skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I clicked on the five thumbnails located below the main image with the expectation that something would happen - maybe a larger image of whatever it's a thumbnail of, or some more description of what integrate email, for example, means.

Likewise with the six sample uses under create a website to - if recruit readers for a book club is listed as a suggested use, and it's visually presented as a button-shaped thing, I expect to be able to click on it and see a demo (either live example site or screenshot) of what it would look like if I chose to use your site for that purpose.

Having a GetSatisfaction link on individual group pages is unclear - is the user being invited to give feedback on the individual page, the group, or the service in general.

When editing a group's page, have some easy way to see what the thing will look like when viewed by a normal, non-logged in user - the same idea as Facebook's feature to see what your profile looks like when viewed by someone else.

Also, maybe some more explaining what the service is. Until I got to the screen below the fold, I thought the site would be a way for a band's groupies to organize themselves, or for the best strategies to become a groupie.
Practical Sorcery with irb (a few good irb tips)
Statistical vs. Structural: Unreasonable Hypocrisy
Yahoo's New Twitter Tool
I also really enjoyed it and agree that charts for other car companies would be fascinating to see.

It is incredible how quickly profit margins were eaten away by obligations GM made to its employees. This is evidence to the fact that the unions and their pressure are the main underpinning of GM's demise.
I've started to use the bookmarklet at http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ for most long articles -- it boosts the font size, increases the margins, and cuts out the background and sidebars. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work for this particular article.
Why does HN need its moderators to decide what's lame and what's not? I agree that HN needs moderators, and that they should be able to kill submissions, comments and/or users. But I understood that it's intended mostly for spam, or flame wars, or illegal content, etcetera.

Whenever an authority figure bans something because it is "lame" or "wrong" or "not worth reading", it lights up a red flag for me.

Do you understand the problem here?
On the flip side, a company like Get Satisfaction that is pushing for open dialog on support issues should be perfectly comfortable eating their own dog food here. 37Signals made what I believe to be a legitimate public complaint, Get Satisfaction made what I believe to be a quick and acceptable public response. I suppose the only loss here is that this wasn't handled on Get Satisfaction's own support site.
This could be the backend for a cool stateless URL shortener. Not super useful, but stateless things are pretty nifty.

In this case you'd be getting unsafe data for both compression and decompression.

I really like your project though. Thanks for sharing!
Also, if you want to play with the new theme designer without committing to an account, you can login to this test group:

http://seattlehackers.groupieguide.com/login

p: welcome
Except that other folks on the web would have no idea this was going on. A private e-mail likely results in a private response (changing the wording on 37signals's get satisfaction page). A public exposure gets things changed... as it did.

The fact is that GS got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. To think that the wording on that banner was not carefully considered is just plain naive.

The 37 signals post is spot on. They where attempting to increase their conversion by strong-arming businesses into signing up. It didn't make it on to the site by accident. They changed the wording to something rather harsh, and received a commiserate reply in return.

I hope they've learned their lesson, as I rather like their product.
I remember reading about Microsoft Research's "Penny Black" project, where an e-mail could be essentially certified as non-spam by various types of currencies. (Such as computational cycles, cash, etc.) What I'm curious about is how this would stand up to the networks of spam-bots... Again, it might drive traffic down for a bit as each of their infected computers takes longer for each e-mail, but I would assume they would just try harder to infect more.

(Link here: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pennyblack/)

Do any spam experts have an opinion on this type of idea/project?
You mean like http://getsatisfaction.com/ups and http://getsatisfaction.com/tmobile?
This is mostly an "it depends" sort of issue. Most people/sites don't really need a big SQL engine to store their data but follow the path of least-resistance in that general direction. CouchDB is a part of a growing movement away from general-purpose RDBMs towards task-specific data engines and from the world where ACID was all that mattered to one where the BASE model can provide an alternative set of benefits.

What CouchDB gives you are 1) schema-less data storage (so you can change your data schema on the fly), 2) built-in map-reduce that lets you perform some queries faster (at the cost of needing to re-think how you perform certain SQL JOIN queries), 3) an easy path towards data distribution, and 4) a database that is accessed via HTTP using REST principles.

Running your queries in a couple of Javascript functions (or python functions, or ruby functions, or any other language that has a view server) is not necessarily faster than SQL and in fact is probably slower. What makes it faster and more scalable is the built-in map/reduce primitives that these functions are using. Since the db is accessed via HTTP, the data format is JSON, and you can create queries using Javascript this system also introduces the intriguing possibility that you can cut the app server out of the picture and write web apps that interact directly with the data.

Different strokes and all that.
Three observations:

(1) It is extremely common for network apps to decompress blobs they didn't generate; even in cases where those blobs aren't passed client/server, but are instead roundtripped through a database or shared persistence layer.

(2) Whatever fastlz may do, the industry standard (in Win32 and Unix and in embedded devices) is zlib --- at least from what we've found on app pentests --- and zlib doesn't have this problem (now).

(3) Zlib is itself a minefield of vulnerabilities, which supports the point that your compression codec is a security hotspot for an application.

But my point isn't that your code sucks; it's nice and tight.
Right you are about the renovation. Fifteen or twenty years ago HP bought the failed Mayfair mall for a song, intending to get cheap office space. The cost turned out to be huge because it turned it wasn't a single building. Each store was a separate building with a common exterior wall. Among the problems were uneven floors, so that a bunch of little shops couldn't be combined into an office space. IIRC the remodeling cost over $25m.
Confirmed: Facebook Loses CFO Gideon Yu
That's the problem with desktop-like UI, it's created by lazy developers. They used and learnt RAD ten years ago and they don't want to bother to learn HTML and how the web works.
Here is the simple answer:

SQL does not scale out to multiple databases easily, CloudDB does.

And I know many startups where the above is not true, in fact, any successful startup hits a major bottleneck when they have to distribute MySQL. It's not a function of money, it's a function of the time and expertise to implement sharding well.
That and crappy cars, lack of foresight etc.
What should Microsoft do with mothballed Encarta content?
HN thread on New York Times reporting of same issue:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=540656
Climate for Angel Investing Continues to Look Bleak
Laziness. We know what desktop apps are supposed to look like, but designing good Web apps is still more of an art.
I agree with this comment completely.

I've been reading comments on the Google Ventures launch on HN, TechCrunch, CNet and others........the general tone is ugly. Why is it that Google was beloved as a young, underdog company but after it achieves what we all strive for....true global impact....people become skeptics and, almost, root for their demise? Human nature or something more?
So what do people do in places like Norway?
I was surprised this 37s post didn't end with "and this is why on March 31, 2009 we filed suit against Get Satisfaction for trademark infringement and unjust enrichment". That they don't seem to have done that hurts your argument that they're being immature.

Also, calling 37signals out for going straight to the public seems like an exceptionally weak criticism in this case. GS is trading on inserting themselves into the public conversation about companies they have nothing to do with. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
why does someone just have to build startups? i do both. actually, i do all 3 -- i have a full-time job, work for clients freelance-style, and spend time working on personal startups when i manage to come up with an idea worth executing on.
My interest isn't so much as stopping the mall, and turning it into housing, but (EDIT: being US centric) incorporating the (until suburbia took over vast swaths of land) ages old tradition of living and work/market areas mixed together into the new architecture of suburbia and the malls. I can see a potential access benefit for living within walking distance of daily needs for folks who are losing or have lost mobility. If you don't have to drive, then you use less fuel, if there are other ways that can be implemented to reduce energy consumption, then there is potential "green space."

Malls don't have to be just shops, medical facilities, services, light manufacturing. From what I've seen in new stores going into malls, the retail spaces in malls were designed for stores to move in and restructure in that space.

Then there is the counterpoint of "Do I want to have my store/business in such close proximity to all these people living?"

I think that there is a lot of promise and a lot of problems in this idea of a new suburban "urban center" based around renewing/reinventing the mall. And there is the stigma, to many, of the name "mall."
Services-based companies are of course a well-established and perfectly respectable type of business, but a very different kind of business to a product company. I worked in a service business for many years and it has good and bad points. It's less risky, because in general you don't do any work unless you know you are going to get paid for it, whereas with a product you have to do lots of development and marketing before you really find out whether your product will sell or not.

You do get lots of variety, but on the other hand you don't get so much choice or control of what you are working on.

A successful product business can be more successful (in terms of profit) than a service business. Because if lots of people like your product you sell a lot of it, with very little marginal cost of production.

For a services business to make a lot of money, then you need to have a lot of staff. Then you need an HR department and middle managers and procedures and a dress code and before you know it you're a pointy-haired boss :-) And then making sure all those mouths remain fed is a tough task for the sales team. If you are short of work, you have to keep paying the salaries and you can lose money really quickly, whereas in good, busy times, the profits you can make are capped by the number of people and acceptable charge rates.

Of course you don't need to try to get big - you could set up a small service business and keep yourself in a pretty good lifestyle, without trying to become the next Accenture.

My choice to go for a product style company was mainly because of the creative aspects of it - I wanted to be able to decide myself what would go into the software, rather than having to develop someone else's idea of a product all the time.
The site is very well designed and put together. I was pretty confused by the landing page though. I should be able to understand your product in 5 seconds and that didn't exactly happen.

Also I'm curious to know what problem this solves or how much demand is really out there for this product. Need a site? Google Sites does the job well. Need a discussion group? Facebook Groups has that covered. Need to collaborate? Google Docs, Google Calendar, E-mail, all fit the bill fine.

If you're main pull is to provide custom design/branding, then why are users held to the GroupieGuide domain? Doesn't it defeat the purpose?

I interact with a research group on a day to day basis, but I simply did not see enough value for me to create a presence on your site. Maybe I missed the point--in which case you need to make it more clear why your product is not for me.
Ask HN: Hunch gave me an idea, a troubleshooting website
I just had an invitation from Hunch www.hunch.com, it's ok but too simplistic in my opinion.

Nevertheless it just gave me an idea :
I'm having troubles with my old car, electrical stuff. I browse the web to find answers to my questions (what's the alternator supposed to output etc...) since I find myself quite able to repair on my own. However, I often lack knowledge on technical things, I miss questions I should have asked myself or just can't find any answer to them.

So I thought it would be nice to have a web app, in the same spirit as Hunch but based on actual technical facts, helping you to get out of a problem on your own. Troubleshooting checklists.

Let's say I want to solve a problem, it would ask me a series of questions (witch may already contain the answer of my problem) leading me to a series of others topics if I need to go further.
The users could contribute, add questions and answers, as well as ways they solved their problem if they did.

It could apply to any logical stuff, repairing your car, your computer ...

I know forums are supposed to help, but the human factor always seems to bias the answer you get, one person telling you the opposite of another.

I'm sure someone had this idea already, I couldn't find any website.

Do you know any ?
Atlas must appear pretty killer to people who haven't seen Flex Builder.
Lazy developers are something corporations and IT departments have to live with. The good ones leave and end up working for startups or go independent.

The great thing about an IDE like this is that it can be a foundation for RAD projects - it could let IT departments finally move those aging VB6 / Access applications to the web.
I'm surprised to hear you take this position. If I set up a website with pages for companies including RescueTime, collected security vulnerability reports, provided statistics about them, included your logo and a comment about your commitment to secure software development, I'd expect to hear from your lawyers.
Also, spam encourages or requires other illegal activities -- money laundering, fraud, violation of health standards, piracy, identity theft. And the profits are likely to be fed into other questionable businesses.
Another issue, of course, is the product mix of the American carmakers (which doesn't blunt Nate Silver's point, but is at least another contributory factor). Basically, the American car companies bet the farm on SUVs in the '90s in the way Japanese manufacturers simply didn't. It's a shorter-term concern - bad tactics, rather than bad strategy - but it won't have helped.

I wrote about this yesterday (complete with the underlying data from the Bureau of Transportation Studies: quick disclaimer, this is a project of the startup I'm part of)- http://byline.timetric.com/2009/03/30/kick-out-the-traffic-j...
Flex is very nice, but Flex uses a flash plugin as it's runtime. A flex application is compiled binary sent to the browser - doesn't sound very dynamic or open web to me.

Cappucino uses good old XHTML and javascript. If you look at browser advancements in Javascript just in the past few months alone, 2 years from now technologies like flash may only be useful for very niche circumstances.
Wanting to build companies that might one day compete with Google is unthinkable

I don't see why that would be true. Nearly any web company might one day "compete with Google", which would rule out a lot of potential startups. Investing in or buying out a competitor is a long-established strategy used by many companies.
Good, and they should never offer a way to delist yourself. GS is almost irrelevant to companies with good customer service - if your service is good enough that you discover your own GS page, then linking to your official support or monitoring it is better than delisting. BUT there are a lot of corps with dire service who like to avoid public discussion rather than deal with their poor service. A magic gag option would be right up their street, and would screw over their customers.
Ah, thanks! That makes so much more sense.
interesting posts. i guess the low-volume, low-value kind of game is the most easiest to make some money at the current time.

as said in the article, a game which is made in a couple of days may probably earn a couple of bucks. but i think the point is what you make. a duck hunting game is just not a genuine, exciting enough game concept and thus by far not reaching a paid apps potential (even if developed in a short timeframe).

i haven't seen any good 3d android games yet for example, neither well implemented multiplayer fun. i also think games using the accelerators and compass are just beginning to explore the possibilities and there may be many clever game concepts developed around.
Neither of those are at all desktop-like. Google was arguably the first NON-desktop-like email emulator, because it didn't include things like drag-and-drop, focusing instead on what it could do well that a desktop app couldn't.
April fools day arrives early. Enjoy the article and have fun but get back to the reality of having to support IE6.
I live in a condo tower in Vancouver, BC. I live above a supermarket, Starbucks, dry cleaner, hair stylist, and Domino's pizza. It actually works out quite well. Because of the supermarket, I only have to buy food for one meal at a time.
http://www.metropolitantowers.com

It's called New Urbanism and it was implemented here in Vancouver by the former head of Urban planning, Larry Beasley.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Beasley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism
Still the same fallacy. We could put up the same CCTV cameras and get at least as good an outcome if the problem weren't as bad to begin with.
Interesting article, but not very internationally-informed. Mixed-use residential/retail mall complexes may be novel to the US, but they've been common in Singapore (& I would guess elsewhere) for some time. I lived in one a few years ago. Strikes me that it'll only ever be a niche market, except where land space is a high premium.
Communication Mistakes Managers Make
No, it wouldn't. I've been at companies that took money from large company investment arms (in my case, intel and idg) and it didn't really change things either way. Well, a little on the positive side from a connections standpoint and a lot from the fact that they gave us moolah.
It's funny that Thor@GS, in the comments, points out that they're continuing to use non-free logo images, on the auspices that they're using them the same way a Wiki would.

It is in fact not easy to use non-free company logo images on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos

The tests you have to meet on WP to avoid copyvio include:

* Demonstrable encyclopedic merit (you can't just upload and tag a logo)

* Noncommercial use of the mark

* No dilution of the trademark --- ie, you can't make it appear that the company sanctioned your use of the logo.

Doesn't GS flunk all three of these tests?
(not speaking for google, btw) That said, this isn't an april fools joke, it's real. Rich Miner and Bill exist!
Most of their flagship brands (Chevy/GMC, Cadillac... actually, those are their only flagship brands I guess) are decent cars. I don't think bad cars are GM's primary problem (though the cancers that are Saturn, Pontiac, Saab, HUMMER are certainly hurting GM).

From my subjective observations, the things that are hurting GM the most are rising gas prices (and cars that use too much of it) and unfavorable employment contracts.

Note: I haven't seen the income sheets for GM (at least not one that breaks down the brands), nor have I seen any study that shows the quality of their cars vs. others.
37signals public response seems commensurate with the amount of private discussion GetSatisfaction appears to have had with 37signals about placing that badge on their fake support page.
I have no clue if this is going to be truly good for the local economy, but honestly it looks like spending money for the sake of spending it. Unless building infrastructure has a lasting effect there's no point in building it.

Some of the stimulus money seems to be going towards useless projects, simply to create jobs. Surely there's a lot of places where stimulus money can be spent that will have a long lasting effect on the local economy.
Report: HP testing Google's Android as Windows replacement on netbooks
They clearly shouldn't be able to stifle online discussions about products. Under US trademark law, the right to use trademarks you don't own for purposes of commentary or criticism is specifically carved out.

But that's a red herring. The relevant complaint for this branch of the discussion is that GS wound up sponsoring a website that was clearly and evidently confusing to the public. They ran that site for commercial gain, and in multiple ways made appeals to 37signals for payment to gain more control over that site. None of that is kosher.
I had no idea about the BBB. Can you tell us more?
I work with objects that have immediate value - e.g., a form will be an object that has a reference to fields of interest, and member methods that listen to form events to achieve validation, et cetera. I keep DOM elements as instance variables, because it's faster to access them that way than with selector engines. It also neatly separates my behavior - the JavaScript - from my presentation. If another piece of the page's script layer needs to listen to my form object, it can subscribe to the events that it publishes.

Basically, I treat DOM elements as the display portion of an object, and if another object needs to change it, it can fire an event. Keeps things nice and loosely coupled. And I typically keep any methods that update the DOM in a separate method - keeps everything nice and organized...

It's an interesting topic, and one that probably needs a little more exposition than this.
I think you hit the nail right in the head when you mention all these different services. There are many products out there that expand our features, however using and mashing these products together ends up with a complicated and difficult to setup service.

We picked features that are useful for non-techies and made them accessible through a single interface.
Cappucino uses good old XHTML and javascript.

Does it really? When I view source on http://280slides.com/Editor/ I don't see much HTML. Does Atlas generate HTML or something else? In what ways does Cappucino participate in the open Web?
And I thought it would be a guide on getting groupies.
Well, if you didn't otherwise appear like an asshole, you'd hear from me first. If we couldn't come to some accord, I'd weigh the lawyer involvement with the time investment that it'd require to compel you to be more reasonable.
JavaScript Rocks JavaScript Performance, Benchmarking and Tuning Ebook
I think ARRA is a giant boondoggle, but this expenditure seems perfectly inkeeping with its intended purpose. Microsoft is the dominant economic force in the area, and this is an investment to allow it to conduct commerce more efficiently. If you support the stimulus package at all (though I don't), I don't see how you can oppose this provision.
Plainview - A chromeless browser for OS X