skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well, the original ruling may have been stupid and might have become irrelevant by now. But the fine is very reasonable: MS didn't do what the courts ordered it to do. Plain and simple.
Web Behaving Badly: Is the Net Having a Negative Effect on Our Personalities?
It never worked well for me, but I kill my search indexer process a lot because it turns my fan on.
If they can raise their prices by x without harming their business, why haven't they done it already?
I hadn't read that before - it's a really good read. Thanks!
You didn't answer my question here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5246603

Also, OS X can run multiple sessions, install a browser with no root access and Java is not installed by default.

But I see you are one of those users that drop their misguided wisdom and ignore all the replies, so I won't expect you to reply here either and keep believing your false facts.
That's a matter of prosecutorial discretion. The point is they can serve jail time. What's the point of changing the law so that they can be fined 100% of revenue. The same discretion will still apply.
Pixel Perfect iOS & OS X Apps
Last time I checked black and white were colors </nitpick>
Show HN: An experiment - IRC channel from just a URL
This is related with a previous story I've seen today: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5330020

I've been working on a similar concept but based on IRC.

Once authenticated with your Twitter account you can join a room using the URL, the path represents a channel. As I said, it's based on IRC which means that you can also join the same room using an IRC client.

The code is here: https://github.com/malditogeek/lalo
Laws should be followed. If laws are bad, you should change the laws, not disregard them.
Integrated js/coffeescript editor for live-editing the code without page reload. Must be able to save to disk as well.

Inspiration: http://smotko.si/using-chrome-as-a-javascript-editor/
I think mobile phones will eventually move up and displace traditional PC with a docking system that connect to your big monitors, your mouse, and your keyboard, and maybe even a big fat hard drive.

Perhaps we will see a hybrid model in which your phone gets additional CPU and RAM to work with when plugged in?

What about google glasses and other devices? The PC should find a way to interface with that too.
Yes, I remember when my aunt was to decide between an iPad and a new PC. Once I explained Moore's law to her, the iPad won her over. It's definitely Moore's law.
Isn't this the primary difference between civil and criminal law? Additionally, isn't this a civil case? It would seem to me that the entire point of the trail would be to deal with the lost compensation/opportunity cost issue.
The article goes on and on about CPUs. They're right of course, anything after a core 2 duo is likely "fast enough." Tons of people have been buying the i5s instead of the i7s (myself included) for that very reason.

But they're wrong in general. Memory capacity has continued to climb (from 2 GB with Vista, to 4 GB with Win7, to 8 GB today). I wouldn't build a PC today without 16 GB of RAM.

Then we get to talk about the MASSIVE amount of improvement in IO in the last few years. The 7200 RPM HDD is dead. SSDs are now affordable. You can get a 256 GB SSD for £100.

When consumers start to experience an SSD system compared to their old "slow" HDD system, they will be at the stores in droves wanting to upgrade. SSD's speed improvement is very noticeable indeed, like night and day.
Programming Brain Teaser #1: Getting Started
What I like to listen while coding:

Aes Dana - Memory Shell

Aes Dana - Season 5

Black Sands - Bonobo

Carbon Based Lifeforms - Interloper

I also find jazz and post-rock pretty good for ambient noise
Broken except insofar as it's simple and works as intended. Read article, totally unconvinced.
I disagree with this kind of reaction:

1. I don't think it's useless, when companies raise their price they loose customers so Microsoft will probably be more careful next time.

2. If it is useless in practice, we should change the law but surely not let them do what they want, just because it's useless.
EU competition law is a completely different beast from US antitrust law, and whilst I disagree with both forms, the EU definitely suffers from more of a Tall Poppy Syndrome: if you're a market leader with a disproportionate share of the market, it's almost assumed that you're acting in bad faith, and it's up to you to prove you're promoting 'fairness' and 'competition'.

If anything is 'anti-competitive' it's rulings like these, which punish people for producing quality software and increase the uncertainty of doing business in the EU.

There's a good comparison of the two systems over here: http://www.iie.com/publications/chapters_preview/56/10ie1664...
But it would be pretty easy to create a polyfill that attaches onclick handlers to the respective elements.

Actually I'm tempted to write one to get this functionality with current browsers.

[edit]
As Oscar Wild put it: The only way of getting rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

https://github.com/webcrofting/href4all
That's a very weak tu quoque[1]. Shades of gray and white are colors by anyone that's taken high school physics.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque
This is a big request and probably outside the scope you are thinking (but it shouldn't be): a WYSIWYG layout and editing mode.

Think something like [divshot](http://www.divshot.com) but more powerful, and built right into the browser.

Authoring web content should be a lot easier than it currently is.
QR codes on billboards and in marketing are kind of rubbish, but in terms of moving a URL or a phone number from your PC to your phone quickly, they're actually pretty useful.
OP here, this is related with a story I've seen today: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5330020

I've been working on a similar concept but based on IRC.

Once authenticated with your Twitter account you can join a room using the URL, the path represents a channel. Being IRC based means that you can join the same channel using an IRC client.

The code is here: https://github.com/malditogeek/lalo
Haha - must admit I hadn't tried that. Still gets Hacker News to shake though! I think it's really smart how Monir built on the Harlem Shake's virality, but made it fun for everyone.
Spreadsheets and word processors are good examples. Visicalc was overtaken by Lotus 1-2-3 which was overtaken by Excel. WordPerfect was overtaken by Microsoft Word.
The EU did in fact do the same with media players (Microsoft had to bundle "Windows XP N", a WMP-less version of WXP). The rest has precious little importance in the grand scheme of thing and their regulation is thus pretty pointless.
Historical Stock Prices w/ D3 + Yahoo Finance API
Look Ma, no sockets?)
Great hack. Another way to get text quickly to your phone, if you have an iPhone, is to send yourself a message on Messages.
Healthcare was an example for absolut MS dominance. That being said, for most companies that run local IT, secuirty is pretty abmissal and i doubt moving to the cloud would harm them in that regard, but your right, Healthcare might not be the best example.
I am sure though, that many enterprises in the future will run most of their stuff from the cloud because of the many benefits, and when they do its probably going to be Azure because it ties in nicely into their stack.
Dotdotdot: A Different Way to Read Your Articles and eBooks
Custom Etsy shop with Virb
I'm pretty excited about this, if part of the plan is to encourage Wikipedia contributors to add their data as data instead of as finished output.

I've spent some time lately building election results maps for Google, and while Wikipedia has been a useful resource, it's also been very frustrating.

There is a wealth of geographic data on Wikipedia, but hardly any of it is in a usable form. Look at all the interesting maps you see there. Somebody generated each of those maps from actual usable data such as shapefiles [1] or KML files [2]. The generated maps are nice to look at, but I can't do anything else with them. I need the shapefiles or equivalent to build other kinds of maps with the data.

For the Brazil election, we had shapefiles for the municipalities which had been mangled by a process that converted all the municipality names to uppercase with no accent marks. I wanted to display the correctly capitalized and accented names and found this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_of_Brazi...

This was great! It had all the data I needed. But it's in a jumbled format that looks nice in the wiki but doesn't lend itself to machine use. It took me a few hours to write some Python code to parse the page and get it into a CSV format that I could import into my database. This is a frustrating kind of work, because I was pretty sure that somebody had started with nice tabular data and generated the initial version of this Wikipedia page from that.

If we're eventually able to get this kind of data as real usable data, that will save a lot of people a lot of work.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_Markup_Language
Fine, to be more precise (and more snarky), I'll change it to: "too bad they didn't implement a single color change from what Bootstrap provides"
In the end it's a matter of taste, I find the second version much clearer
This still seems rather unfair, why are other proprietary operating systems not obliged to incorporate a similar feature? It's Microsoft own operating system and they should be allowed to incorporate whatever piece of software they'd like, albeit to a reasonable extent.

On the other hand, I do find it weird there are no repercussions like this for Windows' new secure boot "feature".
In my opinion this sheds some light on Sinofsky's departure. That's quite a fuck-up and it happened on his watch.
alt is beside the point here
I'm aware of polymorphism and the list convention and I'm not going to argue against them.

However, the example code uses `c' for connection and `q' for query. Surely, knowing what those are from the variable name would be a good thing?

It's not that I want to impose Obj-C's verbosity but the other extreme (1-letter names) is just as bad.
There's no formula for starting up and there's no one way to do it. For example, if you have a truly game changing idea, you don't need to go the MVP route. Over time, it will become visible. What's more important in this case is that you stick with it until it gets widely used. This approach won't work for a more bottom-up idea that is based on some observation about the existing market. Then you're better of with an MVP with successive refinement.
Fair, I get you. I still wouldn't have a problem with the corrected analogy. Firstly, I consider the web browser an integral part of an OS even if you have the choice to replace it, so it's not creating a further monopoly, it's just part of the package (just like tires and the body of a car).

But more importantly, problems caused by some monopolies (e.g. extortion), and monopolies themselves, have historically been the RESULT of government intervention. Other web browsers obviously can compete considering IE is not the most widely used browser anymore.
HTML5 Snake Game with source code walkthrough
Whilst it is Microsoft with bags of money and all that, I don't really see how such a huge fine (even for M$) is warranted.

Yes, they stopped offering the browser choice, but at what point did someone from EU-HQ contact MS-HQ and tell them they'll be fined if they don't put it back in? Surely it would only take a few weeks at the most to actually re-instate the "feature" once they were threatened with a huge fine.

It might have been better for Microsoft to have actually been forced to give money to the other browsers to promote their products, or alternatively, just bundle Firefox/Chrome with Windows and be done with it.
> Android is in a monopoly position in EU

Not even close. It's in a majority position but nowhere near a monopoly.

Although it can probably be considered to be a "dominant position", but then come the next part:

1. Has somebody complained

2. Is "Android" using its dominant position to distort the market
I think what needs to be focused on is mostly software, to make it less clunky and slow, and teach developers to write efficient sofware rather than just write bloaty software since their super-powerful computers can handle it just fine. Not everyone can afford to get the best computer every couple of years.
Sane email clients do not display HTML :)
Forget your grandmother. There are loads of hobbyists out there doing high quality video, audio and software development work on boxes that are 5+ years old, quite happily.

The set of things for which you need a superfast machine is really very small (compared to the whole,) especially if you are happy working within the limitations of the tools you have to hand, which covers a huge quantity of creative people, and most of the really good ones.
You're missing te point -- computers for the mass market are no longer an enthusiasts market. They are like TVs.

Where I work, we're stuffing users into 2GB/1core VDI instances. They work fine. The only new client purchases are replacements of dead stuff, devices that improve mobility, and some dev/kiosk machines.
I'm getting 'no results' on the first few tries, however the results appear after using the backbutton.
Is it google.com results only? Geotargeting would be nice.
San Francisco’s Bay Bridge becomes a glowing network of Ethernet-enabled LEDs
Another trip to the Microsoft piggybank.
> As soon as you enters monopoly status in the EU, there is certain rules and regulations that you need to comply with.

So is it in the US as well.
I disagree. You talk about power users who will always buy the latest and greatest kit, but even those are slowing down.
Gamers dont need to update their PC every 2 years because of todays very long gaming console life cycles.
I have built my development rig 4 years ago in 2009, a Quad-Core 2.8Ghz, 8GB, SSD and reasonably fast GPU. It wasnt top of the line back then (except for the SSD) and its still fine for all my needs, only replaced the SSD because it broke.

My girlfriend has some cheap laptop which is also a couple of years old but its more than enough for her web surfing and office needs.
Previously on Hacker News, hsmaker: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5235709
That is bit besides the point.

Personally I think PLC based system would make most sense for home automation, considering that a large portion of the devices are mains-powered anyways. And if you design the system really cleverly then having the same network extend wirelessly to those nodes where PLC is unsuitable.
Oh that's an interesting detail. That way the EU doesn't enrich itself but it ensures that such "profits" are equally divided among member states. (Because it all saves them money they would otherwise have had to pay.) Nice to know.
A small post about the C++ REST SDK ("Casablanca") project
Some laws you have an obligation to not follow.
What a waste of the president's time.
Why The Unlocking Phones Debate Is Important
News Corp’s Education Tablet May Fit Schools Tech Bureaucratics
I've been using a Chrome extension I created for the same purpose. The nice part is that it does it without making an external web request, using javascript and canvas.

Also, iPhone users should check out the Scan app[1] for a QR code reader. It's by far the fastest starting, simplest QR scanner I've been able to find; Most of the other apps seem to be cramming in price-checking features and have butt-ugly icons.

[1]: http://scan.me
Oh, you didn't hear? He lives in Australia now.
It harms them, but only in the long term. But if a company is fined, increasing prices is the easiest way to balance the numbers.

Microsoft already started hiking prices for some of the enterprise products, and for now they can afford this.
I guess it's a question of where you draw the line on important. If the FDA required hen vaccination around 100,000 few people would get a fairly serious sometimes lethal disease at the additional cost of around 4 cents an egg. If the FDA did nothing I suspect far more than 100,000 people would get seriously ill.
It's vanilla scroll for me, nothing weird as far as I can tell.
I have too little knowledge about details but have you looked at contrib.io? Maybe you can use it for your idea.
Alternatively you can post your question on
www.impact4change.com
You may be able to reach out to the odd charity/foundation that way
Maybe because there are more vim users than sublime users on hn? FWIW i did see that story on front-page of hn and it's what prompted me to immediately write my vim-port. I finished it like a few days after that.
Mozilla is working hard to manage memory/RAM in the most efficient manner. In many 3rd party tests, Chrome uses more RAM than Firefox for the same set of tabs. Mozilla is tracking this here: https://areweslimyet.com/faq.htm
There is an article about this on Wired: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/03/google-borg-twi...
Got to protect those people who can't figure out how to open IE and download the browser that they really want.
"Meanwhile, Intel's push towards ubiquitous computing--gesture controls, speech recognition, and so on--not only advances traditional interface models, but the technologies involved also require strong computing heft. Sneaky, sneaky."

Lol ya this must be the reason. I bet that they have a hand in the self-driving cars too. Its all an excuse to require more computing power.
Modern Development Workflow For Team
I foresee this being distracting to drivers, and therefore potentially quite dangerous. I guess it depends on if all the LEDs are facing perfectly away from the center of the bridge so that the viewable angle of the lights doesn't overlap the travel lanes.
not being nice != being a dick.

I never make rude and inappropriate comments or call people names. I do try to highlight mistakes or what I consider to be a wrong approach. Some of those well-articulated comments still some times get misinterpreted, and egos get involved in the discussion.

Wozniak is talking about not criticizing people, and in that respect, even a nicely put, well articulated comment is a form of criticism.
> Is iOS required to have the same browser selection screen?

iOS is not in a monopolistic position.

> Are mobile devices required to have a browser option?

If one of them becomes so ubiquitous it is a natural monopoly.

> Then why is Windows required to?

Because Microsoft is (or at least was, at the time of the ruling) a natural monopoly, and found abusing its desktop OS monopoly into the distortion of other markets. Then they decided to drop their requirements according to court rulings, without said court being consulted. Thus, fine.

> I've never heard of anyone complaining about Windows Media Player and Windows Calculator being installed by default.

So?

> Apple quickly took down their Samsung apology, where is their $700 million fine?

You don't seem to be aware that the UK and the EU are different legal and geopolitical entities. You may want to read up on the subject, as well as on the subject of anti-trust legislation.
There is another implementation, it's a bit faster and well documented :)

And there is more customisable as well

https://github.com/mhinz/vim-signify
Whoops I'm sorry, I thought you had some fancy js here but I think it was just a bug with my mouse... the page was scrolling down weirdly to the end of the header.

Can't reproduce it after refreshing.

My bad, I'll delete the original comment.
Well, theoretically, for a HTML5 standards compliant version you could do:

<img src="pic.jpg" data-href="about.html">

And this, plus what I suspect it would be a very tiny global javascript handler that takes care of simulating the links, would pretty much do it.

Of course, there is the question of how well this would work on older browsers, although actually as long as javascript is not disabled I don't think it would give much trouble (data attributes can be easily fetched in IE6 for instance)

Edit: Here's a quick and dirty demo of how this could work: http://jsfiddle.net/Dszvc/2/ it could easily be turned into a full featured plugin.
Just keep in mind that Google's QR Code (Infographic) API has been deprecated.
Since when couldn't you just open IE and download your browser of choice?

The browser ballot is BS imposed by bureaucrats.
Rewired Reality - Emma Mulqueeny interview
Computer Scientists Measure the Speed of Censorship On China’s Twitter
nope, i run http://miniqr.com for that exact reason, and lets just say, it never took off (and nobody uses is that way)
They can, and they do. It's not a violation of the Fourth Amendment if a private company hands over (or sells) data to the government.
> That's indeed my thought, why only Microsoft?

Abuse of a natural monopoly.

> Apple should also give that choice to their OSX users.

Stuck at 10% global marketshare (probably below that in the EU), there is no risk Apple will be able to leverage a dominant OS position they don't even remotely have into market distortions in related domains.
You're seriously confused as to what a monopoly is and what a monopoly implies.

There's nothing wrong with having a monopoly. What is, however, illegal is to abuse your monopoly to keep and extend your monopoly to other domains.

Btw Google / Android isn't near anywhere a monopoly in the smartphone / tablet market.

What would be illegal would be, for example, Google using its search engine to eliminate any mention of the word "Apple" and of the "apple.com" domain or, worse, only allowing access to negative criticism of Apple products. But they aren't doing that (at least not that we know of).

On the contrary MS has been officially judged has being a monopolist abusing its power to try to keep and extend its monopoly. Both in an US judgement and in an European judgement.

Heck, even selling the Xbox at a loss for years and years while living on monopoly money is a dubious way to enter a market (but personally I wouldn't mind if MS faded into irrelevancy and had only its Xbox division doing fine ; )
You can get a lot of this by using Chrome's Users feature. This allows you to switch between user accounts and have clean, extensionless sessions.
Considering where privacy (or lack thereof) is headed, that may not be such a bad idea. I'm thinking some ways of encrypted mobile-to-mobile communication, file storage, maybe even encrypted video.

I can picture some startup somewhere coming up with a mobile P2P network/overlay that leverages an ad-hoc wifi mesh of some sort (avoiding carrier data limits) that lets users share everything and anything with just a psudonym. Or maybe even just a randomly generated key as a URI (I.E. Tor).

I've yet to see a simple implementation that I can install painlessly that lets me send text, let alone more complex stuff. Any startup that can deliver all that in this surveillance-happy atmosphere will make a killing.
And how much do you trust google/facebook? Because it would be trivial for them to link your logged-out behaviour to your account if they wanted to (via cookies and other means). Using a separate browser might help, buy isn't s guarantee.

I'm not trying to be paranoid here, just pointing out that there is a lot of information which we make available to Google. If they wanted to be evil, it would be.very easy.

I don't think it would tale much more to link this to your credit card either (eg via amazon/PayPal) by which time all your activotes ate there to see.

Again, not being paranoid, just pointing out we live in an info-rich environment. Your only way to avoid it is to go totally over yhe top in avoiding leaving any trace which most of us are not prepared to do.