Does anyone have insight into any of the following questions?

1. Which Chinese Android App marketplaces are the most popular? In other words, if I wanted to target Chinese Android users, which app stores should I focus on submitting my app to?

2. Are there any barriers to submitting to such app stores for north american developers? Specifically related to getting paid.

3. Which Android mobile ad networks are best (cpm/cpc) for China?

Would love to hear any personal experiences working with China's Android Market!
Airbnb launches Neighborhoods
After seeing a friend do the one-meal-a-day routine, I'm pretty convinced to try it out myself. He's very healthy, active and alert. He gets sufficient calories and nutrition and he can pretty much eat whatever he wants (within reason) for his one meal. I've heard him explain several times about how he feels his brain actually functions better this way when his body isn't trying to constantly digest food all day long.
There are really two types of F2P models (possibly more). One where by paying you can actually unlock things that affects game play. For example, League of Legends. You can pay to unlock champions and that obviously affects your gameplay. Or, Eagles in Angry bird. You can use an Eagle to get over a difficult level.

There there is - TF2 and Dota2, F2P model. Where you pay to buy cosmetic items, but it does not affect game play one bit.
http://elementaryos.deviantart.com/gallery/
Now this sounds interesting. Why wouldn't they run in 8?
> How do you expect Hamas to maintain a truce with Israel

I don't, because Hamas is a terrorist organization with the express goal of destroying Israel. And it's not for lack of candy, either.

> Is it the same side that straps children to the front of armoured troop carriers?

Um, do you have any kind of evidence of that ever happening, or is this just another blood libel? Google literally brings up your comment as the only relevant result.
The forums aren't official. ;) They're fan-hosted and helpful, but not officially part of elementary.
You could also take a look at http://htwins.net/scale2/. It's also a very nice demonstration of the scale of the universe from the smallest to the largest objects.
> "Thinking Forth" used to be a go-to resource.

It still is, though "Starting Forth" is probably a better starting point. There's a variety of Forths available today, like GForth: http://www.gnu.org/software/gforth/

Interested programmers might want to check out Factor as well; it's heavily inspired by Forth: http://factorcode.org/
That's a generalization. By my understanding, Labor and Kadima accept that Palestine should exist as an independent state, and Likud do not. This would make Likud unreasonable, but Likud does not represent all Israelis, nor is it fair to equate support for Israel's defense and continued existence with support for Likud's policies in particular.

There are also Palestinian factions which are unreasonable, including Hamas. I think it's doubly unfortunate that both Hamas and Likud have managed to win various elections.
That looks an awful lot like Heroku's documentation page, are they somehow related?
If you don't want to inform yourself, please spare us your uninformed speculation.
I'm glad for OOP. I'm also glad for functional features in the "cool" languages. Thank you, Scala, for combining the best of both worlds. :)
A meeting of mathemagical tricksters
I always found the book too dry. Then I discovered the video lectures and they blew my mind. I suggest you give them a try.
Wikimedia Launches HTML5 Media Player with WebM Support
Did you work at Sony, or do you have some source for the claims you're making there? It seems that you're asserting a favorable worldview -- engineer-driven culture can't be bad -- and then adding a post-hoc justification about media and hardware companies, and what sort of perverse incentives you think that pairing would create.

Is your comment just speculation?
LOL. Check how every one of those links is invalid...

One is from Malawi.

Two refer to a report comparing "collateral damage" in balistic tests (in gelatin used for the testing, not people).

Another is from people outraged at the police risking people to be "collateral damage", another one is a freetype font with the same name, etc etc.
That's not a fair or intellectually honest response. Go win internet points jousting with other fanatics, preferably on Reddit.
I also haven't played Triple Town, but I want to note there are multiple ways to go about free to play. I love the model Valve does with TF2. A player will be able to unlock a large amount of weapons through achievements and drops without spending any money. People may argue about balance, but there are no weapons which 100% outshine each other. Being a paying user doesn't really affect how well you'll do in game. Dota2 takes this further and you only pay for cosmetic items, with your character's ability having absolutely no correlation with how much you've spent on the game.
LoL takes a different approach: You can spend money to unlock characters. However you steadily earn money from matches. I'd call this a middle ground.
Most social and free to play games on phones and facebook take in my opinion the worst path: Paying directly and dramatically influences your ability in the game. I dislike this approach for a variety of reasons. The biggest is the ways it influences other design choices. I'd love to have a little game revolving around growing a good farm or city on my phone, but all the games I know about take the social approach. This means I have to go and wait around for something to build unless I pay, instead of having fun playing a little game. Imagine if tamagachi used the pay to win approach? That rich kid in the playground would've had an awesome pet, and everyone else would be left with a starving pet.
And contrary to physical media, on the web, hard-work does not leave traces, and no recognition in the distant future.
Watch the video lectures, too. I actually liked them better than the book.
You see this sort of thing in traditional BIOS systems all the time. Especially ACPI stuff. And when someone tries to fix it they usually just make it worse. There's a reason so many Linux kernel installations are configured to advertise themselves as '!Linux'.
Have you tried Racket? http://racket-lang.org/

& check instructions here: http://www.neilvandyke.org/racket-sicp/
EDIT: Welp, now I'm really far behind :/
Are you being sarcastic? Of course, you have people who have never worked with anyone before, come along with an idea, and think they are the most important people.
GM will focus on plug-ins and EVs, but not hybrids
The first PHP 5.5 alpha release notes
Until a profit is to be made...

Yes that's a jab at capitalism and commercial healthcare.
There aim is to entertain, not represent an accurate idea of the life of startups. More popcorn, less historical.

Because they want more people to watch it.
I get it, no confectionery == we'll fire missiles randomly at your country. If confectionery is so important why don't they smuggle some from Egypt. Israel does have a policy of minimizing what they allow through their border to a bare minimum but there is another border and there is an option to negotiate improving the situation. If you said the policy was stupid I might agree with you but it doesn't justify the Hamas. If Hamas was motivated to reach some sort of long term stability they would act differently.
I wonder if people call these contests "pointless" out of jealousy.
Mocl: Common Lisp for iPhone/iOS, Android, and other mobile platforms
We dont get this. All our desktops are left on 24/7 and laptops are hibernated.

I don't get the obsession with boot times - its a rare occurrence.
11/15 is Thursday :p
Man, I had a Sony Wega CRT, and I seriously couldn't tell the difference between it and the first incarnation of 720 flatscreens.
There were a few sets, like the full Milkman set for the scout that gave him a 25hp set bonus, but it needed the hat.
Well my farmer grand father, born in Europe in 1914 would eat four meals.

First a light breakfast very early, with a soup. Then around 10 a meat-based light meal after some hard work. Then at 13 lunch, and finally a dinner.
Popularity means good software? Windows must be the best OS by very far then!

Regarding mobile OS, we all know this now depends on the number of "apps" available. Many may have made a superior OS, but adoption has been too low because of the lack of apps.
The windows versions you mention are not right.
It's WindowsXP-IE6, WindowsVista-IE7, Windows7-IE8/9

https://github.com/xdissent/ievms/blob/master/ievms.sh#L150
I'm driving from SD on Saturday (coincidence, not because of the meetup) and I'm planning on heading to the gathering on Sat.
The Petraeus Affair: Surveillance State Stopper?
I wonder what the total marketshare that corresponds to is? From what I've read, smartphones are still in a niche in china and they primarily use dumbphones and featurephones.
Tiny Speck Blames Glitch Failure On Mobile & The Continued Decline Of Flash
Similar remote browser testing services I'll be testing soon:

http://saucelabs.com/
http://crossbrowsertesting.com/
http://www.browserstack.com/

Some of these even do mobile browsers too. After spending several hours setting up just 1 or 2 VMs, I'm convinced using these services is not only cheaper and more stress-free but also lets you keep more up to date.
Self-reply: I am ashamed by this comment by now. In particular, the Nazi comparison is way out of line, and unnecessarily offensive. Overall, the comment is short-sighted and childish.

It's a testament to the overall excellence of the HN community that the comment sparked a discussion, not a flamewar.
Oh I worked with the guys he's talking about. They never start with data, they never even consider talking about data. Their world is the world of categories and taxonomies. They treat everything as an organism and favor class diagrams to data flow charts.
I agree with ecaron. See this link:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10249454/how-well-does-ie...
I agree that travel can definitely open our eyes to various conditions outside our own culture.

However, the cost of travelling often could be put directly towards donations. There are so many opportunities to serve close to home in our own communities that often get overlooked because that kind of volunteering doesn't sound as glamorous as building schools in Africa.
The android phones chinese bought are very cheap(500yuan to 2,000yuan),and they like free app.They can't afford iphones-5,000yuan(it will be stolen).
برنامج صوت الحياه حلقه 7 - 8 يوتيوب كامله التصفيات النهائيه
If the people of SF want more medallions, they can always create a proposition and vote at the ballot box. Proposition A in 2007 is the reason the MTA regulates taxis in the first place, and previous propositions ("Transit First") have shaped the number of medallions that are issued.

If Uber is operating as a taxi, they should have to get medallions just like every other taxi company. If they, or anyone else doesn't like the taxi system in SF, it's possible to change it, assuming you can convince enough voters... It's not all that hard to get a proposition on the ballot in SF. There were 7 propositions in our last election, and that's on the low end for SF.
No, that's compatibility mode. It isn't the actual browser.
Yeah, just gave up after realizing that.
Or it could be a Chinese Zodiac sign thing? There are 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac, each representing a year in a 12 year cycle. Goat and Monkey are two of them. I'm a Tiger, which means I am either 2,14,26,38,50,62,74,86 or 98 years old.
good god. that's horrid
Of course, Microsoft made a lot of money selling Windows...
I would say a 3rd type are games like Dead Trigger and most of the "-Ville" type clones.

In those games, you can play without spending real money, but it's going to suck and not be as fun. These are the types of games that have the most backlash because they just seem so "greedy".

In games like League of Legends and Angry Birds, you don't need to spend money to get the real game experience. You can still play just fine as a free player and spending money seems more like a bonus instead of a necessity.
Douglas Adams subsumed it pretty well in the Salmon of Doubt:

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.

2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.

3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”
Site doesn't work right now, but has an awesome 503 error, powered by [0].

503 - Service Unavailable
An Interactive Fiction by Horace The Endless Server Technician
Release 1 / Serial number 110707 / Inform 7 build 6E72 (I6/v6.31 lib 6/12N)

HTTP Error
You are standing at the entrance to Castle Shotgun. The gates are securely locked, with an unappealing sign on the front. The sign reads "Whoops! RPS is having a bit of a wobbly. Don't worry, we'll be back soon!"

To the left of the gates is a large opening in the wall, which Jim is leaning into. John is perched on a small rock nearby, while Alec and Tim are standing on the other side of the gates. A pile of magazines is scattered in a corner.

You can see Jim, John, Tim, Alec and a Refresh Button here.

>

[0] - https://code.google.com/p/parchment/
It depends on usage, and frankly it also depends a lot on hardware. Some hardware behaves better than others with repeated sleep/wake.

As for desktops, some elect to turn them off to save power at night.
Yeah I've seen those, but 2.1 comp or 3.2 core is what you can "count on officially" as of now. I'd rather have code branches just depending on GL_VERSION, and none ever depending on extensions... if extensions make it in the next core profile, they can make it into my code. Then, if that version shows up on OSX 5 years later, great for those Macster users, they're into retro stuff anyway ;)
Sorry, You said my statements were an oversimplification. I asked you to explain me how.

As a result you call my response intellectually dishonest, and ask me to go over to Reddit and talk to other fanatics.

Sorry, but no more replies from me. Also If have I hurt you by any means on this thread, accept my sincere apologies.
So cities, counties, and states are supposed to build and maintain roads, keep them safe, and allow businesses like Uber that use these roads and services to do so without paying for them? How is that sustainable?
Apple wins design patents for page turning animation and iPad Smart Case
For a well thought free-to-play model generating tons of money, I would nominate World of Tanks, a MMO PC game.
I don't think the argument above has to do with the model of "unlocking things". The difference in League of Legends (and DotA2/TF2) versus most other contemporary (especially mobile) F2P models is that most of what you buy (your example being Champions) are permanent unlocks. I haven't heard a lot of arguments against that model. You're paying for a digital version of something that you now own, you keep, you collect, and you can essentially use forever. To me that's very different than buying something consumable (e.g. coins) or energy based that is literally spent and then gone, at which point you're expected to pay more.

More importantly I agree that this model heavily encourages the developer to design around that methodology (well described as "gamed" above).

To be fair, in this specific example - if I recall in Triple Town, the main thing you bought was unlimited play-time ("turns") for $3.99 (which follows the more positive unlock model). After that you could buy the standard coins (the shitty model), but given the design of the game I never understood why you would.
Agree. its even more general than that. some revenue streams are finite, not perpetual. consfusing the two can be dangerous. musicians and sportsmen are two more examples.
David Attenborough's life lessons
I would add another one with builder types of games. You can go about the game very slowly without IAP, or have fun and build things quite rapidly with IAP. Triple Town falls in this category. IAP becomes a continuous purchase.

In contrast to arcade games like Mega Jump, Jetpack Joyride and others. Where you can do pretty well with a couple IAPs that will last throughout majority of your time playing.
I wish they had people opt-in to refunds. It seems that they received a lot of VC funding so they can handle it, but it sets a precedent that an ailing bootstrapped game company, or one that blew through all their funding, would have a hard time following. I think automated refunds for the last 90 days, and giving refunds to the people who asked before that, would be a nice sustainable way to handle it.
If your interested in simulating the physics of the universe checkout Universe Sandbox
http://universesandbox.com/
The Cost of Raising a Child
I agree, I have tried a few games with the wait or pay to advance dynamic. I much prefer to be able to progress as much as I want when playing, limited by the time I have to play rather than when the game wants to halt my progress.

The other issue is that it seems like often paying wouldn't be much fun either as it makes the game to easy.
For those of you interested in the topic, the best publicly available database I've found is http://www.astronexus.com/node/34, and The Book for astronomical computation is Astronomical Algorithms, by Jean Meeus, http://www.willbell.com/math/mc1.HTM

(Shameless plug: I used both to implement the Common Lisp sky renderization engine for my startup, http://greaterskies.com, that makes pretty personalized posters out of thousands of stars)
I think the AJAX thing is just because 7 to 10 years ago, AJAX was not called AJAX (the term was coined in 2005).

As for Javascript, it is by far the easiest to implement online, so it's good for a prototype. I don't think it's supposed to remain that way, as subscribers are allowed to choose their favorite dev area.
Or the monthly subscription model, although that becomes a hits based game also, just that people will commit to far fewer monthly recurring games than one time purchases.
Cosmetic dentistry is an American obsession. the rest of the world does not get it.
>.... that's Mojang, right?

Not really. Mojang could and should do a lot more to leverage Minecraft. I get the impression that Notch unexpectedly wound up with a huge infusion of cash and didn't know what to do with it besides hire a few friends and make an MMO based on programming microchips, complete with its own assembly language.

The amount of torture they put the Minecraft Coder Pack guys through is atrocious. There is no reason why MC should not be "source available" with some creative licensing and host a Steam Workshop-esque mod management center, play Valve and take a cut of each purchase.

All the community has to go on is the Twitter accounts of Mojang's employees and /r/minecraft. Minecraft is awesome, but it's painful to think of the potential that's wasted there.
At some level you have an average revenue per user.

If you charge up front some reasonable multiplier of the net present value of that average revenue per user, what is the difference if it's spread out over 10 years or immediate?

I guess my point with that is that as a user, I see free to play in general as being somewhat duplicitous. If it has a price tag on it, I can buy it or not. Even DLC, bad as it may be, has that sort of thing going on. But 'free to play' really means 'I won't tell you how much this will cost you up front'.

The bottom line is that your game has to be really good to make money, because there are so many games out there and many people want to make games, going so far as to spend large amounts of their free time doing it.

Competing with 'free labor' is hard to do. There's no silver bullet, and no business model magic will change that.

It's the same as being a rock star musician, or a professional athlete.
I don't think it's a helpful comparison to make. The only similarity between the two is the market share - android being open source changes quite a lot.