skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"Current free browsers do not offer a facility to run your own modified version instead of the one delivered in the page."

GreaseMonkey can do that in Chromium [http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/user-scr...]. Stallman mentions Greasefire later on, but it sounds like he might not clearly understand that Greasefire finds applicable GreaseMonkey scripts, while GreaseMonkey enables user scripting. He may not realize it, but I think the infrastructure is already mostly available for building the detect-and-substitute feature he wants.
Why is a two-year-old article being posted now? EDIT: Sorry, should've added: Especially in a domain that changes so quickly? Both Django and Rails have grown immensely since this was last updated.
I do AI for work, however, it is not my only task. Most of my work is development work, data wrangling and debugging. Pure AI jobs probably exist, but I like the diversity and hoping to do more research is a lost cause in most software applications since so much time is required doing development.
In the early days free software was the norm. Everyone in computer science took it for granted. RMS, however, saw which way the wind was blowing, and helped codify the free software ideals for posterity. If it was not for him, we may very well not have Linux or any significant open source software today. We may think he's a wacko, but his extremism is necessary in a world where our freedoms are bought and sold by monied interests. He represents the public good in the software world in a way that benefits everyone (including many businesses and almost every startup). These young YC whippersnappers with dollar signs in their eyes owe him respect.
if you can "modify" the server side and the client side, you can "modify" the need to pay.
Are you referring to HN during the earlier downtime?

Yes. Thanks.
These are not contradictory. People still buy services. Also, you don't have to charge users directly. Three simple examples:

- firefox - open, free, gets money from google

- openmoko - open mobile, you can even download their pcb design and CAD files, but they do sell the product

- specialised apps - company I work for releases some code as open-source, but that doesn't mean that our users have resources to provide the same service themselves, so we don't lose anything
I saw an interesting clip of Murray Gellmann talking about Feynman. He, surprisingly says that initially it was good to work with Feynman, with all his independent thinker stuff and all, but in the end it started getting on his nerves. Feynman used to defy authority just for the sake of it.

The place where they worked had a dress code for their mess hall, it was a suit and tie I think, so what Feynamn used to do was that he a special worn out shirt and jacket he used to wear in the mess hall even if he had come in that day wearing a suit and tie.

Then Gellmann goes onto say that Feynman used to spend a lot of his time generating anecdotes about himself, for which Feynman is really famous. Murray says, Feynman always wanted to be different, he even didn't brush or floss his teeth! Feynman kept saying that brushing and flossing teeth and washing hands after toilet was superstition.

Well this seemed a good example of a someone famous, having a cult(-like) following, who has been accused of not conforming just for the sake of it. Maybe the cult got to Feynman in the end.

Anyway I feel that Feynman rocks and thankyou for inspiring me.

Here is the clip for the interested - http://www.edge.org/video/dsl/gell-mann.html
As far as I see it, freeness of javascript more or less meaningless in a web application. The fact is that the barriers to making web applications free are much higher, and there are a lot more legitimate arguments as to why it shouldn't be free.

But you'll keep running them on those servers powered by free software running on a free operating system stating how open solutions are better, wont you? How is that for bigotry? It's like you are deliberately trying to stir up a troll-storm.

But please: Do give me some insights on why making web-based applications free poses any more challenges than freakin' kernel-code.
Breaking Apple's grip on iPhone
This is very good. Thank you Paul. There is a city in Ontario called Waterloo. I think it fits the characteristics you've laid out. Unfortunately this is Canada and big money moves slowly here. My university exports the greatest number of graduate hires to Microsoft. I am at a loss what it would take to jump start this place. If you have any ideas I'm all ears!
Because you can link with it with absolutely no restrictions on the derived app? Yeah... that sucks...
Just tested that, and can confirm it's my experience also.
My total out-of-butt reasoning: with low-level AI-ish things becoming commonplace (computing power getting cheaper, and devices becoming more ubiquitous; ever cheaper, more sophisticated robots, O'Reilly books on Collective Intelligence) and more data around, there'll be more demand for harder, truer-AI stuff. And if somehow there isn't, it still helps to have an understanding of the lower-level, easier stuff.

And, there's a lecture on Google video (don't have the link) of a guy going on about how there are lots of expert systems out there run by companies that don't advertise themselves.
oh, to be clear, this is a myobie app. just saw it and thought some folks here would be interested. :)
I don't see it as an concession that people like advertising, but as one that in order for online applications like Facebook to exist, they need revenue. He's pointing out how Facebook can get revenue.
Of course, but we already do this. I block all ads, which means I'm modifying your app to not make any money off of me. Such is the reality of the Internet and general purpose computers.
But without advertising, I wouldn't forget about it. I walk past Target everyday. I see Pepsi on the shelf at the store (actually, I don't... but most people do). Etc., etc.

Advertising doesn't bother me at all, but I would really appreciate it if they made a product I wanted isntead of spending their money trying to make me want something I don't.
Yes, they do. Reminds me of the AI algorithm designed to tell US tanks from Soviet ones. They accidentally trained it on one type of film for US tanks, and another type for Soviet tanks, each with different color tones, and ended up with a system that could spot different color tones...

http://books.google.com/books?id=JNhRSAMFn6YC&pg=PA271&#...
I just asked Trevor what was going on.

Now you got me really confused. I assumed tlb==Trevor.
That does not -- and should not -- immediately follow. If you consider your look and feel software to be your exclusive value-add, you are not a candidate for FOSS and RMS is irrelevant. The traditional SOAS advantage is availability and data access; having your client code freely available does not reduce either advantage. Accessing is not (should not) be equivalent to access.

If I had the front-end javascript source code to gmail or salesforce or basecamp, that would neither give me access to other user's data, nor give me free access. Proof: I do have access to their complete front-end source code, just minified. Having it more readable would just be convenient.

Minification / Obfuscation != Security. Don't put anything in your front end code that you would not want an adversary to read (true of the backend too, if perhaps less urgently).
> what a whacko.

ad hominem.

> I should allow you to access my servers and services for
> free?

You can charge for Free software. If you're using any Free software in your web application stack, if you're using any Free documentation, and Free data sources, then isn't it a little hypocritical of you to lock-down what basically amounts to a component assembly of Free software?

> I should allow you to control how you use my resources in
> a way that guarantees I loose money?

Make all the money you want, companies are making billions out of Free software. And nobody wants to use your server, bandwidth or material resources. However, the _software_ should be given to the people who USE it. Giving the public a freebie web service for now, until you figure out how to sell their information and useage stats to advertisers, does not make your service free.

People are typing their twitter logins to little apps that are poping up everywhere. Wouldn't you rather have these web apps open, somewhere in github, with a transparent database backend that you can see is not hoarding any personal infromation about you?

> Stallman is a digital socialist.

And that's a label many would self-attribute, with pride.

> The idea of services (or anything other than direct
> labor) that people charge for offends him. That offends me.

Fine. Don't use Free software then :-)
You also seem to be intentionally closed-minded, for the purpose of gaining karma on social news sites. I think that's sad, but I realize that it's your loss, not mine.
Ask HN: Review Our Website - Online Resume Management (cvboss.com)
Hi All!

Please, review our website (cvboss.com). This is an online resume/cv management application. We tried to simplify the process of resume creation and maintenance as much as possible.

Your feedback would be very much appreciated. If you could also comment on speed/performance of the web site, that would be terrific!

Backend: Grails/Groovy/Java
Front end: YUI
Persistence: MySQL

Thanks a lot!
Facebook can release its entire application platform as Free software and you could not take their user base away from them.

I think web developers are over estimating the sophistication of their work :-)
That's what they want you to believe. Try reading the license.

You have to know how many lines from the header file you are "distributing" (in the GNU lingo). If you are using C++ templates, you are probably screwed. You have to make sure you link dynamically (or else). LGPL seems to require advertising the library. And if you want do static linking, talk to a lawyer. Linus and RMS disagree on what constitutes "derived work", btw.

Edit: I'd like to know what motivated people to upmod parent, when it's factually incorrect and can cost developers dearly if they take the message at face value.
Thanks for your feedback. A couple of notes:

1) Definitely need to improve the tooltips, as you say.

2) Also definitely need to make the floating widget resizable and minimizable, and allow users to show it as half the screen instead of floating

3) I was just messing with the autocomplete, to add the state/country to the dropdown. It should work now for your zip code and not freeze.

4) The home page used to be the map, but in testing we found people stuck around longer if we gave them a bit of About the Map text. We also use the time your reading the homepage to load the map and other javascript. And yeah, this page should be the main entrance point, though we get a lot of google searches that go right to node maps.

5) The map does geo-locate you. It works for most people, but if you have a satellite connection or some other funkiness, then we screw it up sometimes. I'll look into it.
Sorry, but these are the ramblings of a mad man. With little understanding of webapps.
This sounds like a web developer arguing that all software should be free, except web apps.

In my opinion, all software should be free, when all groceries are free.
Presumably most of those books don't fit the FSF's criteria for 'free.' There might be a few good Web resources, though.
37Signals' product websites redesigned
You can definitely facilitate a P2P transaction - they have 3 entities in each transaction - the sending account, the receiving account and the calling account. All 3 can be different.

Sounds like your app is exactly in the target zone for FPS - I just wish they hadn't neglected the more conventional use cases!
I'm obviously unfamiliar with US job dynamics, but a YC applicant team, if funded, would not arrive in the US "looking for a job"... they would have it (YC helps with paperwors for incorporating after all, doesn't it?)

I'm a EU resident as well, and I'm tyring to apply for this round.
I was disappointed with Skyfire on my HTC Titan, but it's way out of date so it runs many apps sluggishly. Opera Mobile is very slick and iPhone-ish, but I ran into device RAM issues with it. NetFront is decent although not as fast as other browsers. Opera Mini is great for speedy browsing and I know a number of people who use it in a J2ME VM on Windows Mobile.
XHProf: A function-level hierarchical profiler for PHP
Goodbye Stallman
Whilst respecting what Richard Stallman has achieved in the past, I just couldn't read his latest post on the <a href='http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html'>javascript</a> without getting a bit hot under the collar.

His position is, in my mind, completely untenable. He sees everything through his 'free software' glasses, the same way a dyed-in-the-wool communist sees everything through his Breznospecs. It's not enough for him that a Google Docs javascript file be free (gratis) – he objects that the file is not easy to read and has no comments. The fact that removing unnecessary white space is a commonly-used practice in speeding-up page loading is not mentioned, even in passing. Seriously, what is this guy on?

I have in mind a special device for Stallman, Raymond and the other open source nutters. It consists of a big plastic bag that envelops their heads and into which is pumped the aroma of roasted coffee beans. It is required that they use this apparatus until such a time as their eyes light up and they utter the required phrase.

Today, more than ever, we live in a world of economic reality. In the recent past it was easy to find some chump to lend you all the money required to buy that house/car/tv you really couldn't afford, or finance your startup based on a 10 page deck and the words “web 2.0”. But things have changed. And perhaps for the better.

The open software movement cares more about its users than it does its developers. Hacker kudos doesn't pay the fucking rent. I want to know whether all the people writing iPhone or Facebook apps would have tried so hard if they knew their expected return would be exactly $0? Somehow I don't think so.

We've got to move away from this notion that software should be free (gratis). If you use it and can afford to pay for it then why should I give it to you for free? Note: I'm not arguing against open-source, I'm arguing against working for free. If I spend a great deal of time writing a funky database application and big_multi_national dumps Oracle in favor of my code and saves itself $20million in the process, why shouldn't I get my sniff? Seriously, why not?

If the same code is used by some charity or someone's personal website then I'm happy to tip my hat and say 'glad to be of service', but not if they're Coca Cola, or Hertz, or... (you name it).

If there existed a fair and balanced why of rewarding open source developers then I believe the whole sector would explode with a level of commitment and energy that would dwarf the already impressive achievements seen by the community.

That time has come.

It's time for revolution's founders to retire gracefully, and for a more realistic (though still ethical) guard to take its place.

David Semeria
Milan, Italy
Opening the site automatically brings up a box to login or signup. Annoying as I didn't even know what the site did at all. Maybe just push everyone into a demo mode and put a sign-up link on there.

Also try and contribute more to a community before you spam it.
Preventing Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF aka XSRF)
I care not a jot about karma. What I do care about is ill informed people spouting rubbish.

You stated that anyone using subversion must not understand revision control. Which is an idiotic comment.

I detest this pompous high and mighty tools based attitude. Does anyone not using lisp not understand programming? Anyone not using ruby on rails not understand how to build webapps?

I'm actually very open minded. When I have problems with subversion, I'll likely try git if it fits my use case at the time. At the moment, it doesn't.
I'm uninclined to credit this sort of assertion without seeing application-specific benchmarks, and even less-so when the OP explicitly states that his application is memory-bound. On how many websites is system call overhead actually the limiting factor that prevents scaling?
That's bullshit. He's not fighting any good fight, and even if he were, he's doing it in a way (very much like PETA) that makes sure he's seen as an unpalatable nutjob by any sane individual. His own extremism will prevent him from accomplishing anything.
There's also the very similar http://www.shell-fu.org/
Exactly. I'm unwilling to pay the uncertainty tax. (Ironically, commercial software is often much easier to justify than the LGPL equivalent is! "Fork over $200 and you're OK" -- sweet, done! Spend a few hours reading legal code and still coming no closer to understanding whether a plugin in application A accessed over REST by application B is "linked" to A, B, A and B, or neither... bah.)
Erm. The Google Docs JS source is (in all likelihood) "obfuscated" because it's generated code - it's the output of the GWT Java-to-Javascript compiler.
Whilst respecting what Richard Stallman has achieved in the past, I just couldn't read his latest post on javascript without getting a bit hot under the collar.

His position is, in my mind, completely untenable. He sees everything through his 'free software' glasses, the same way a dyed-in-the-wool communist sees everything through his Breznospecs. It's not enough for him that a Google Docs javascript file be free (gratis) – he objects that the file is not easy to read and has no comments. The fact that removing unnecessary white space is a commonly-used practice in speeding-up page loading is not mentioned, even in passing. What is this guy on?

I have in mind a special device for Stallman, Raymond and the other gratis software nutters. It consists of a big plastic bag that envelops their heads and into which is pumped the aroma of roasted coffee beans. It is required that they use this apparatus until such a time as their eyes light up and they utter the required phrase.

Today, more than ever, we live in a world of economic reality. In the recent past it was easy to find some chump to lend you all the money required to buy that house/car/tv you really couldn't afford, or finance your startup based on a 10 page deck and the words “web 2.0”. But things have changed. And perhaps for the better.

The open software movement cares more about its users than it does its developers. Hacker kudos doesn't pay the fucking rent. I want to know whether all the people writing iPhone or Facebook apps would have tried so hard if they knew their expected return would be exactly $0? Somehow I don't think so.

We've got to move away from this notion that software should be free (gratis). If you use it and can afford to pay for it then why should I give it to you for free? Note: I'm not arguing against open-source, I'm arguing against working for free. If I spend a great deal of time writing a funky database application and big_multi_national dumps Oracle in favor of my code and saves itself $20million in the process, why shouldn't I get my sniff? There's nothing wrong with making an honest dime...

If the same code is used by some charity or someone's personal website then I'm happy to tip my hat and say 'glad to be of service', but not if they're Coca Cola, or Hertz, or... (you name it).

If there existed a fair and balanced way of rewarding open source developers then I believe the whole sector would explode with a level of commitment and energy that would dwarf the already impressive achievements seen by the community.

That time has come.

It's time for revolution's founders to retire gracefully, and for a more realistic (though still ethical) guard to take its place.

David Semeria
Milan, Italy
Zencart was/is the leader, Magento is the newcomer but looks very strong.

Wordpress has very good shopping cart plugins in case you want to add a publisihing & advertising platform to your shop. (highly recommended!)

Also Shopify can be a solution.
Michael Lewis: "Mass Hysteria Over AIG Obscures Simple Truths"
Somewhere I heard a saying that goes something like "AI is machine intelligence we don't quite understand. Once you've figured it out, it is no longer AI, it is an algorithm."
There appears to be a distinct lack of actual discussion of "predicting" in this article. It's actually fairly easy to determine the state of simple RNGs by observing their output... I was expecting the article to be about that, not just reiterating the (obvious) fact that using secret data for the seed is good. :)
All the people that made Fedora 9 worth $10.8 billion for free disagree with you [1]. Just because you wont work for free doesn't mean other people wont. It's a pretty unbelievable display of human passion and generosity. Why criticize that?

[1] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/estimatinglinux....
If their software was available from the very start - eg before they had any users, it's quite possible someone else may have 'won'.

You can't argue based on a 'network effect' website that has obvious lock-in.

Look at some non-social webapp. Say an online image editor. If the source was available, copy cats competitors could spring up and take away market share. There's no upside to releasing the source code, and obvious downside (Assuming you're in it to make money and not just spread love).
People aren't even reading the article anymore. They tried charging for it, didn't make as much as ads.
Ah, my bad, I didn't realize you were linking directly to a node. I guess that makes sense if you anticipate most people being referred from a search engine to a specific node, but if you're thinking they're going to be hitting your homepage, then I would probably get feedback by dropping users there first.

On that note, I would definitely work on the homepage a bit. Add in some pictures of people doing outdoors things (rock climbing, hiking, boating, etc.) Get people excited about doing something outdoors. I get that you're going for simplicity here, so obviously accentuate the search box (maybe make it and the search button a little bigger). Also, more contrast with the nav bar and background...green on green doesn't really set off the most important elements on the page (logo/brand and main navigation). Maybe also list further down who this might interest (hikers, backpackers, kayakers, etc.) and tell why. It seems obvious to you, but if you call out "Find Great Places to Hike", and I'm a rock climber, I may just bounce.

Subnav on the homepage: Recent Reports means nothing to me. Featured Content, a little more interesting, but still not the first thing I'd click on (if I click at all), Park Index is getting better (I can equate hikes to parks) and finally About Trailbehind, which is probably what I am going to click on if I don't immediately do a search. Move that up the priority list, and downplay some of the other stuff that isn't relevant to first time visitors (or make it clear why it is relevant).

Login: I know it seems logical that if you want to register and can't find where to, then you would click login. Don't make users do that if you've already convinced them to register (which you need to do more of...I still don't know why I would) Make the registration link over obvious if you're looking for visitors to register, and make it clear what benefit there is to registering (can you save locations, favorites, link up with other outdoors people, etc.)

Sorry, not trying to be overly critical here at all. I really like the idea and what you guys have built so far. We've just found with Anyvite that the more feedback we get, the better grasp we have on what needs to be changed. Iterate rapidly, right? Anyway, best of luck with things.