skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
From experience in running various marketing campaigns, the magic 'number' is 1 in 10. Charging $X with the option of paying $1.1X (or just over, even) for a 0.1 probability of getting the money straight back will get the most people buying into the scheme. That'll be around 1 in 10 people too. Force the extra payment and around half of them will walk away there and then(1). Bump the price up to $1.1X without mentioning it, only that there's a 1 in 10 chance of getting it free and you'll see the overall take-up go up anywhere from 25% to 100%.

Long story short: Make your new price $1.1X without fanfare, offer a 1 in 10 chance of getting it for free and you all win. They get their chance at a freebie at a cost they don't notice, you get your promotion vibe bumping up sales.

(1)I know that that's obvious, and it was dumb to run it - but we ran it anyway for the sake of completeness.
Ha. What a joke. Ultimate start-up-story? I'm sure the ultimate start-up story would involve monetization.
I think you are giving way too much importance to idea and timing.

The reason Flickr, Youtube, Wikipedia, etc are succesful because they could execute better than their competitors and that might not change by going back in time.
I like the idea expressed in this article, working with the faith of a greater good.

It gives you a reason to sit 8 hours a day on an uncomfortable chair.
Yes, the time savings can be huge, but you have to take into account that legal opinions voiced in internet fora can be less than reliable.
Confluence is a really amazing product! I've used it for document and project management at companies large (Fortune 100) and small (my 3 person startup), and it's worked great.

It has a ton of excellent features and polished interface out of the box, but the real strength is the ecosystem of plugins available for Confluence that let you easily extend it to be tailored to your needs.

With a deal like this, I'd recommend checking it out.
What you're looking at is the "Classic" UI theme. Windows has supported themes since XP (released in 2001), and as of Vista there is also an optional desktop compositor that uses GPU texturing and shaders for transparency and blur effects.

But this is a preview of Exchange Server 2010. Why exactly would you want GPU compositing or gradient buttons on a server?
In terms of lowered opportunity costs, yes.
In terms of selling services that lower other peoples costs, yes. (In boom times, they might have other priorities. To quote pg, Amazon didn't become Amazon by buying the cheapest servers. But right now, they might be persuaded into buying your new cheap servers.)
Really, its just the mainstream media waking up to what pg has been saying for the last six months.
Designer Salwar Kameez, Indian Salwar Kameez, Cotton Salwar Suit
Online Shopping Store for Indian Designer Salwar Kameez. We have unique collection of designer Indian Salwar Kameez. Nowadays Cotton, Punjabi Salwar Kameez are famous worldwide and woman loves to wear it. Like Indian Salwar Kameez, Salwar Suits, Traditional Salwar Kameez.
Why do they need to modify the .torrent?

If they simply read passing .torrent files and acted as a peer-then-seed, wouldn't they get the same benefit?

Perhaps the problem with that is they want to firewall off non-customer IPs. Would this make them look like a bad torrent peer and so get poor download rates from other peers? If so, couldn't they snag their customer's incoming data blocks to populate their seed?
Couple of points for clarity:

1) It's not just McKubre. The article mentioned dozens of other labs and actually had a peer review done of an Israeli lab. The DARPA report was a review of all of those efforts, not just McKubre.

2) The fact that energy is being created "seems" to be reproducible, just not regularly reproducible. That is, there seems to be a cause-and-effect, but nobody is exactly certain of the cause

3) A theory is not needed for further investigation. In fact, more data is needed in order for possible theories to come out -- that's the process of abduction

It's not "normal" science, but it's obvious that it's the scientific method going on -- we're just at the first stage which is data collection. If the data is anomalous with existing theory, then either the data is wrong or existing theory needs to be modified. That's true whether a new theory is put forth or not.

I'm satisfied that there is something strange enough there to merit further study. Certainly not derision.
>> "jQuery primarily gives developers a generic way to access and manipulate DOM elements (one of the main differences between browsers)."

I just don't get this. There aren't many differences between the browsers these days in terms of js at all. Rendering? sure. CSS? definitely. But js, and dom manipulation pretty much just works. Event handling is slightly different, but not massively.

I really do think the "Allows you to develop cross browser" is vastly overplayed.
I would try my hardest to prevent 9/11.
Fuel is abundant right now, that's a symptom of this crisis.
Rate my web app
Hacker Initials
Famous hacker initials
I'm sure they've double and triple checked this with their legal departments, but this strikes me as being ripe for a lawsuit. If the MPAA (or Israeli equivalent) can prove that the ISP is caching copies of illegal torrents it doesn't seem like there's much to defend in court.
Social entrepreneurship flourishing in India
So how did the man in the van outsmart Microsoft?
By being a patent troll?
Free export controls seminar
Free export controls seminar with David Hayes, expert in the world of export controls. 11 May 2009.
Obama's CTO: Not a Valley Insider, Not a Dev, and That's a Plus
Yeah, let's increase taxes on corporations. I'm sure that the costs won't get passed on to employees. Plus, the government is so much better at spending money than corporations that actually produce something.
Link by Link - Creator of Web Cartoon xkcd Writing a Paper Book
I got 504 Gateway Time-out
The problem is to find the absolutely perfect bug for the task.
"Want to know which processes are usinng disk IO; then what the size of the IO writes is?"

You don't need dtrace for that, or even strace. The IO accounting built into most operating systems will tell you. iotop exposes it in an easy to read form that doesn't require learning a new programming language.

Oddly enough, the last reason I heard for ZFS was intercepting printfs to show SQL calls. Kind of like using MySQLs debug mode, but like the previous example requiring learning a new programming language for no benefit.

It seems many dtrace advocates lack basic system administration skills.

dtrace (and systemtep on Linux) are useful for tracing kernel level issues if you're a kernel developer. Most people pay a vendor to do this.
Try to run 3-6 miles at least 3 times a week + http://hundredpushups.com/ Also try to stretch, but that doesn't always go so well. Yoga makes me crack up laughing.
Some ISPs still run HTTP caching proxies, and some do not allow you to bypass them.
"* I'd also like to write iPhone apps in MacRuby."

Theoretically you could now, around 40 apps in the App Store already use a .CLR bytecode -> native binary compiler produced by Novell as part of Mono. Add IronRuby or IronPython. Serve.

But a) No docs b) I'd rather a native implementation too.
Good programmers are good sysadmins are good programmers
This is probably a good article, but there's no way I can read something with margins like that.
Confluence is a great product and way too good to pass up at $5, done deal!
Yep, in the past I would go through a month of exercise addiction at the gym or pool, then do nothing for the next four months. I've been off-road cycling (mountain biking would be a hyperbole for south-east england) for four years now, non-stop; its a great thing to discover an activity you enjoy so much, and the exercise becomes an added bonus.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. - Alan Kay
I don't think so - there are so many bizarre DOM cross-browser issues out there. In fact, I did a whole presentation (at Yahoo!) concerning this very topic:
http://ejohn.org/blog/the-dom-is-a-mess/
Oracle to buy Sun
Series of articles written by Eric Sink http://www.ericsink.com/scm/source_control.html

He is also currently working a book on the same topic. A lot of his recent articles are about his experiments with various version control systems and are worth a look.
I'd start a bunch of buzzword-heavy .com's and cash out late 1999. Then I'd go into real estate and cash out in 2007. Then I'd retire.
Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems for $7.4B
Yeah that extra tax money they save goes into paying their employees more, expanding and creating new jobs and growing our economy...

Oh wait, this is reality. It actually just ends up in their CEO's pocket which then gets passed on to their kids and other friends in high places. I'm so glad they're not paying taxes and forcing our government to 'waste' that money.
Do not match the colour of shoes and bags
You forget that big business ISP's are in bed with big business MPAA/RIAA-like groups. The only reason ISP's ever side with the consumer is that is who pays their bills and makes them a tidy profit. The day they can figure out how to make both sides happy (and line their pockets with the cash from each) they'll do it in an instant.
Well, not if you (I) don't believe in p-zombies.

If I'm imagining an electron that's also a skyscraper, my brain isn't creating a little one in my head. The fact that I can imagine a thing doesn't mean that it could ever exist as the thing itself. It just means that I'm choosing to assign (possibly contradictory) answers to questions about the thing.

Is it an electron? Y
Is it a skyscraper? Y
So how does that work? ...
So I guess Windows 8 will not be built on Solaris now.
I wonder what this means for the future of MySQL.
I had no trouble reading the article, and did not notice the margins, so I am curious: what is it about the margins that you felt prevented you from reading it?
Where did you see those manhole covers? Its seems a bit over-the-top to manufacture a manhole cover in a weird shape when round or rectangular will do.
Oracle owns InnoDB and Sleepycat/BerkeleyDB, both of which are in active development. InnoDB is also MySQL's most popular storage engine. So I wouldn't fear for MySQL's future. It wasn't doing well in Sun anyways.
This article is severely lacking in detail. Each one of his 'inventions' or creations deserves an article on it's own, and there's almost no explanation on the Microsoft case, his van or any of his other patents.

Where's Wired (and a real journalist) when you need them?
As far as their larger products are concerned, I think that Oracle is a much better fit for Sun than IBM was. Obviously there will be some overlaps in technologies (MySQL vs. Oracle being the big one) but on the whole, I think these companies match together pretty well.

Are there any other huge overlaps in technologies (other than the obvious MySQL/Oracle)?
well, I really hope this doesn't happens.. jQuery IS just a library at the end. There is no magic going on. JS is a functional language where you can fiddle with prototypes so everybody can make arr.each(function(...){..}); and $ is not a special character. And that is all that those examples in blogpost show.
Going back to 1996? With what I know now? I'd try to make a lot less mistakes with the woman I was in love with back then.
Yes, the extra money of _theirs_ that is not taxed does go into growth, or into dividends, or into salaries.

In fact, for a company to be successful, they need to be better at allocating excess cash than their competitors.

CEO salaries are an extremely small subset of the profits companies make.

In fact, since all of the money is so well allocated, it's really impossible to tax a corporation, if you think about it. All you would do is increase their expenses, which would then be passed to their customers. You can't get money from a corporation that doesn't exist in a customer's hands at one point, and taxing companies is just another way of taxing the customers that use them.

I mean really, think this through. Do you really think that the .1% of gross profits that go to a CEO makes one speck of difference in the large picture?
The only thing that comes to my mind is: Someone's had to do it.

But it's still interesting that it's Oracle who did. This brings InnoDB/BDB and MySQL and of course Oracle under one umbrella. Also, Java now 'belongs to' Oracle, as does Solaris, xVM/VirtualBox, etc.

I am curious how and where this will go.
Oracle is as committed as ever to to Linux and other open platforms

How committed is that? Is this the end of free Java, MySQL, etc.?
The Best Things In Life Are Free Except Quality B2B Market
There is no such thing as a free ride but what about free b2b marketing databases? We’re not talking about the free trials, free subscriptions or free sample lists but if a vendor is actually offering a free database of business contacts how much should you trust it?
Where's the herpes come in? Herpes is spread by human contact, is a very common virus (1 in 4/5 depending on who you ask) sooo where's the connection? Is it that simply there's lots of URL shorteners?

Another linkbait article title that fails to live up to it's intention.

My next article headline: Linkbait Article Titles - the Herpes of the blogosphere.
Do you really think that the .1% of gross profits that go to a CEO makes one speck of difference in the large picture?

Interesting... do you have any citations? (I am genuinely curious, not looking to continue an argument.)
I wonder what the implications are for Sun's mobile efforts (Java ME)??
I confess to pulling that one out of my ass.

I'd be curious to see some stats too.

But using common sense (which always isn't so good a guide) can you imagine being a board of directors that approved the CEO making 10 percent of profits? You'd have to be an idiot. (Unless he were also a founder and controlled the board)

Not that boards are very popular right now -- but I don't think they're that dumb.

I came up with that figure using an imaginary $10 Billion company paying their execs in the tens of million range, which seems reasonable to me.
Anatel and the Navy, according to the article.
Two chicks. Oh wait.
A couple years ago I actually wrote a sort of meta language on top of jQuery (sort of a combination between jQuery and Python). http://ejohn.org/apps/jquery2/ Be sure to view the source and look for: script type="text/jquery".
As committed as ever: Oracle will still run on a small selection of RHEL releases. /sarcasm
The jokes write themselves ...

Will our snipers start wearing black turtle necks, designer jeans (with a fake 'worn out look'), drink overpriced coffee products and have a smug sense of superiority now?

...it's still early, that's all I could come up with.

Oh and BTW, the networked soldier idea did not begin with Apple, and will most definitely not end up with Apple.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/what-if-oracle-bo... is now particularly interesting (from 10 days ago).

It argues:

MySQL is a (low-end) complementary product to the (high-end) Oracle DB

Solaris fits into Oracle's strategy of controlling an OS (their RedHat derivative)

Sun's hardware business could continue given Oracle have just partnered with HP to ship hardware

Java is key to Oracle's application strategy

IMHO, this feels like a much less strained fit than with IBM.
A webcast of the conference call is referred to, but I can't find it on Oracles investor website. Anyone know where it is?
The hobby economy
Wow. Interesting, but my gut reaction is "yuck".

In addition to the mysql question, I wonder what it will mean for other open source stuff, like Java, which has been moving in that direction, Open Office, Solaris, etc... Oracle, traditionally, hasn't been a big open sourcer of things, although they were one of the first to give some real legitimacy to Linux by porting to it, some 10+ years ago.

Also, culturally, how will the fit be? Wonder if they intend to keep some of the good bits of Sun and trash the rest or try and run it as a going concern?

Big news in any case.
Mainstream media isn't waking up, they're just trying to find something to write about and are using an effective formula. Take something that is effecting almost everyone (economy woes), and then factor in something that people want (a new career/dream job) and Bob's-your-uncle you got yourself an article that people will read (and you can sell ads on).
Oracle To Buy Sun For $7.4 Billion
Can Visual Attention Truly Be Divided?
Not really. If you caught Frontline this past week you'd see many people staying in crappy jobs just so they (and their family) have health insurance. Sometimes it just isn't the right decision to quit your day job and pursue your dreams when you have people depending on you and your health insurance which for many people isn't even an option in the private market.

If you're healthy, and have no dependents .. sure, it's always the right time.
Betting on the poor boy: Whorf strikes back
This is an awesome deal! I use the free JIRA personal license for my own projects but I will get this license so that I can officially use it for my small business.
Database giant Oracle has agreed to buy Sun Microsystems
"Plus, the government is so much better at spending money than corporations that actually produce something."

I'm not sure how things work in the US, but in some parts of the world the governments actually use the income from taxes to provide valuable services to their population.
Maybe I'm just out of the loop but, this kind of struck me out of left field. All in all, I think this is aimed to keep Oracle competitive with Microsoft outside the database realm. Now, just like MS, they control the Operating System (Oracle's Linux is no match for Solaris), the language, and the database. Plus, they have the added bonus of controlling the hardware too!
"The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion". The value of the failed IBM deal was $7 billion.
this sucks!
My_sql in the hands of Oracle!!
Senseboard: Elegant portable keyboard substitute.
Don't you people watch movies? This never turns out well.

Quoting Jeff Goldblum: "Ooh, aah, that's how it always starts, and then later the running and screaming"
No-one would believe you.
Wow! One blog posting with more relevant pitch data than half the books at Borders. I've already posted this on my bulletin board so that I "Dont Make That Mistake".

I kept stopping to copy, paste, and comment on the good tidbits, but my fingers got tired. Just read the whole thing and digest it.

OK, couldn't resist. My favorite:

He had a real product with real customers and he was proud to show that. That impressed me more than the sophisticated pitches which are high on buzzwords and low on facts and substance.
> The author seems to be confusing about the runtime of a programming language and the power to extend a language.

He wouldn't be the first... Objective-C (the big language of the moment due to its use on the iPhone) was originally designed to be a preprocessor in front of a vanilla C compiler, which reduces most of the syntax additions down to one single library call. (This makes it a strict superset of C, unlike C++, which isn't perfectly backwards compatible with C.)
Adobe deal puts Flash into many of TV-top chips
I really wish it had been IBM. IBM's investment in Java, open source, free tools, etc... has historically been stellar. Oracle, not so much. I would have felt much better about Java's future if it were in IBMs hands.
Adventures with Bioloid
dupe of: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=570502
So will this mean the utter neutering of MySQL development...

or its sale to someplace where it might re-establish its development on the database playing field?
Legend has it, all they did to port oracle to linux was type 'make' -- no source changes whatsoever.

Of course, this is Oracle, so that's most likely marketing...
The irony is they start the article saying...

"Here are the rest of us, from the the family of four having trouble paying for college education to your neighbor just trying to make ends meet, who have to pick up the slack."

I took the one viable example and tested it (The other example, someone who is barely making ends meet, is either spending more than they can afford or is not paying Federal Income Taxes) A familly with 4 dependents making the average salary ($60,0000 each) is only paying 6% of their income in taxes according to H&R Block. While Corporations and their over paid CEOs generally pay close to half their income (provided they aren't cheating)

I'm not saying some rich people and corporations don't cheat. They do and I hope they get caught. But lets not forget the reality which is the high income brackets subsidize the lower ones. Not the other way around.
I wonder what will happen to the Sun Startup Essentials scheme. It's not exactly compatible with the Oracle view of the world.
> There is no magic going on.

What does this mean exactly? No language performs "magic" at a fundamental level. When I first started with programming in the early 80's, the distinction between library and language was just as blurry as it is now. Many of the Basics and Pascals I worked with made graphics drawing primitives language keywords, even though nowadays, these would be considered part of an OS's platform specific libraries. (Logo, in particular, was almost all graphics related keywords.)
the key would be to go back a bit farther so you had large pools of resources way before 09/11. Then use said resources to "plant" evidence of the upcoming atrocity.

But then, you in a cycle, because I am sure there are lots of past tragedies one would want to pre-empt.

Personally I would leave it as it is: harsh as it sounds, tampering with History seems a worrying path to tread...

(no reasons why you couldnt track down Osama - for example - then jump back in time to tell the US forces where he will be at XYZ date to pick him up :))
Google's new captcha method
In the UK, credit cards are very common, and most debit cards are Visa cards too.

I hear that in Germany, credit cards are very uncommon. I think I heard that "International Maestro" is the option that's much better supported there. I'm not sure about the rest of Europe, but I'd love to know too!
MySQL and Oracle excel in different areas. I would expect Oracle to halt any effort to grow MySQL towards Oracle's feature set.

I suspect this is very bad news for Postgresql. Sun is a major backer, but that will likely end. Postgresql's target market already overlaps with the low-mid end of Oracle's, and Postgresql 8.x has been largely about scaling up.
Hopefully they'll throw away less than IBM would have. But the culture clash may be "interesting" to watch.

This may not be a good thing for open source, unless Oracle want to do things a bit differently. Or treat Sun as an independent unit.
Something I'm not getting here... Why not run the thing in a debugger?

E.g. dbx <executable> -> intercept -a -> run
This one statistic, taken out of context is kind of meaningless. Do the remaining 34% pay outsize amounts? It is the same thing with personal taxation, the top 10% accounts for over 70% of the tax base. To make a fair judgment you need to consider more information. Are the 66% of companies not paying taxes the LLC's and S-Corps used by most small business people? Are they not paying taxes because they face losses their first years in operations, or are only marginally profitable?

The thing that always concerns me is that the USA is the second most expensive place to do business in the world, just behind Japan.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/printer/22501.html

It is a complex issue and deserves a full account.
I'm always relieved to see "cooler heads prevail" commentary like this in response to inflammatory headlines. You saved me a headache.
Yup. They rejected IBM's offer for 9.40 a share, but are accepting this one for 9.50 a share. After their stock plummeted for rejecting IBM, I suspect they didn't want to pull another Yahoo.