skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> "Ideas are priceless. If you are a programmer and you aren't "plugged" into the bubble money, a great idea is your only chance."

Think about plentyoffish.com - a multimillion one-man company. His 'priceless' idea was to let people to see others contact details for free, which in 2001 was quite new. Then all he had was to fight off spam, every day. Great execution really.
They've got an excellent design, too. That's always important.
I just got a MacBook (my first). Previously, in Windows land, I logged in as a Limited User all the time (and saved Adminiatrator access for what it should be used for - adding printers, installing software).

On the Apple, I run Security Update habitually. What software
for virus scanning, additional protection do you recommend?
Migrating Your CRM Data? This Could Be Good Time For Data Cleansing
Have you ever moved house where everything you had needs to be moved and looked at it as an opportunity to get rid of what you wont be needing or replace what doesnt work anymore? It’s an almost natural chain of thought when you are moving things to a new setting that you would like to bring with you only what you need and leave behind what you dont need. The next time you need to migrate your CRM data to a new system or are in the process of overhauling your CRM, then look at it the same way. As an opportunity to cleanse your CRM data rather than as just a painful migration process which is a necessary evil to shift to a better system.
I was trying to demonstrate that while the conclusion (use AI because they lose cheaper than it costs to get humans to lose) is not false, it is far too broad to be of any use. I can draw that same conclusion for any tool that humans have used to automate a task.

The idea that the tool's purpose is to lose is tangential.

And I dispute that. AFAIK, the AI in WoW is not designed to lose. A monster will kill you (win) if it gets the chance. The monster is trying to win (the AI is designed to win), it just isn't very good (the game is designed so you win the majority of individual battles).

And I don't think you can make the jump from "the game is designed so that you win the majority of individual battles" to "the game is not challenging". Doing so infers that "only games designed so that you do not win the majority of individual battles are challenging".

And since the basis for the PVP argument is undermined, it is a waste of time to consider it (regardless of whether it may be true or not).

The reasoning followed from flawed beginnings to a uselessly broad conclusion.

PS. I did intend to post something more thorough the first time, but I ran out of time and pressure posted only a snippet of my incomplete ramblings.
Hmm. Perhaps I am tired! This is still evidence for the argument, and there is ample evidence to justify making it illegal in my opinion.
E.g: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15974425?ordinalpos=1&...

I understand you are taking a philosophical stance on this. It's cool by me.

I disagree on your ban of violent video games though. Once we get the technology to design games with addictive, psychology-changing content, there is bound to be a game that actually causes real world violence.

When that day happens, I will support the ban, even if it's in a sub-section of the population.
Spintronic Memristors
This is ridiculous, and is similar to the drivel he puts out in his 4 hour work week book. I read it, and I wasnt impressed.

This title should read: How to lose 30 pounds of water in 24 hours by endangering your body.

I hear heroine works pretty well too.
By itself .Net MVC is smaller than Struts, as it uses the rest of previous Asp.Net stuff.

The perceived value on the other hand is big, as it totally changes the way how Asp.Net applications can be done.
I couldn't agree more. Grant money is precious. Instead of spending three or four grad student salaries to pay a programmer a competitive wage, it makes more far more sense to fund three or four students on research assistantships where they have time to learn Perl.
Brainstorm websites (webcomic)
Affordable SEO Link Building
Top link building professionals in San Diego join together to create the ultimate link building package.
I have a serious gripe with their mentioning Angelo Sotira, who is one of the worst and most controversial CEOs I've had contact with directly.

Sotira did not found DeviantART. It was founded by Scott Jarkoff, who asked Angelo to take over as CEO. After Angelo did, there was a coup and Jarkoff and Matteo, the cofounder, were both involuntarily terminated.

Since then, Angelo has done nothing but ruin DeviantART, which wasn't a good site to begin with. Feature-wise the site stagnated: instead of focusing on new ways to handle artists, Angelo decided that the best thing to do would be to fake a community by designing a Digg-like news system and a Collections system that, frankly, nobody understands, an AJAX smiley system that makes three separate server requests just to load a set of smileys (and which locks down the comment box when you do so), a buddy list of online friends despite the lack of available chat functionality... the list goes on and on.

DeviantART is so ineptly run that they need to put advertisements splashed everywhere despite also offering premium memberships and selling artist prints. Despite all these ads the site is incredibly slow, possibly because Angelo's team shows no inclination of wanting to optimize the systems they're running. It's a failure both of programming and of design.

Further gripes about DeviantART:

http://unalone.net/files/2910825.pdf (LONG - this is a 50-page essay that I wrote when Aviary first launched that compares the two sites, and it takes a lot of the DeviantART features and analyzes why they fail)

http://unalone.tumblr.com/post/74420673/deviantart (Basically talking about what a negative impact DeviantART has on would-be-artists - contains self-promotion so feel free to ignore as propaganda)

Jarkoff has written repeatedly: http://jarkolicious.com/probes/2006/10/23/times-line-rider-a..., http://jarkolicious.com/probes/2005/08/07/deviantart-a-littl..., http://jarkolicious.com/probes/2005/08/25/deviantart-a-littl..., http://jarkolicious.com/probes/2005/08/03/involuntary-termin...

I also don't like these stories conceptually. There's no incentive to provide a reasoned story: if your point is that these people are young, then they're perfect and can do no wrong. The tone of the article in general seriously irritated me.
I saw this some years ago and all I took away from it was that "default permit" and "enumerating badness" are really the same thing.
The Perfect Desktop - PCLinuxOS 2009.1
We're seriously considering putting them in developer desktops, but are waiting to test the ioXtreme (a slightly downmarket product from the same company). 2 grand to dramatically improve developer productivity isn't that big a deal (the other top contender is 1 or 2 X25-Es, so the upcharge is at/under 2K)
Isn't the blacklist an input to the client-based filter the government introduced a year or so ago?
5 ways to speedup javascript
A good measure of business friendliness is to take a look at how the US Chamber of Commerce ranks the states in this regard. I did a while back. California is dead last. And don't even get me started on the tax rates that are about to explode beyond their already bloated level.
On random writes the Vertex is 48% faster than the VelociRaptor, a 10k rpm hard drive. Right now I have a 5.4k rpm hard drive in my laptop. That kind of performance would make me ecstatically happy.

Even if the X25 was overall 100% faster than the Vertex, and according to Anand it isn't, I would still trade that to have 120 GB rather than 80 GB.

This is Anand's conclusion:

"with the Vertex I do believe we have a true value alternative to the X25-M. The Intel drive is still the best, but it comes at a high cost. The Vertex can give you a similar experience, definitely one superior to even the fastest hard drives, but at a lower price."

Similar experience. I can't find the part about massively better.
10-15 years? There will be something better and more cutting edge in the marketplace. These things move too fast to become venerable and established and it seems unlikely that's what the founders intended anyway. But that said, your idea poses an interesting idea about the future of business, credentials and how we view experience versus a piece of paper.
http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~tommer/beautification2008/
Is that what your second project was about? Thats a very cool app built by computer scientists at Tel Aviv Uni.
Ask HN: Feedback on iPhone app address book cleaner
Have built CleanBook and CleanBook Jr. - a way to automatically and manually (respectively) clean your iPhone Contacts (duplicates, email addresses as contacts, etc.).

We are giving away 20 Ad Hoc apps for testing, feedback and word of mouth.

If interested, please send your iPhone ID to terpua {at} pikitchen.

How to get your iPhone ID: http://usonar.com/static_pages/iphonedeviceid.html

Screenshots:
http://www.pikitchen.com/cleanbook.html
http://www.pikitchen.com/cleanbook-jr.html

Thanks.
The linked article shows an instance of Apple unambiguously, deliberately degrading user experience. It is highly relevant to this discussion.
I think that's wrong on two accounts:

1. True corporate debt dies when the company dies, just as personal debt dies with the person. If someone has signed a personal guarantee on "corporate" debt, that's not the case, of course, but in that event, the shareholders of the company are not obligated to dip into their pocket to satisfy what amounts to personal debt of someone else.

2. If 90% of the shares remain with the company as treasury shares and you and I, as co-founders, each has 5% of the company vested, then our 5% stakes ALSO have a beneficial interest in the proportional share of the treasury shares. In a valueless company, of course that's irrelevant.
I only got about a paragraph in and realised it was someone with a chip on his shoulder.

Nobody intelligent finishes the 4HWW book and believes it to be a manual on how to whittle your hours down to 4 a week.

The book (to my interpretation, at least) is about prioritizing activities in your life, and spending as little time as possible on the things that bring the most reward (both monetary and not). It's mostly just a wake up call to not spend your life in a cubicle farm if you aren't happy there.

The original working title for the book as 'drug dealing for fun and profit' which was nixed by the publisher. He ad-tested a selection of titles in Google Adwords and selected the best performing title. That's where the 4 hour work week comes in : the most effective hook to bring in buyers. Apparently it's the most effective to raise the ire of hard-working bloggers.
Yup, and good point: there's no need for a giant antennae, anything capable of 3G can do it fine.
Are there more details available? Like which version of Safari was hacked?
I think an exception should be made for posts to crap like 4 hour work week.
Obama Administration To Stop Raids on Medical Marijuana Dispensers
Shipping has gotten to be very efficient. There are studies that show that someone driving to a store (~15 miles roundtrip) produces a lot more carbon emissions than UPS delivering a package to their door.
Related:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg
Couldn't agree more. Any set of talented developers in an open environment will naturally pair when one or the other has a critical piece of code to write or some code they want input on. The key is getting the right sort of developers who know when they are stuck, and a no-blame environment where you can be called on bad code decisions.

Trying to mandate this sort of sharing through policies strikes me as ridiculous and the sort of thing that drives good developers out. Training a junior is one thing, having them assigned to 'help' is something entirely different.

I've always thought of pair programming as something that consultancy firms dreamed up to charge clients twice as much for the same amount of work. Perhaps I'm just cynical and tainted as it was a highly-paid consultancy firm that first tried to sell me on the idea.
stop these articles! I'm 28.5 and I'm starting to get seriously depressed about my 30. birthday.
Browsers get hacked before phones at CanSecWest
Ask HN: What is a fair hourly rate split btw consultant and consulting company?
Hi Folks,
Looking at a consulting gig and right now I am being presented with a 70/30 split. I've heard of much higher splits from others, but the consulting company is crying no mas. Am I getting a fair shake here? Its only my 2nd time consulting, and I definately got jobbed the last go-round. Was hoping people on here were in the know and could share what they believe constitutes an accurate and fair rate split.

Thx.
LG KM500 LIGHT PINK Unlocked
LG KM500 LIGHT PINK is going to be the booming development of the session with its performance oriented and charming look.
Google StreetView in UK goes live
Amazing how timing changes the amount of points given to the exact same story :D

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=523053
Following lines of abiratry regulations and rules is a headache. It might be doable for a large bank but not so much for a small decentralized banking operation.
Suggestion to the Divvyshot team - slideshow mode.

I'm eating some pasta, and I'd enjoy looking through these photos while eating, without having to press the arrow keys to navigate. So have a "play" mode which goes through a set of photos automatically, with X seconds between photos.
Pretty sure the opportunity to get a "Fail Whale" tuxedo makes up for the premium accounts.
I would like to beta test as well. I live in an apartment though so I guess I'll have to convince our officemanager to install this at work. Will give it a shot if you need beta testers.
Timing is king. For MS it means that they have to adapt to new trends faster if they don't want their products abandoned.

MVC is a really big step forward, something that most people didn't expect from MS (meaning the inclusion of third party stuff).
Samsung M8800 RED Pixon (Unlocked) 
The Samsung M8800 Pixon is the upgraded version of the Samsung Omnia and features much more than just a user interface tweak. The Pixon features a stunning 8 Megapixel Camera which is comparable to many high-end digital camera. Video recording is possible at different resolutions including 30FPS VGA and 120FPS QVGA.
As mentioned in the article, sport rules should be changed to weigh just before start of the game. That will reduce this kind of hacks
You could lose a lot of weight quickly by cutting off your arms and legs too, but that doesn't mean I would do it. Man, this seems ridiculously bad for your body.
Researchers may be able to measure consciousness as well as we measure body temperature
Twitterville Falls For Premium Accounts Hoax
Naveen Jain’s Intelius Scam Begins To Crumble. Good.
It's actually not required for signup. You would still receive coupons for free up to a face value of $5 (which is the vast majority in volume).
That was an incentive to foster virality, but your comments are very much appreciated.
How to lose 30 pounds of water in 24 hours by endangering your body.

I wouldn't argue with that. Given the disclaimers and warnings in this article, I don't think Ferriss is arguing with that either:

It should be noted that dehydration can result in internal organ failure, coma, and even death, particularly when diuretics are used...

...do your research and don’t treat this as a low-stakes game. It will kill you.

Those aren't exactly weasel words.

I can't speak to the truth of the mixture of science, pseudoscience, and unconfirmed observations in this article (can anyone?) but if you think that this sort of thing hasn't been standard technique in many sports for a century and more... you haven't read Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit. I don't know if any jockeys read HN, but if they do, they are yawning right now. They used to do this all the time. I would be amazed if they don't still do it.

I think this sort of thing is a terrible idea, but that's why I'm not an athlete. Given that athletes exist and will try these experiments, it's just as well that they conduct open debates on the Internet rather than try to invent this stuff for themselves in private. And if we actually want to stop this sort of thing, I think Ferriss is on the right track:

The practice of severe dehydration will continue among elite athletes in weight-class-based sports until competition weigh-in timing is changed. The problem is amplified further when athletes gain muscular mass over the course of a single competitive season, yet are required to remain in a single weight-class to retain records and ranking.

If these sports encourage stupid behavior, perhaps it is because they need different rules. [1]

---

[1] Though changing the weigh-in timing can't fix horse racing, where the rules are ultimately enforced by the laws of physics. I'm not sure what is to be done with horse racing, other than to adopt rules that will slow everyone down. Although my favorite idea is the robot jockey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_jockey
Online Privacy, The World Is Watching
This article is really good and the advice in it is excellent - and the font size is brilliant too :-)

The only wtf is the fact that the author thinks social news is dominated by digg, when in my view it's roughly split between digg and reddit (but maybe I'm wrong). Still, if HN gets a mention, reddit should too, really.

Excellent article nevertheless.
It's a failure both of programming and of design.

But is it a failure as a business? According to Wikipedia:

As of February 2009 the site consists of over 10 million members, over 75 million submissions, and receives around 100,000 submissions per day. The domain deviantart.com attracted at least 36 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Launches at Noon
A High-Performance Polymer for Nanosytems Engineering
This is the reason it's difficult to come up with fun AI for head-to-head fighting games: once you get past the thin veneer of mastering the moves, they're entirely about mindgames. A FSM-based CPU opponent does not have a thought process a human player can predict and exploit, nor the ability to avoid repeated mistakes.

I believe this applies to many other types of games as well, but games with many split-second paper-scissors-rock decisions suffer the most. A computer can be programmed to scout out and react to a carrier buildup in Starcraft, but cannot easily be programmed to outguess a jab/throw mixup in Street Fighter.
What a bunch of jokers.
Not everyone gets the Amazon shipping rates. Shipping is actually one of the toughest areas to try and compete in for a small ecommerce site, and it's probably the number one complaint received since people have come to expect free or extremely low cost shipping.

If using UPS/Fedex, you get the fuel surcharges, residential charges, and rural charges that can make a small profitable order become unprofitable (and cuts into profit margins of others). It can even be almost $10 to ship a 1-lb package in-state if to a rural area. And then you have to consider box cost, and void fill cost. I switched to USPS last year for 90% of my shipping, and it's still a loss at times from what I charge for shipping.
Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but could this be the final nail in IE6's coffin?

At a minimum, I guess it's more ammunition to justify not supporting IE6, since it's now two major versions (and 8 years) behind the most recent.
Hey swombat, thanks for the feedback, that's a good point about Reddit, I was mostly just basing that on a graph I saw of traffic a while ago comparing the two. But to be honest we all know how inaccurate those things can be!
Unfortunately, I think this means that the pragmatic web dev now has to learn about three versions of IE.
Spring Is In the Air and Browsers Are Refreshed
The point isn't to make it lose (that would be easy), the point is to barely lose. Human psychology thrives on tasks that are challenging but conquerable. Losing sucks, trivial challenges suck, so game AI has to be somewhere in between.
Microsoft to release Internet Explorer 8 today
Let's boycott MS until they release an Update with an IE 8 including the canvas element.
http://iambot.net/sunspider-javascript-benchmark-results/comment-page-1/ This benchmark shows Javascript in IE 7 is 20X slower than Firefox (and even worse when compared to Chrome).

Chrome experiment failures http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/null-pointer/soa/IE8-needs-Canvas-support/0,2001102868,339295555,00.htm
Note that all of the other browser pass most of the tests because they support canvas. Do you really think that is an accident? They deliberately left canvas out of IE 8 because it detracts from the importance of Silverlight.
Car Loan Interest Rates
Get Bad Credit Car Loans & Auto loan at low rate of interest to purchase new and used cars.Best Car Loans Rates available at Loansstore.Get a car finance online with guaranteed approval for new or used car purchase.
> Also keep in mind that these startups are 10 weeks old and are at most 3 people.

Yeah, that is one thing that will always keep YCombinator companies from taking on the huge problems first. As talented as some of the founders seem to be, there is only so much three people can do in 3 months. A pitch has to be a very consise idea that can be executed quickly.
Wouldn't it be more sensible to learn how to design security systems that are hack-proof than to learn how to identify security systems that are dumb?

Isn't this line inherently contradictory, how can a person make a system hack-proof ( as if it is possible ) if he doesn't know how to identify the vulnerabilities he could be introducing into it by doing something a particular way.

Anyway the only good thing I got out of it was Personal Observations on the Reliability of the Space Shuttle by Richard Feynman(http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/d...), its a better read than this article.
Doubts About Twitter the Business
And as far as I've seen they all have separate sets of bugs.
Also the fact that the ASP.NET MVC framework is itself open sourced (the code is available on Codeplex).

I've been using this framework for a recent project at my day job and it's definitely a step in the right direction (i.e. toward design patterns common in other popular web development frameworks such as MVC, pluggable ORM system, use of third-party libraries such as jQuery, clear separation of concerns, and a strong focus on test driven devlopment).
Uk dentist reviews | Uk orthodontists
Search for uk dentist reviews and Earn points for leaving useful reviews and ratings for every dentist you know.
a fully patched OS X can be hacked easily

By the folks who go to CanSecWest, anyway.
True. The article is more at home there as well.
This doesn't sound like vesting, but a list of milestones to reach before granting the stock. That is a horrible idea.
Not the last nail, but it is a nail.
Mr @andrewsayer on Twitter called the ACMA to thank them for publishing the list (ha), and when he did so they inadvertently told him it was indeed the list. Supposedly.

The current popular theory is that the list is the ACMA list plus a number of other sites added by the software provider, given this list was supposedly leaked by someone in the company that makes the filter software being trialled. This would explain the "it isn't the list" denials as well as the "how dare you publish our list" outrage.