skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
If their response is 'why', then the blogger is completely right and the standards body has no clue how the technology that the standard prescribes is used. The 'why' is simple, even if we only look at colors: every stylesheet contains the same colorcode over and over again, because good design requires coherent use of colors. Now you could make a style class called 'green', but I don't think I should have to go into the reasons why you just do not ever bloody want that. A proper stylesheet is bound to repeat a colorcode. A second solution is generating your CSS, but then you need a new standard defining a proper way to tell your CSS generator which elements should have the same color, which pretty much ends up being CSS with variables.

If they, and Bos, have any clue about what they are doing, they should tell us how to solve this problem, instead if asking the inane question you put in their mouths. What Bos comes up with in his essay is basically 'search-and-replace' and other 'tooling'. Well, why don't we just drop variables in our programming languages as well? We can just 'search-and-replace', can't we?
Au contraire; congratulations on a great hack.

I think a lot of us have had this one cooking in our minds for a while and its great to see that somebody got it Done.

Bravo.
This is just dead on. Microsoft shouldn't be encouraging people to seek refuge from the OS somewhere else. If Windows 7 Starter Edition is basically just going to allow you to launch a browser, why not use Linux? Linux can use most of the same web applications that Windows can use (save for a less-than-stellar Flash implementation).

Microsoft: your turf is the OS. Many people (myself included) still like the OS. If you cripple it so badly, the web will look a lot more attractive and that just won't be good for you in the long-run.

I'm still hoping that Microsoft is more just testing the water around this limitation than seriously considering it.
Don't you think that engineers and mathematicians also benefit from having uninteruppted time? Time to think, plan, retrospect, introspect? I think this would be true with any mental line of work.
Here's their actual detailed breakdown for the curious:
http://www.isuppli.com/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=20138
My college friends and I on The Rasterbator ( http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/ ) to decorate our walls.

It's an attractive enough effect, and worked especially well in the era of low-res photos and students with spare laser printer account funds.
you don't fully use blueprint though, which is whats causing the problem :p

#statusnav's parent is a blueprint block, but its breaking for me in the transition from #statusnav's parent div to the #stati table, which isn't blueprinted.
if you want to compare yourself to someone competent with an IDE, you better be a wizard
Good point the stations could certainly split the water. I was under the impression that fuel cells to have range comparable to gasoline. Here's a wired blog about Toyota's fuel cell claims: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/06/516-mile-range.html
One very nice thing about this that I wasn't aware of before is that following this procedure disables the little green light in the caps lock key... BONUS!
Can Git be made to handle binary files as nicely as [Dropbox](http://getdropbox.com/) does?

On [one](https://www.getdropbox.com/tour#3) of the pages from their tour, it shows how if you save a 10 MB PSD to Dropbox twice, it shows you a table with a row for the original file and another row for '400 extra bytes' or whatever.

> Dropbox is also smart with how it tracks changes to files. Every time you make a change, Dropbox only transfers the piece of the file that changed (also known as block-level or delta sync), making it easy to work with big files like Photoshop or Powerpoint documents.
My Commodore-64 was instant-on.

The entire concept of "booting" is idiotically obsolete. RAM should be treated as nothing more than a cache of disk, and only a single 0..N byte address space should be visible to software. The acts of software installation and loading into memory become identical. A 1960s mainframe was organized like this. Why aren't modern PCs? Orthogonal persistence is entirely logical and trivial to implement in hardware.
I've coined a phrase for a powerful phenomenon that's purely imaginary er I mean theoretical. Embrace my meme immediately.
http://www.imaginationgames.com/
I'm sorry if this is a redundant question on HN, but what did you use to create the graphs?
As has already been stated, your layout needs work. Looks like you've got a table (gasp!) that is not clearing the floated status bar content or something.

The layout is extremely simple, I think you are overcomplicating it by using a "blueprint". It's just a bunch of content the flows linearly down the page, no need for floats or anything fancy.
Why bother with memcached persistence, let the hardware do it
Guido van Rossum - Tail Recursion
I'd expect some games that had to be played with release engineering. If the code is properly modularized, this could be two separate processes where you develop your module with mock data and then deploy it into production. Is the opinion really that all the current IDEs suck - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualc/default.aspx , http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/ , http://www.netbeans.org/features/cpp/ , http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html and all the 2nd tier as well? Maybe I am too deep into Java and eclipse, but it seems there are genuine advantages to using IDEs and C++ is similar enough to java that at least for some subset, such a tool could be created. If not, that certainly seems like a market...
Someone's come up with a One Instruction Set Computer for this purpose -- to enable reconfigurable arrays of small processors for massively parallel signal processing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_instruction_set_computer
The table should just be contained, though, right? I guess not. That seems to fix it. Don't understand why it's completely broken in one place and works fine in another, and of course it's frustrating to not even be able to test these things easily across different systems. Thanks again for the tip.
Because your programming language is a programming language, and CSS isn't? There's no part of this feature that couldn't be accomplished using a CSS templating system. You might as well ask why HTML5 doesn't include all the features of Cheetah or Erb.
They're from AppViz. It's an application for the Mac that parses App Store reports and generates graphs/etc from them.

http://www.ideaswarm.com/products/appviz/
A BBC B+ 128KB. I learnt BASIC and Pascal on it.

It had OS, BASIC, Assembler and DFS in 48KB of ROM and booted in one second. When PCs came along, they seemed like step back.
The key will be how these "applications" are counted and how the restriction is enforced. If it uses operating system primitives such as processes and threads, it's going to be messy.

Imagine if you had IE, Word and Outlook open, tried to copy a file and received a "Sorry, that's too many applications!" message...
Were they still planning on having on-seatbelt airbags that deploy in the event of a crash? Or have they adopted more traditional airbag configuration?
"I view Linux as something that's not Microsoft -- a backlash against Microsoft, no more and no less. I don't think it will be very successful in the long run... My experience and some of my friends' experience is that Linux is quite unreliable. Microsoft is really unreliable but Linux is worse. In a non-PC environment, it just won't hold up...."
Glad I asked, AppViz looks like an excellent tool. Thanks!
This sounds like the type of software in the App store that can set a high price and supply a free version. How about a $14.99-ish price and a free version that does everything but stamps it with a watermark? It's a perfect demo which shows the full functionality yet the users will not be able to use it without paying.
My vote for Best App of 2009 - Tonido
those graphs look really similar to the protochart defaults

http://deensoft.com/lab/protochart/index.php
Imagine what he must think today!
if you're going to use blueprint or any css framework, you need to use it 100%. or as much of 100% as you can. otherwise, it won't be able to do its own job.

and, yeah, such is the life of the web developer/designer. i have 12 browsers installed on my windows box.
Forget the YC companies...almost anyone who has started any kind of business will tell you that it's a lot of work.
"Linux is just a toy OS and will never be used in business critical environments" - popular opinion in 2000.
My main point was more about how nonprofits judge ROI and donor relationship value and I only included Aaron's post as an interesting link that wasn't included in the Post piece.

I can say from my experience working with nonprofits that Aaron's account definitely passes the smell test of what many organizations have experienced (including those that raise a lot of money online through other channels).
It seems like it would be a natural equilibrium for it to be a lot of work unless it's something where it's basically impossible to not work a lot. If person A works 5 hours a week, and person B does 20, even if person B only gets twice as much done as A, there's still twice as much going into the business. I guess there are outliers, where someone gets really lucky and manages to stumble on to some sort of very easily defensible barrier to entry, but that's not the norm.
I hate these kinds of blog posts, because they make it sound like starting a business isn't about risk or hard work anymore. Supposedly, the advent of technology has made succeeding at your own company so easy that anyone can do it. You don't need to write a business plan, get an MBA, or even have any experience. Furthermore, you won't even need to work hard at it!

The problem is that the barriers to entry don't just drop for you...they drop for your competitors too. So now it's even harder to compete within a given market because of the sheer volume of competition. You may find cases at the edge (37signals' home and soapbox) where money, risk, hard work, a plan, education, experience, and connections didn't matter, but they're complete outliers. You're probably better off playing the lottery.
Thanks for your comment. I had never heard of record linkage and reading up on it has been very useful to me.
Oh my god, I can almost see some noir company disabling Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V on programmer's laptops.
A CSS templating system, that is just CSS extended with the possibility of symbolic constants, adding an extra step to the build process. One implementation I've seen used is using ant to replace the constants by their values. It's not hard, but that's exactly the point: it's also simple for Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation, the KDE project, Apple, etc. to implement. I agree you shouldn't start adding real variables whose value can change halfway the CSS, variable scoping or, god forbid, if-then constructs. That doesn't mean simple constants should also be ruled out. I think that's throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
It is only April 2009. There are 8 more months of app development!
It will be great if they make it for the iPhone. OS 3.0 now has support for external peripherals in the SDK.
I'm not sure I see why:

"adding another step to the build process"

is worse than

"permanently standardizing one group's notion of what variables should look like when less than 1% of all web applications use any form of CSS templates"

I don't have to agree with Bos that high-level stylesheets are a bad idea (I don't; I think they're a great idea) to agree with him that we shouldn't be inflicting them on everything that renders or interprets styled HTML.

And hey --- for what it's worth --- I can see how Bos didn't do his argument a big favor by writing an essay-length rant about why variables are a bad idea. I think he raises some good points. For instance, have these proposals really thought scoping through, and have we really thought about how this will impact authorship tools? But these aren't the reasons we shouldn't be in the business of standardizing the idea.

On the other hand, Matt's argument is just as wrongheaded. It is absolutely not the case that standards groups should be rushing to alleviate web developer pain. Like I said, if they took that approach, we'd be stuck with QuickSilver templates, baked permanently into the HTML standard.
I think you're overestimating the difficulty of developing on the command line.
I wouldn't be so sure on not seeing much Starter.

Microsoft needs the Starter edition to sell to Netbook manufacturers at a price point they'll accept, which is already more than supported Desktop Linux distributions cost (from say Canonical or Xandros).

The specs of Netbooks are at the moment restricted by the discounted-XP licensing arrangements from Microsoft (single core Atom processor, 1GB ram, certain size screen.. etc..).

Those restrictions can't stay in effect indefinately and what with the pace of semiconductor development, we'll see dual-core processors with a couple of gigs of ram inside the same price/power ratios we've used to with the current generation of Netbooks.

It's really lose-lose for Microsoft in terms of Netbooks not cannibalising their existing notebook OS profit.

They can't charge more than the $15 or so they're currently charging for XP, for Windows 7. OEMs are gaining more experience with integrating Linux with their hardware and they'll use this as leverage.

They can't restrict the specs of machines for much longer, or you'll be able to buy a low-spec Netbook running XP or a far faster Linux-based one for essentially the same price. Not a good outcome either.

If they don't restrict the specs, they need to restrict the software and hope they can convert the customers up to a more expensive version of Windows.

I personally think the last strategy, despite potentially playing in to Google and Linux's hands, is their best one. The outlook really doesn't look good though.
Um, around town? I don't know if this would cope with the hills of San Francisco, but the reason I don't own a car is that I rarely go past the city limit. Of course this is useless if you live in the country or some sleeper town where you face a long commute to work. Fine, it's not aimed at those markets, any more than city dwellers are the prime market for full-size pickup trucks. Sheesh - they even call it a 'neighborhood electric vehicle'.

I do think the graphic design of the thing is sheer genius. If the price is right and things are sufficiently maneuverable, then great. Not so smart, however, was choosing the same name as a poorly-perceived grocery delivery service: http://www.peapod.com/
Thats true. May be she is right you know :)
Mr Blank must have gotten confused and deleted my comment asking him to delete his post.
let us vote for the application of the year 2009. probably too early. thats ok.
Emacs ftw.
Digg's New DUI.Stream and MXHR
Right. You don't need a particularly sophisticated database to serve the workloads required by a typical website, even a popular one.
I remember witting mathematical proofs for quicksort... If we treated it more as an engineering/mathematical problem I believe we would have less bugs, but it will take MUCH more time so instead we rely on calling ourselves writers and artists so we can throw crap on the wall and hope to make some $$.
Emailing to your Kindle means going through Amazon still; to convert and over whispernet to your Kindle.
I disagree with you for the same reason that Apple doesn't allow their OS to run on any hardware but their own. It's a user experience decision. I'm willing to believe that Microsoft put plenty of testing into Windows 7 on suboptimal hardware and determined that performance suffers with more than 3 applications open. I can't cite it at the moment but recall the Google study that compared user satisfaction with response time versus number of results. If it's significantly slower, users will be more unhappy with it and will probably blame Windows and not their applications or hardware, regardless of the reason (this is conjecture, I'll admit, but conjecture based on personal experience with people who blindly hate Windows).

In the end, if they limit the number of open programs to three, it's very possible that users will look more favorably upon the performance/stability of Windows 7.
> such is the life of the web developer/designer

The thing that drives me nuts is that it has been the life of the web developer since I started doing this in 1997. I'm sick of things working in one place and not in another.
Ask HN: Review My Friend Connect Gadget: Get Answers
Just a Friend Connect gadget that lets webmasters add a basic Question/Answer capability so site members can ask/answer questions, vote, etc.
HN, help me identify the next features to implement. I'd like to keep this very simple and still create value for site owners and their visitors.

You can also view the gadget sample site here: http://fcgadgets.appspot.com/travel.html

You're all awesome. Thanks!
Why would MS put even more resources into an OS that they're selling for less than the full versions? The app limit is probably very easy to implement and therefore doesn't cost a ton, thereby allowing them to license the starter version for cheap.

I do agree however that an app limit is silly, however I can't see MS doing a 'Firefox' project to create a lean version of Windows that they'd sell cheap. Doesn't make business sense.
What is the best CSS book?
I'm wondering, what is your favorite CSS book? The one that was the most clear and helpful.
This article is completely untrue.
Lets apply this to the Netflix algorithm to win the big prize.
Big Entertainment Wants to Party Like It's 1996 (Cory Doctorow)
Thanks to spydez for the one-page version, btw... original was broken up in 8 pages!
Consulting gigs are funny. Some dont let you pee without an escort (literally), others, like this one, turn over the keys to the crown jewels. If I say it will be 2x cheaper there will be no problem. The only stumbling block is that the owner really likes the part implemented in flex and I am a little reluctant to continue with a proprietary system. Any views either way?
Capital Factory incubator chooses five startups
Sure, but what hardware do rich internet apps drive purchases of?
Not sure if this fits the bill, but your comment reminded me of it:

http://www.cellmatrix.com/entryway/products/concepts/intro1....
You may be right in saying they haven't learned much from Vista, but I think your 'just have two versions' argument is overly simplistic.

Today MSFT sells Windows Home/HP for $x to lots of OEMs, who don't like paying that price, but don't have much choice, as their users 'want' Windows (want='think they want, because they dont know anything else'). OEMs say to MSFT 'we wont pay $x for Windows on netbooks, it's too expensive, sell it to us for $y'. But if MSFT sells Windows for $y for any PC then they lose $(x-y).(# of non netbook PCs), which would massively hit their share price TODAY. They can't do that, so even though they know that one day they will have to give up the $x price they do what they can to keep that price as long as possible (aka cash-cows are for milking, not slaughtering). So they invent a new product, that no self respecting OEM would sell on a decent PC, slap a $y price tag on it, and say to the netbook buyers, 'there you go, a version of windows for $y', while they keep selling the main version for $x. The fact that that version sucks is painful for MSFT, but not as painful as selling all Windows for $y for all PCs, nor as painful as being seen to do nothing in the netbook market.

Summary: this isnt about MSFT being dumb, its about MSFT keeping their cash-cow alive so that the share-holders don't slaughter them today, even if it may be bad for long-term (~5 years) shareholder value. (x >> y)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_(business) is generally accepted.
Virtualization is 'the new mainframe,' VMware says
I'm really not. I've done both. IDEs were created because they make it more efficient to write code, do you really think this whole line of technological development was a mistake? Even a 10-20% decrease in time on average is huge.
You are, at the very least; in the upper quartile of technical ability of Kindle owners. You underestimate what the typical user is able or interested in. It's not that they couldn't figure it out if motivated. But mostly just that they can't be bothered.
The Tandy Model 16, a desktop Unix workstation with a 68000 processor that was also backward-compatible with the Z80-based Model II (much like Playstation backward compatibility, it incorporated all the old hardware into the new design). In 1981 not many companies were producing Unix workstations that fit on a desktop; the only competitors that I know of in this space came from a small startup called Sun Microsystems. :)

Anyway, I learend to program C on that old thing. And I owe much of my orientation towards Unixoid operating systems on it.
Exactly, it's a psychological problem. When opening your wallet means searching for your credit card number, you probably won't. When it means 2 clicks and 2 key presses, then maybe it's different.
That is not true. If that were true, I would have gone straight to bit torrent instead of straight to iTunes, and then google shopping.

What I don't want to do is go looking for it at the store or wait on shipping. I want to get it digitally.
Looks like Guido pulled the article? It's not coming up for me, and there's only one (non-tail-recursion) article in the archives for April.
Unfortunately, the demand for software far outstrips the number of people able to create software mathematically. Additionally, domain applications demand domain knowledge which is even rarer among the mathematical software creators.

For large classes of problems, software should not be written mathematically -- it's not efficient.
What's your involvement with Tonido?
IE8 actually creates a pool of subprocesses which may or may not be used on per tab basis.

"It turns out that the vast majority of all IE sessions contain three or fewer tabs. Accordingly, in Beta 2 we try to give users three efficient tab processes. This is contingent on the user’s computer capabilities, but the more capable a computer is, the more processes we will use, up to a point. Adding more processes gives users much better isolation in the event of a failure. If each tab is in its own process, websites are completely isolated from each other."

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/07/28/ie8-and-reliabil...
Clearly spoken by someone who's never seen Visual Studio.
Me and my crazy hacker skills... finding the "print" link. :P
I believe that the limit is on the number of "tasks" being performed. If you open Task Manager, there are two tabs: "Tasks" and "Processes". This basically limits the number of application top-level window, but not the number of processes or task bar entries.

I don't know anything about how this works, but I'd assume for any level of backwards compatability at all, it has to be an extremely weak restriction.
Much obliged for your comment. It's comments like this one, and others I have received that drive me to more hacking :-)
EU Nears Antitrust Fine for Intel
Create your own Virtual Private Network for SSH with Putty
Bulletproof Web Design is the only CSS book I have liked enough to buy so far. Hopefully, our peers have other suggestions. I would like to learn more.
Feel Like Shaking A Baby To Death? There’s An App For That.
It's odd how the development on the linux-based moblin operating system is not mentioned as this boots up in 13 sec on regular hardware and up to 5 seconds using a solid state disk.