skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Let me preface by noting that I, too, am a software developer, and ran/was an ISV catering primarily to small business from 2001 to 2008. Nevertheless, I am anti-copyright.

There are several arguments against copyright, but the one I like most is this: property is necessary because two people cannot both (exclusively) use the same property at the same time. The idea of property solves this, and everyone can agree that that is yours while this is mine. The nature of things is that they can't be available for the exclusive use of two or more people. Ideas (copyright and patents, at least; trademarks are less clear) can be used by more than one person without any impact on others using it: everyone can exclusively use an idea at the same time. The reason for this is that "an idea" isn't a thing at all, but a category of things -- a description of a group, each instance of which is owned by virtue of someone owning the physical thing that instantiates it.

In summary: I don't believe in ownership of categories of things, only things themselves.

If you look at the origins of copyright, even its supporters didn't believe it was real property; it was purely a utilitarian attempt to encourage production of ideas by extending an analogy of property to idea production, for a limited time. There are still reasonable arguments to be made about whether it's an net economic win or lose for a legal system to include copyright and patent, and other people can argue that point better than I.
DEMO Memetracker Faceoff: Evri Vs. Ensembli
Skittles - Teeth-Rotting Evil Or Savvy Marketing?
Cosmic Shovel Launches Best Buy Information Tool
Database migration has been solved for a long time. This author is having trouble getting his head around it because he's starting from flawed assumptions, and is limited by his choice of tools.

Here's how you do it:

- every database has a build number stamped into it
- every schema change goes into a change script called build_105-106.sql
- changes are applied to the dev database as they are made
- the automated build pins the change script and runs it against an integration database
- a schema diff tool is used to compare dev and integration schemas. if they don't match, the build breaks.
- the build creates a file called build_106-107.sql and sticks it into source control

There's simply no way you can get your schemas out of synch this way. If you screw up and commit a change straight to dev without scripting out the change, it will break the next build and it will hurt to fix it. You'll learn quickly not to try to shortcut the process. (It's really not that hard a process anyway).

But the big thing the author is getting wrong is that he's trying to define schema from his application. His ORM seems to be generating both code and schema from config files, which seems a bit silly from an outsider's viewpoint. It's causing him a lot of pain and he doesn't understand why.

Define the schema in the schema. Generate your code from that. Problem solved.
"I'm confused."

You got that part right, at least.
Several of them seem to be mentioning Skittles to build their own 'brand' - online persona/spamming/looking cool/etc

I'm really not sure having your brand associated with spam/abuse/people trying to say idiotic+offensive things, is a good idea personally. It's like a massive bait to get people to abuse your product.

The google serps are already filling up with links between "skittles" and random abusive offensive stuff.
I'm not sure where you live, but here in the US, I can go to most ice cream shops (Marble Slab Creamery, for example) and try various ice creams for free before I buy. ;)
It's alright. I wouldn't even have known that if you didn't tell me. At this moment there seem to be more people appreciating that comment. I'm glad but I do tend not to take things like that too personally.

So thank you for the advice and voting me back up. :)
I am hoping to get some feedback about my site from all you Hackers. There was some good discussion about price trackers in a previous thread, but I think many comments and/or sites got lost in the noise.

So, what do you think? :)

(Feel free to kill this if it feels too spammy.)
Why is this allowed to happen?

IANAL, but in general if you can show that a patent holder deliberately delayed enforcing their patent, any award of damages will be reduced under the clean hands doctrine.

That said, there are many cases where patent enforcement takes a long time for no fault of the patent holder. If the patent holder is an individual who doesn't have big pockets, it might take a few years before he is aware that his patent is being infringed; he might spend a year trying to get the infringing company to negotiate a licensing deal; he might spend a year trying to find a law firm willing to take the case on contingency; and that law firm might spend a year trying to negotiate and/or collecting evidence before actually launching a lawsuit. So even without any deliberate attempts to delay enforcement it's entirely possible for a patent to be infringed for five years or more before a lawsuit happens.
Media Temple Open Letter Re: Outage
Just heard from the MT Community Director that they are going to reply as we've "raised some valid points"... watch this space.
What he's imagining is somewhat close to what we do with our currently-internal (hopefully open source some day) ORM framework (which is on Java). Our schema is defined as metadata in XML, and we build a checksum off the XML to compare against what's in the database in order to know when to upgrade. To ensure the stability of the checksum, it's built off of a filtered, sorted version of the XML DOM tree, rather than the actual files. Not all changes to the files will affect the checksum, since certain bits of the metadata don't affect the data or the schema.

We do still use explicit version numbering for version triggers (our name for migrations), since it's just too hard if the numbers aren't meaningful. If you just used a checksum, how would you know if A248B5FC comes before or after 3F56EB2? It's a little easier if you can say "the DB is at version 23, and the latest is version 26, so we need to run these three triggers." The database stores both the metadata checksum as a hash and a version number; if the hash changes without the version number changing, we at least know that's an error and can detect it. Certain types of changes (like adding a nullable column) we handle automatically by diffing the current schema against the actual DB schema, while anything more complicated (and anything that touches the data) requires an explicit trigger.

Since we build deployed enterprise software that gets upgraded on the scale of years, not days or weeks, we also follow the course of using triggers only on production databases. It's still not really a perfect solution for all sorts of reasons I could go into, but it's interesting that we ended up pretty close to what he's proposing.
Shutting down the Pirate Bay won't stop people copying things. Hollywood need to come up with a better way of distributing movies now, whilst they are in a relatively strong position.

I have 100 times more hard drive space and 400 times the bandwidth than I did a decade ago. In another decade, I'll have 100TB of space and 8Gbps of bandwidth, probably all on my cell phone. Not only does this make movies ridiculously easy to download and store, but all those slow, distributed anonymous P2P networks we have today start to look like feasible way of downloading files.

Hollywood face an enemy of exponentially increasing resilience. They can either attempt to come to an understanding now when they have a good hand, or wait until they have no choice but to bargain from a position of weakness.
Javascript closures in excruciating detail
I like the point. With the gobs of data available in web product development, I think there is sometimes too much focus on metrics. Metrics are absolutely critical but can be wrong. They are really just an input into a sound strategy.
Yes, the title is what ft.com used, so sevib didn't do anything wrong, but it's still link baiting since it's completely wrong (i.e. ft.com is confused), so flagged.
> Not to defend the US Immigration service

In my experience (about 10 visits to US as Latino) US Immigration was always nice, even if sometimes slow. But Homeland Security and Customs seem to be filled with ignorant bigots. I've heard of cavity searches and like OP and 30h+ detention on harsh conditions. Only because they don't like your face.
I'm not offended by the fact that he went on a long vacation, or even that he wrote an article about it. What bugs me is that somehow it's front-page news. This article has zero content.
Sure, here's a reference: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&...
Y combinator in JavaScript: http://thraxil.org/users/anders/posts/2008/09/15/My-Own-Java...
Peel N'Taste Advertising... StartUp Creates 'Taste Marketing'
I was looking at http://www.tabletpc2.com/Review-HPTC1100.htm which was made a few years ago by HP. I've been searching for something like this in the last few weeks, but no one made exactly what I'm looking for yet.

The Touch Book come really close but I want more cpu power out of it.
May I suggest Kohana? Based on PHP 5, cleaner, and very familiar to folks who know and love CodeIgniter.

(That said, the guys in charge aren't terribly tactful. They do know their stuff, though.)
I think that's an absolutely fair comment (as opposed to your "must be the water" brush-off). Now, if you'd also be willing to end chain-migration, I would be all for your proposal as the best solution.
I'm the original author and current maintainer of DataMapper's migrations. I had a reply written up, but it ended up being really long, so I wrote a reply blog post instead. I'm not trying to drive traffic to my blog, because I don't care, but here's a link: http://www.theamazingrando.com/blog/?p=86

Essentially, DataMapper already provides the solution that Adam outlines in his post; Replace schema.yml with DataMapper model definitions, and have the discipline to not write data migrations. Write specs for your migrations, like everything else, and use DM migrations’ sane versioning, rather than AR’s irritating one, and you should be fine. There a definetly improvements to be made with DM migrations, to be sure, but I feel like I got the underlying design mostly right.
Metrics aren't wrong, it's how you perceive the results of what you're testing. If you make too many assumptions, it's your fault.

There's too many variables involved for metrics to be the final solution towards success, part of building a startup is taking risks and your intelligence to come out on top.
jjx here (The original poster). My blog post is accurate. Read the description of scalability that Google provides. It implies that you can scale to any degree. 500 request a second is an absolute joke. I can use any web development environment (like Rails), and get 500 requests per second on a crappy little machine. So App Engine doesn't scale, at all.

The main reason I wrote this post is out of utter frustration with Google. They should get out of the developer tools business. For months I have been coding around their onerous and ridiculous quotas, waiting for the nirvana of paid quotas, only to be horrified by the new quotas. If these quotas are not lifted, then I've completely wasted my time. As it stands now, I'm abandoning App Engine.
Yep this is a problem. I also don't like how I have to press 'Save' to store the contact. Too often have I entered in all the information only to hit the Home button and lose the entire contact.

Also in Mail, the 'Trash' button is at the bottom directly over the Home button. Sometimes I try to push the Home button and slightly miss, deleting the message I was reading. In the worst cases, I'll hit 'Trash' and then the Home button, not even realizing that I have deleted a message. I wish I could just disable the 'Trash' button as I use Gmail and don't need it.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/0902.0878: The Backbone of Complex Networks of Corporations: Who is Controlling Whom?
"Besides, Obama has pretty much signed onto everything, so it's all good."

No, it's more than that. When they actually investigate things, it turns out they weren't as bad as painted; for instance, it turns out that Guantanamo meets all relevant Geneva conventions after all, according to the Obama administration, and I'm citing this as an example not the complete list of what I've been seeing go by lately.

There's many people here who will never necessarily like Bush, but the sooner everyone realizes that the media ran a massive disinformation campaign on him and that the Bush accusations and the Obama bootlicking in the media on the exact same policies can't both be right (and that the truth is probably in the middle), the better off our democracy will be.
I regret not finishing my Master's degree... Granted, I probably still wouldn't have used the degree much (M.Ed in Higher Education Administration), but the year I spent working towards it made me a much better researcher and writer than 4 years as an undergrad.

I definitely have never regretted going to college, though.
Thats for people using SQL. ORMs screw the entire process up. Another reason why ORMs are a bad idea.

ORMs are basically trying to recreate SQL in their own special non-portable immature bug-ridden manner. Thus, even the schema has to be defined in the ORM and that is where the problem comes in.
White House ditches YouTube after privacy complaints
Today is the Hybrid's 100th Birthday
Today we celebrate a unique anniversary. One hundred years ago today, US Patent No. 288,181 was granted to Henri Pieper for a "Mixed Drive for Autovehicles"--what we now call a hybrid-electric vehicle.
We had no statewide program to attend early, but we could get dual (HS/college) credit for a lot of advanced classes through the local community college (which had a ton of deals to transfer credits to various colleges in the region). We took the classes at our HS or in the evening at the community college.

I got my first 32 hours of math/english/chemistry/history out of the way my senior year in HS for $48 a credit hour. Definitely a great deal.

Some cities in our state, notably the ones with colleges in them, allow their HS students to attend college classes instead (with approval of professor and the university). I've seen random 16 year olds on campus in calculus III classes for instance.
Amazon dropping text-to-speech
WebGreeter Fails Turing Test
How can I sell my profitable Web 2.0 application?
I am considering selling yonkly.com which has paid subscribers as well 1500+ free accounts. It is already profitable and generating money but I need to sell it to focus on another project.
How-to: Replace Apple’s MobileMe for Half the Cost
I'm either stupid or our schools were vastly different. I took 12-13 hours a semester all the way through, and still spent 50 hours a week on school.

Of course, we had several professors that prided themselves on upholding the 2-to-1 ratio. For every hour in class they wanted us to do at least two hours of homework/projects.

Granted, if you cut out the 16-20 hours wasted every weekend on going out with friends, and the 20ish hours a week wasted playing video games, I probably would have had plenty of time for both.
Their traffic is the triple of plentyoffish.com and their site is filled with advertising 1). I doubt it's that expensive to run a tracker and especially when they run it in Egypt. I can't really see how they could be broke - they probably state this to not pay taxes and to get people on their side.

1) Check http://i40.tinypic.com/hv77kx.jpg for reference
The Art of the Tweet
one of the most important lessons that developers can take away ... lower the technical barrier to entry
This is one of those statements that is so blindingly obvious yet insightful at the same time. I really don't know why programmers don't get it: nobody cares about the technology, they only care what you can do for them.

I'm building my first webapp. I'm an embedded software developer: what I know about HTML, CSS & web programming could fit into a thimble. But it's enough to build the app I want to do. The thing is, if I were to bounce the idea off a few programmers I'd immediately hit with resistance: "so and so is already doing it," "no, you need to add this..." "why would anyone use that when they could use Excel..." etc.

My idea isn't groundbreaking or innovative. I'm just taking a common task that many non-technical people need to do and simplifying it. And hopefully I can make it easy enough to use that they will part with enough of their hard-earned dollars each month to make it worth my time.
Hacker House in Palo Alto needs another hacker
Hacker House is a house in Palo Alto where several YC startups live and work.

One of our roommates just moved out, and we've got space for one more! Rent is ~ $800/month.

Read more here:
http://hackerhouse.bluwiki.com/

Contact sam dot odio at gmail dot com if you're interested.
Chinese Students Want To Know: How Do I Get Rich?
UNLOCKED Samsung SGH M310 BLACK
Samsung M310 is the single presentation of the session which deserves the best handset among its lover with its multi features and fabulous look. This Simple and sleek slider designed phone is compact form with (87 x 45 x 20 mm) is easy to grab; comfortable to hold reflective surface gives off a modern, shiny and glossy look.
Here's a concrete example.

Many people hold the highest moral good to be the elimination of suffering. They believe that we should work to improve the material conditions of the world's least-well-off humans.

Ayn believes these people are evil. However, talking to them, I do not believe these people are evil. I believe they are good people.

Their instincts are human. It is human nature to be made sad by the suffering of others.

Alleviating the suffering of others is one of many things that human value. However, holding this as your highest moral value can lead you to do things that others dislike. For example, you may be motivated to pass laws that take the property from one person and give it to another that needs it more.

Now, humans ALSO value property rights, and some notion of property rights seems just to most people. I am sure you place some value on property rights.

These two instincts drive people to take actions that contradict each other. It is the nature of humanity.

Now, the true believer will insist that there is one right answer and no real contradiction, but their arguments get flimsy and tired after awhile.

I was never "dissuaded" from Objectivism. Rather, I grew away from it over time. I guess I got tired of looking up the answers to tough questions in a book, instead of puzzling them out for myself. Also, the logic just gets thin and unconvincing over time, as when Ayn tries to prove that one moral axiom is better than another. You can't do it. They are axioms. You can't say that a person is wrong for feeling sad at other people's misfortunes (well, Ayn can). It is just a fact.
You get a taste of ice-cream - it's the equivalent of hearing a snippet of a song or seeing a trailer for a movie. You don't get a full banana split.
Robert Scoble Interview With WidgetBucks
I am now a senior in high school and this year I am taking classes in Data Structures, Assembly Language and Shell Programming. I have already taken classes in C, Unix and Java.

For me, it has been great to be able to take classes that I am actually interested in instead of just the ones that involve the least work like many of my friends have (CS is the only department with that many specialized classes).

I wasn't forced to choose a specialization, if I was, I probably would not have chosen CS at the time. I chose different classes freshman year and started to gravitate towards CS as a sophomore. There was no commitment so I could have stopped CS and focused on something else if it turned out that I didn't like it.
If your mind is on your startup, partying, or you don't know what you want to do, I think you'll regret
not having the focus and direction you could have put toward college by waiting. Experiencing a couple of failed
startups or working a crappy job can really motivate you to put 100% into school. In my case, I became an airborne
paratrooper right out of HS, grew up (alot), got $$$ for college, then hit the ground running.
Paul makes some very good points. He advocates exception handling at the level of the unit of work. The problem is what is the unit of work? As an example, I was setting up a new Jboss installation and deployment of an application that I am only getting familiar with. Catalina threw an exception about something in the configuration, but didn't log anything. Finally, JBoss caught the exception and just logged that the deployment had failed. The piece of code that found the problem could have told me what was wrong.

Paul says that checked exception are a horrible mistake, because they cause premature catching of exceptions, because ignoring the exception means that the programmer has to change the signature of his method. I find swallowed exceptions all over the place in reading code. And methods in the Sun libraries exacerbate the problem by throwing multiple checked exceptions that have to be swallowed. So to keep method signatures at a reasonable length, more swallowed exceptions. Generic exceptions with error codes, like SQLException, would make more sense.

Given the reality of Java Exception handling, I favor catching the exception at the point where a reasonable error message can be composed and logged., Then throwing an unchecked exception to be caught at the level of the unit of work.

Finally, Paul says always use finally to clean up your mess.
DEMO: Watch and comment on companies with Facebook and Twitter
I'm not sure if this is true for HN, but I've noticed elsewhere that some people seem to dislike Nielsen and his work, often because their first experience with him is his website, which looks old and ugly.

What these people often fail to realize is that while the website isn't flashy and "nice", it accomplishes its goal, which is to convey information. Nielsen is one of the leading UI experts, and the way I see it you can disagree with him, but you can't just ignore him or write him off, because he can back most, if not every, of his claims with empirical data from the studies he's conducted.
DEMO: Cc:Betty makes email easier for collaboration
DEMO: A show changes with the times
Ask YC: how do you manage bookmarks?
I'm getting a little frustrated with existing bookmark managers. I want the ability to sort/search by tag and to have bookmarks synced across multiple machines. Delicious is the best I've tried but I don't like how bookmarks are public by default. It's understandable for a social bookmark service but I'm looking for something that keeps bookmarks private - I don't care about sharing them.

FF3: the built in bookmark manager is awful. Tagging is a great feature but badly implemented. The default right-clicked 'properties' dialogue for bookmarks doesn't allow me to add or edit tags. I can't easily search or list bookmarks by tag and there's no way to list untagged bookmarks. It feels like the developers added tags as an afterthought.

Foxmarks: great service but has similar limitations to FF's own bookmark manager.

What other solutions are people using?
DVCS and DAGs, Part 1
There are plenty of absolutely true tautologies, but few absolute truths that are interesting at all.
Are crappy products unprofitable?

He says Hollywood keeps making sequels even though they turn out to be bad. But does he show that Hollywood loses money making bad sequels?

IF bad inevitably translated to unprofitable, Hollywood would have a strong incentive to make good movies. If movie goers flock to movies that are just a mediocre mishmash of the themes they've seen before, then Hollywood has every reason to keep putting them out.