skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Wow  Paul Allen's Flipstart drops price from $1499 to $699
BrightSpark VC: Venture Capital is not what it used to be, we are changing
I agree that Time Capsule is the real and greatest innovation of this Macworld. Backup of portables was always tricky, because a wire had to be connected first. Thus it was forgotten most of the time.

For the MacBook air, it looks nice, no doubt, but it is either dependend on another machine (optical drive) or needs a table full of accessories (optical drive, usb hub). We already left this behind 10 years ago, didn't we? Anyone who wants back a table full of cables and clutter?
Clever: A Game in plain HTML (no JavaScript, no Flash, no PHP)
The feature is already there... "reset password"
Bah...you want some actual hardcore CS rap

MC Plus+ http://www.mcplusplus.com/

Featuring such masterful lyrics as:

Project 2 in the databases,
around deadline I see desperate faces.
Concurrency control using two phase lockin'
two writes coming in, second one is blockin'
I'm not that surprised by this, actually. RMS was very big into folk dancing at one point in his life.
Using Erlang in a web start-up [PDF]
the idea is great but the implementation not so. Certainly there is a correlation between where the user points his mouse and where he looks - but it is pretty small. Especially when pictures and multimedia are involved people tend to move their mouse out of the way.

With a high enough quality webcam and flash (which will allow you to stream from the cam) it should be possible, not easy but possible, to get pictures of the eyes and track their movement. The cons of this approach are:

1) you need to get the users permission to view captures from their cam - major irritation and bad usability.

2) the software to anslyse the pictures is quite complex

3) the cam needs to be of a pretty good quality

4) It will be hard to determine the coordinates of the cam in relation to the monitor, though it is probably possible to approximate it, since you can assume that the user is staring at the screen his eye movement will be confined to a square of space somewhere in front of him (the monitor). If data is gathered for a while it should be possible to approximate where the screen is in relation to the cam.
No kidding. I would love for my company to have a process for deployment that's as smooth as the one you're describing.
I can't help but wonder if there is a dusty film in someone's basement of Alan Turing swing-dancing to Glenn Miller in front of Bletchley Park sometime in the early 1940s.

Because that is how people will view this in 50 years or so. Awesome!
It's also true that I assume these things are just like that partly because I founded a company that handles build and deployment... http://www.electric-cloud.com
Doing this on a web application isn't really that impressive and could have been done in almost any language.

The awesome thing is that this could have worked with an installed desktop software, without downloading new binaries and installing them, simply having the application download a tiny text file with the source code change to input into the REPL.

No recompiling, no pushing huge binaries, no hassle.

I had to implement a big cumbersome system to enable automatic incremental live updates on our client software, so users will always use the latest version. Using Lisp just makes it a breeze.
We are consultants here in Bangalore and we have routinely done this on a Python/Django social networking web app and a Ruby on Rails web app. code-test-svn commit - svn export , pretty much.
With a lot of java experience, I can say that it is more elaborate and laborious in Java than python or ruby. The erlang movie (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5830318882717959520) shows off the same, for erlang.
GOP Figure Contracted to Deliver E-Voting Machines in Maryland
Venture Capitalists Might be Wary of Economy
I should have known the magic here would be completely missed by much of the Hacker News audience - same thing happened with the comments on my blog. The whole point was that it WASN'T about the technology - it was that he's so in touch with his audience that within 4 hours of it coming to his attention, he was able to do two iterations, get feedback on both, and fix a bug. It took 4 hours because we were communicating asynchronously on a message board, but I'm pretty sure he could have done it live if I had him on the phone. Simply put, I was more impressed that he gave a crap than that he could push a code change.

I am at one of those "average" shops, as are most people (by definition, although maybe not in the HN community). I know this stuff is possible but we can't do it here, and neither can most sites.

To put it in perspective, if you found a bug in your bank's website and told them about it, how long would it take for them to fix it? Even worse, what if you suggested a way to make the site work better? Would anyone with decision making power ever even see the suggestion? Just try telling someone WHO'S NOT A GEEK this story and see what they say. I wrote the article because when I told my wife what happened, her jaw hit the floor.
Who says he didn't test the changes before he published them? In four hours of asynchronous communication, he did two design iterations, got feedback on both, and fixed a bug that someone found. And this was unplanned, in response to unsolicited feedback. What else should he have done to slow it down more?
It seems that Yahoo is allowing users to use their Yahoo IDs as OpenIDs. This will make some other sites want to use OpenID for authentication, because who wants to manage credentials if you don't have to?

However, if I'm understanding it correctly, this will not allow people to use OpenIDs that are not obtained from Yahoo to log in to Yahoo.

It seems to me to be solving half of the problem (needing new credentials for every website) but not the other half (having a corporation be the repository for those credentials).

If anyone with more of a clue can explain to me how this is not a base perversion of one of the major ideas behind OpenID, I would be obliged. ("You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust," from openid.net/what/)
Internet To 8% Share of All Advertising; 14% Growth in 2008
Facebook Animation: Javascript library for creating customizable animations
"To put it in perspective, if you found a bug in your bank's website and told them about it, how long would it take for them to fix it?"

To put it in perspective, this is a very simple, small application with a relative handful of users that ... publishes links.
I've also heard that the viewpoint that successful consultants don't "look like" permies. Doing otherwise might increase the perception that their work is something which could instead be done by a permanent employee.

No axe to grind, worked both sides of that fence. Not sure if I think there is much truth to it. I do know some odd-looking consultants though :-)
Why I Use (Object) Pascal
When a child, I used to do that for writing interactive stories with .bat files. Later I found a way to create small action games in .bat files, believe me! "choice" was the key command there.
Bill Gates has grown up and made us proud
As far as I know, the price regulation doesn't generally extend to internet connectivity (it's for voice lines)... except for the lowest tier connection they offer (that mythical dry loop 768k line for $10/mo)... and the phone reps will actively deny that account option even exists unless you insist that you know it does.

My guess is they want to start a content delivery system of some sort to sell music/video to a captive audience (their customers) and just want to prepare the ground for blocking out competing pirated content.

This guy doesn't make the best argument in the world, but I think the privacy issues of this alone should kill it. Legal or illegal, I don't want some third party eavesdropping on everything I do online.
Too bad the compiler is not involved in a segmentation fault. Good try xkcd.
Well, it could be that my skepticism about OpenID will ultimately prove unfounded. It would hardly be my first mistake, nor will it be the last.

But then I read this:

"... he would not confirm when (or if) Yahoo would also allow become [sic.] what is called a "relying party" (allowing users with third party OpenIDs to log in to Yahoo). He did say that the goal was to move in that direction, but gave no further guidance."

OpenID! Where all IDs are equal, but some IDs are more equal than others!

Yahoo is hardly alone. I can't find an OpenID login on AOL or Facebook, either. Blogger (aka Google) supposedly "supports" OpenID, but their login page doesn't let me use one.

These big "adopters" sure are happy to provide OpenIDs, in exchange for detailed information about which sites you log into and when. But they're understandably reluctant to accept OpenIDs, because what's in it for them but a support headache, a loss of control over the customer relationship, and more data for their competitors?

Remind me again why this isn't just the Mexican-standoff version of Microsoft Passport, with a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone? I guess it's nice that I can now choose, site by site, which of my corporate overlords is going to own all my login data. And we get to watch as Mike Arrington and Tim O'Reilly force Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, and Facebook to play chicken, a spectacle which will sell a few banner ads.

In other news, there are now 360 million OpenID holders, just as there were once 360 million AOL CD owners. [1] Do OpenIDs make good coasters?

[1] Note: one of these statistics was made up for entertainment purposes. Do not cite on Wikipedia.
I felt vaguely ridiculous as an American traveling in London for this exact reason. I have decent shoes that I wear all over the place: they are made of leather, they are (I guess?) relatively stylish. But in England I felt like I was a homeless person wandering around with cardboard boxes on my feet. It's always interesting transitioning from a country where no one cares what you look like to nearly any place in Europe, where Appearance Matters(tm)!

On the whole I like the European model a little less since I always feel a little outclassed, even just going to a market or something. But Europeans traveling in America are probably in a constant state of disgust at the disheveled state of most of us...
I got bitten by that one. I'd forgotten my password, but couldn't retrieve it because "logicholeflaw" wasn't a valid account. But I couldn't recreate it because "logicholeflaw" was already in use!

After a while I figured out that capitalization counts. But still, it was a bit confusing.
Ruby vs PHP performance
What, you mean the point where you get promoted? ;-)
Big Boost for OpenID?
Startup: Stikkit
3 Steps To Get What You Want
I think it's implied that he will run the compiled code.
"...I was a homeless person wandering around with cardboard boxes on my feet."

Gets my +10 vote of the day for hilarious mental image!
You don't find topless babes interested in Linux.

You find linux babes and make them topless.
Conspiracy to nudge you to take the startup plunge by getting you fired.

[sofs] safe only for startups
1.Check to make sure there are no small children or cute animals behind the vehicle

2.Start car and shift into reverse

3.While looking backwards, slowly release the brake
So is that like... A macarena type fad? Please explain this to us old folks =\
It's not clear that this is a nasty trend. The article mentions that this is for infrequently used applications. So they are basically doing a pay-per-use scheme. Seems reasonable to me for something I don't use a lot. Would, in fact, be preferable to a subscription model if I don't think I need frequent access to that functionality.
After carefully studying this photograph I've managed to determine the most important thing that all of you are wondering about... which book is she reading?

Well, it's "Beginning Unix" by Paul Love et al.

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Unix-Programmer-Paul-Love/dp...

At the current time there does not appear to be a review on Amazon.com indicating that topless women chose this title. Perhaps there should be.
Would it be impossible for larger, more "serious" websites to try harder?
12 Reasons Why a Geek Will Steal Your Girlfriend
I hope you're right.

When software vendors charge by the seat, sometimes customers buy less than they need (Just use Fred's ID).

If this idea takes hold, maybe customers will DO less to save money. (Get all your work done in one session every Tuesday). What if you forget to do something? What if something comes up?

I just hate the idea of anything that disincentivizes people to use their software.
Amazon subsidiary to delve deeper into movies with acquisition
What is a 'macarena type fad'? Please explain this to us young folks ;)

BTW, how can one be "trapped" at 23? http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=altano
> It seems to me to be solving half of the problem (needing new credentials for every website) but not the other half (having a corporation be the repository for those credentials).

Your second half has been solved for a long time, anyone can run their own OP http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2007/01/03/OpenID-for-non-S...

Your first half is the unsolved problem. There seems to be a lot of reluctance to be an RP (possibly for the reasons mechanical_fish has stated)
Nice article. The OLPC would probably be an ideal way to help cross our local digital divide. But the problem seems to be systemic.

Perhaps more problems could be solved if funding for school districts wasn't tied so directly to homeowners in the area (since affluent areas would concentrate the wealth to schools in their districts).

And while I'm at it, it isn't just about the money (although this would at least provide for better student teacher ratios), but the quality of teachers you can attract to poorer areas. Now that's a difficult problem to solve...
in the scheme of slang terms for sexual acts, i would say it is nothing.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=superman+dat+...
> Blogger (aka Google) supposedly "supports" OpenID, but their login page doesn't let me use one.

AFAIK their OpenID RP support is only for commenters.
Evolve Your User Interface To Educate Your Users
Not to mention that such serious websites will have more resources available.
How to Write Stories (and lose weight, clean up the environment, and make a million dollars)
I like the reference to Don Quixote. I can see it now - "Leadership Secrets of the Man Of La Mancha" ;-)
Besides, credits must be given to Anders Hejlsberg who brought Wirth's awkward and unusable brainchild to market by doing 2 things: by extending the language in the most consistent and beautiful way and by creating probably the fastest optimizing native-code compiler ever created. The compiler itself was a masterpiece of SE.

Should I say how much I regret Hejlsberg left Borland to join Microsoft? That put an end to Delphi/Object Pascal, although the language and the IDE had the full potential to take C#'s market today.
How to apply your own icon to any webclip
Jesus... this is a very personal "back to college" article for me. Fuck Pascal - it is nothing but a parent of Java and C#, less powerful, even more verbose and restrictive with the same dumb and rigid OO-implementation. The language was designed as a learning tool and it shows. While it was crazy popular in the 90s (at least in Russia) I am glad to see it finally going away.

When I upgraded from Object Pascal (Delphi, really) to C++ it was like jumping into a superman costume.
Ask Hacker News: CS-related math after college
What series of math courses/books do you recommend to the aspiring programmer already graduated from college?

I'm a professional programmer and I realized a few years ago that the way I was doing things was totally stupid. So I've been slowly working my way up, learned Rails, now going through SICP, with PAIP coming up next.

But I also understand that a lot of math is involved that I never took. Don't get me wrong, I'm reasonably good at math, and took linear algebra and econometrics for fun, but I don't know what to read on my own and in what order for application to CS. The department websites I've looked at suggest four years of Java and maybe one math-ish algorithms class, but I don't think that's the answer.

I'd appreciate your help. Thanks.
The word Agile appears exactly once in the article: the title (where every word is capitalized).

Yes, it's possible he's referring to Agile Programming but that's a stretch given all the other facts here.
Smartest thing he ever did.

Borland never had R&D or marketing muscle to keep up with everyone else (Microsoft). Their C and C++ compilers were always buggy (sometimes adding an empty line would stop a compiler from crashing), their profilers never worked, their C++ IDE used modal dialogs to display progress of compilation... Delphi was the only reasonably well-built piece of software they did, and it was still beaten by VB commercially.
The article is a little overenthusiastic, but it did strike me while this was happening that something new was going on. I'm very familiar with the model in which changes to a web app get pushed out quickly. But this felt different because (a) it was the result of a conversation with the users while they were using the site, and (b) I typed the changes into the repl of the running server, iterating through design options (and debugging) on the fly. These changes are still not released; if the server crashed and restarted, they'd disappear. (I saved them to a file on my development machine, and the server crashes rarely enough that I'll almost certainly release the latest version before that happens.)
I asked a similar question a little while ago, here's what I got:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=78315
I didn't test the changes before I published them. I basically did development on the running server. In fact for about 30 seconds the comments page was broken due to a bug.
Of course it was overenthusiastic - that was so people would read it! I used three key attention getters just in the title so more people would take a look:

1) "capital A" Agile (even though it wasn't really about that)
2) reference Paul Graham (always a lightning rod :)
3) Ask a challenge question "Are you this [positive adjective]?"
Everyone's first Vi session
Microsoft eases access to Office binary formats for OOXML
Make it possible to lose karma by submitting garbage stories, either via downmods or (IMHO the better option) by making submitting a story "cost" a certain number of points of karma (which of course will be regained if the story gets voted up).

Recently I've seen two trends, both of which significantly diminish the value of Hacker News:

1. Some users are flooding Hacker News with submissions (in one case I counted 18 submissions in one day), and even though most of their submissions aren't being voted up, enough submissions are to make them accumulate lots of karma (which I assume is why this is happening).

2. The same stories are being posted many times by different users. I'm sure this is partly the result of #1 -- with the floods of submissions users might not realize that a story was submitted before -- but the fact that there's no "penalty" for useless submissions probably contributes as well.
This is needle debate. There could be 2 girls. Both with perfect bodies, wombs and breasts but only with one of them is you sexual experience much better. You don't know why is it so, you can't explain it ... because it's just the chemistry. One love slow comfortable movements, other is like a rabbit :) Did you ever seen the rabbit in action? Love PHP and give Ruby a chance.
The follow-up article is much better:

http://www.slate.com/id/2182089/entry/2182091/
I will restrain myself from a long discussion on the subject, but encourage you to google your way around for various pros/cons regarding the concept.

One of the most famous explanations for our need of physical destruction of goods was given in "1984"
For the impatient, here are the steps:

1. Know exactly what you want.

2. Always follow a straight line.

3. Sharpen your saw
Broadband speeds by state
What is the Cost of Performance?
Sun and MySQL: I don't get it
You obviously didn't get the article, neither the language.

C++ is not a superset of Object Pascal, rather, each have their niche features. I probably felt the same as you when I first upgraded to C++, but that followed by some disappointment, too. I missed sets as first-class data, the subrange type and many other big and small things. And the object model was quite different. I'd even argue that if you forget about operator overloads in C++, the rest looks quite weak when compared with Object Pascal's OO model. The article mentions some, e.g. virtual constructors, properties, etc.

The rest is basically in the article. Lots of features that are still missing in the mainstream languages.

And most importantly, the final binaries you get with Delphi are indistinguishable (size, speed) from those produced by C/C++ compilers, if not better sometimes.

If I were OP maintainer, I'd probably bring the language to today's "standards" if that's the word, by adding just a couple of things - anonymous functions, probably yield semantics, also foreach and better support for built-in dynamic arrays.
Loic's Le List of Success Tips
IronRuby | Ruby on .net
It's probably the REPL part that's the most interesting from a coder perspective. For most languages you'd at least have to reload parts of the application to get this to happen.
10 Worst Innovation Mistakes In A Recession.
Startup tips - Choosing mentors.
How to handle success
Interview with HubPages CEO Paul Edmondson
Ironically, this also sounds like three steps to become a serial killer...
I belong to an car sharing company and they have 3 options:

1) Pay a relatively large monthly fee and a low per use fee.
2) Pay a moderate monthly fee and a moderate per use fee.
3) Pay no monthly fee and the highest rate per use.

If you use the service rarely you can pay nothing most months. If you use the service regularly it is best to pay a higher monthly rate. You can switch between plans at any time. I think a little flexibility helps customers control their costs.
I said that the article title was wrong, not that pg was wrong, or that Agile is even the best way to do things.

The equation of "we iterated faster == we're more Agile" is what I thought was retarded.
I like the idea of submitting "costing" karma, but maybe you get a couple freebies a day. Maybe an escalating cost schedule so it penalizes people who submit their 15th story as opposed to their 5th.

Re #2, I always thought there was a unique url filter on submissions, but I've seen a couple repeats recently.
Best answer to your question that I've ever read:

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for-programmers...

And, another good article to spur you on:
http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/math-every-day
Honest confession? The original title was "Can Your Website Do This?" but I changed it to Agile so more people would read it. Notice that I never mentioned Agile in the entire article and it had nothing to do with it. Sneaky, I admit, but right now I'm trying to get more people to read my writing.
I think there's a unique URL filter on submissions; but not a unique story filter on submissions (which would be a rather difficult AI problem).

Even with different URLs, there's really no need for 10 different stories about the MacBook Air to be posted here -- it would be much better to have one Hacker News item and have URLs to other articles posted in comments.
YAML | An (X)HTML/CSS Framework
I don't think the point was that everyone was supposed to be able to understand every detail of the code. I think he was showing that by using a bunch of macros, he could add a new command to the web server that would create a new type of page with a very small amount of code. How would the code look to create the top color page if it was written in another language?

Less code = faster development, easier maintenance, fewer bugs
Technical Basics for Web Startups