skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
OpenID is a horrible user experience because it forces the user to set up an account externally to the site they want to visit. This is unintuitive, potentially insecure, and annoying.

OpenID is worse in every way to an internal authentication system. The only advantage is the mere dream of single sign-on, which has yet to come to fruition.
C is the closest, but this is not even a question of security.
I loved it until the zombies became cartoons bouncing off the walls and such. When they were shivering all huddled up together in the dark room, I was absolutely terrified. When they roared and turned into CG monsters, I laughed out loud. And then I was sad, because the entirety of the movie became a farce from that point on, and I wanted it to remain as wonderful as the book or the first film version throughout. It would have been so easy for it to be a masterpiece of the genre...Will Smith was wonderful. But, somehow, the need for the zombies to be superhuman (beyond merely "fast zombies", these were laughable X Men zombies) drove out any sanity and respect for the perfect pacing and dread of the original story.
A DoS is usually trivial to stop. Now a DDoS, that would be impressive. I don't need haproxy to stop a specific request or from a specific ip. The kernel routing tables can do that.
Mentioned in some comment thread, but I just fixed LuckyTubes
(http://www-personal.umich.edu/~swolchok/luckytubes/), my YouTube
search/download/rip tool using youtube-dl and ffmpeg, to correctly rip
the audio stream from the downloaded video without transcoding to 64
kbps MP3 (oops). It's called LuckyTubes because it does a "feeling
lucky" YT search for the terms you type in. Code is at
http://github.com/swolchok/luckytubes/ .

No code for this project, but UmBus (http://mbusreloaded.com/umbus) is
my pet project to let UMich students get the GPS-estimated arrival
times for the uni buses via text messaging. If I weren't so late to
the party, I would try to compete with www.nextbus.com .
Amazon acquires Lexcycle Stanza - iPhone Electronic Book Reader
I didn't downvote the poster above, but it's unfair of him not to address the article and its content, and its make a snide remark about how the author makes his living nowadays. Borderline ad hominem, imo.
route add ip.address.of.offender reject
It has nothing to do with his ability as a lawyer. Rather, his track record is directly related to his progressive stance on copyright. If I lived in Iran, I could be the greatest lawyer in the world and still lose every case in which I argued for pot legalization. Lessig's stances are not as radical, but they are progressive enough to severely impact his judicial record. That's why he's such an important figure; he cares about his ideals, not about winning cases and taking home money.
"they can dump the old system entirely and move to something better"

No... They will move to something newer. It's Microsoft we are talking about.

There is great danger on not making APIs a moving target: competitors like Wine may catch up provide adequate compatibility with stable enough APIs. With a moving target, they have to continuously play catch-up.
I'm actually looking for a new name for my project, so maybe someone here will have a good idea?

It's a framework for writing, running and analyzing simulations. It could take any kind of simulation: Physics, game theory, epidemic spread, electronics, whatever.

It's in Python.

This is where it currently lives:

http://github.com/cool-RR/physicsthing/tree/master

(Keep in mind it's still a very young project)

The readme there was written when I had mostly physics simulations in mind. Now I've generalized the project to take any kind of simulation. I'll update the readme soon to reflect that, but I would really like to find a good name. Maybe something with a suffix or prefix of "Sim", but maybe not.

Anyone has any ideas?
Go to staples and sit down on a few see which one feels comfortable. Make sure it has lumbar support.
The Anti TinyURL: Links become Dickens literature
Out of curiosity is there a "game" to the PocketGod app? Or is it just the island and you knock the tribal guy around a bit?

I have the flight control game and I must say that the developer did a great job on fit and finish. Gameplay is simple but fun and can get pretty hectic. Overall a good showing though.
I'm working on an experimental semantic web browser for Android called Mosembro. The point of the project is to show that semantic meta data can be used to make some tasks much less painful to perform while using a mobile web browser.

Project page: http://lexandera.com/mosembro/
Source code: http://code.google.com/p/mosembro/source/browse/
Why would you not want to issue a take down notice to one of the most well-known IP lawyers out there? Warner isn't doing it to directly profit off of the case, just as they weren't with torrentors. The pittance they got from those settlements was irrelevant. Their goal is deterrent.

I'd bet anything that one of two things are the case. 1, this is some sort of mishap, carried out by an automated program that scans for IP, or some low level employee hired to issue DMCA notices (or the latter in conjunction with the former.) Or 2, the industry has a list of high profile enemies who they've just been waiting for to screw up, and they finally caught the biggest of them doing something their legal minds think has a reasonable shot of being proven a violation of fair use in court.

If it's the latter, I'd do it too if I were them.
Right, that's partially my point. The entire judicial system is still stacked against him. If he takes on Warner and loses, not only does he lose that particular case, it sets a huge legal and cultural precedent AGAINST copyright reform, since he is the figurehead of the copyright reform movement. If he decides not to take on the case, he's not standing up for his own cause.

I'm sorta with you because I'm not 100% convinced that Warner's lawyers really know what they are doing - they might be idiots. However, I'm giving them a 50-50 chance that maybe they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

-edit- See mattmarroon's post - he got my thought better than I did.
Same. I like my Mirra at home much better than the Aeron at work FWIW.
1, this is some sort of mishap, carried out by an automated program that scans for IP, or some low level employee hired to issue DMCA notices (or the latter in conjunction with the former.) Or 2, the industry has a list of high profile enemies who they've just been waiting for to screw up, and they finally caught the biggest of them doing something their legal minds think has a reasonable shot of being proven a violation of fair use in court.

yes, that is what I was trying to say, too. (badly)
Where did you hear that? Second hand from a report written by a financial analyst at Credit Suisse who has no concept of how the internet actually works and who has no actual facts to plug into his equation?
I'm working on an interactive fiction framework with a web framework flavour. It's my first Ruby project and depends on Shoes for cross-platform UI. Defining rooms, items, and non-player characters is done in YAML.

I'm about midway through the project and, as a test and demo for the platform, am converting the 1978 game "Pirate Adventure" to the framework. Once the framework is done my partner and I plan to use it to create an adventure game based on the fashion world. This will inevitably lead to a movie deal and untold riches.

All in all, it has been fun, educational, and a nice break from my day job wrangling Drupal.

The code (so far) lives here:

http://github.com/mcantelon/fashion-quest/tree/master
Apple plots course for middle of mobile (iPad)
I think that the games that are successful on mobile devices are the ones that best understand the platform. A port of an existing PC/console game will invariably be difficult to use or have compromises. Games that are quick, easy to learn and utilise the platforms features are most likely to succeed.

Flight Control is an excellent example of this.
Phusim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phusis
For many native English speakers, the phrase "work the room" will have negative connotations. Often that phrase is associated with people who tend to use their relationships with others primarily as a way to benefit themselves alone. Any benefit to the others in the relationship is strictly secondary, often unnecessary, and sometimes even just a tool for the person to further exploit the relationship to their benefit.

I don't think it is a coincidence that the phrase is very often applied to politicians. In fact, I would venture to guess that politicians are the group this phrase is applied to the most often.

I'm not saying that everyone who "works the room" is a politician, and I'm not saying that all politicians are strictly self-serving individuals (yes, there are some good ones out there). However, there are enough examples of politicians to whom the phrase is applied, that it is often associated with them. There are also enough self-serving individuals to whom the phrase is applied that it helps to give the phrase a negative connotation.

And, obviously, there are quite a lot of individuals who have both the "self-serving" and "politician" categories covered.
That is not as specific and actionable as I would have preferred, but thank you!
Debut for world's fastest camera
Ebay is a decent source if you live somewhere without an active enough Craigslist like I do. You're unlikely to get one below $400 there due to shipping though.

On the other hand, I've used one for 4 years now, and I highly recommend it. It really is that damn good, and if there are two things in life you shouldn't cheap out on, it's a bed and your primary work chair, in that order.
It's a Good Day to Start Hosting for Tips

http://ourdoings.com/2009-04-14

I'm using tipjoy to create an innovative revenue model.
Prism would be cool, although Mozilla already has something with that name.
Articles for grown-ups
I love HN, but can we designate a kiddies pool section where all the childish crap can go, so that grown-ups don't have to wade thru their slops??

Also, a kinda designated pool for f%$kbeams whose heads have disappeared up their assholes would be good, so the grownups don't have to read 'inspired' reatises on, you know, why PHP is officially dead and you'd have to be stoned not to code exclusively in lolcode.

Plz make my wish come true,

Yours,
Lurker at large
It seems like an awfully big gamble given that they could lose. But well argued and written.
Images: The house Steve Jobs doesn't want to call home
Using both MD5 and SHA1 helps very little. If you can find a collision in one, you can find a simultaneous collision for the other as well. (Since both are semi-broken.)

Basically if you use two you are as strong as the strongest one - but NOT stronger.

So it was a gamble of sorts on which one (MD5 or SHA1) would break first. But if both break (as has semi-happened) it doesn't help at all.
I've prototyped a similar concept in Perl (still a bit rough). I think this is a powerful concept.
A shame it is Seattle-only...
Ask HN: looking to meet  Twitter developer in NYC
Hola -- I'm looking to chat about Twitter development with a fellow HN enthusiast in NYC. We can share ideas and skills. I'll pay for the coffee! Drop me a mail:

drc617 [at] gmail [dot] com
This is a load of nonsense, of course. Wikipedia's guidelines for fair use within Wikipedia (which is what the above quotes, unattributed) are not based on any specific legal doctrine about what exactly is fair use.

Suggesting that Lessig violated copyright law because he didn't follow Wikipedia's guidelines is absurd. Here are the criteria that would be tested in court. They are not numeric, they are matters of judgment:

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
I'm working on an interactive US map using canvas. See http://gregstoll.dyndns.org/marriagemap/
This is happening for me sometimes, but it is still sometimes broken. If I try to hit "back" to go from the 2nd video I view to the first video (on plain old reddit.tv), it doesn't work. Otherwise it does. (I'm on OS X FF3)

Back-button support without page reloads is one of the most notoriously difficult features to get working cross-browser....
Wouldn't it be better to modify an existing, popular language to support this feature?
How To Start A Membership Site Just Got Easier Thanks To Yaro Starak
If you want to reduce the risks involved with how to start a membership site then make a plan now to read this powerful free report regarding it.
I suspect that it would be easier (though I don't know how practical) to simply zero the exponent for arguments that are getting upvotes. At least then it doesn't penalize the discussions generally accepted as quality.
Things You Can Do With This New Facebook RSS App
Ok this is a not-so-serious solution Chris Rock proposed to the problem. Potentially NSFW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr8PQDoZXSo
Available name suggestions per bulk name search:
(http://www.dynadot.com/domain/bulk.html)

analyzix.com
datazics.com
physulate.com
runulator.com
simerator.com
simalyzer.com
simzix.com
Previously submitted:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=580209

I see what URL difference kept the HN duplicate detector from noticing this duplicate.
I am working on a Ruby wrapper for the GitHub API. It's called octopi (contraction of octocat and api):

http://github.com/fcoury/octopi

Documentation will be updated here as well:
http://rdoc.info/projects/fcoury/octopi
I haven't seen any cases yet of spammers letting accounts mature before using them. There would be no practical benefit. All the limits depend on karma, not account age.
Right now I'm working on a natural language task management system. Basically you enter something like "12 page paper in project hist201, due apr 23 est. 8h high priority" and it understands what the hell you're trying to say: project, deadline, estimated time, priority. It also checks similar tasks (using naive Bayesian classifiers) and gets you a probability distribution of velocities (estimated / actual / relevance for a word), and supposedly, but I am still working on it, will show you a probability of finishing it on time given past history of similar workload.

The goal is to be able to either Tweet your new tasks, add them in bulk (several lines), or even do something like "http://taskulus.com/12 page paper in project hist201 due apr 23 est 8h high priority" and then receive a lot of analysis.
I've never started on Twitter. I wonder if it has any serious business usefulness that would help my life become better if I used it.
Some common functions that took n arguments used to generate garbage when given 2.
The whole point of his presentation is that copyright law is outdated and illogical.

Whether or not he violates current law from a technical legal standpoint, those samples sited are instances where they shouldn't be illegal.

Those samples were created by other people and he used them as examples of transformative works.
Are you saying that you like talking to people who you have nothing in common with?
Sunday, the swine flu story breaks. On the radio the next morning, it's even bigger. I go in to work, and one person is home sick for the day -- someone I've never known to take a sick day. The next morning he still sounds awful over the intercom, and goes home sick again later in the day.

True story ends. Now the hypothetical:

Tuesday evening, I get a robo-call asking me to press 1 if I know someone with swine flu, and 2 if I don't. I pause for a minute; do I? I didn't ask him directly, though I joked about it in the usual detached office banter way, and I wouldn't expect he'd have got it diagnosed anyway. It probably wasn't serious enough to go to a hospital. But surely it had to be swine flu, right? So I press 1.

I wouldn't do that, but I'm sure many people would.
Printable version: http://www.itworld.com/print/67071

"When electronics brands first decided to go after the women's market, the only thing they could think of was literally making it pink, or more colorful, or thinking of it as an 'accessory,' more than a fully functional tool for a busy woman's life."

LOL. I actually remember when this happened: the pink laptop. Heaven help us.
As a non-specialist, I find putting together a ready-to-own car in a fraction of the time of larger companies interesting. I also find having an extra storage compartment compelling, though I'm concerned about safety and weight concerns with an electric engine.

Seven people in a sedan, though!
Don't most dynamic languages already allow this? I know in python you can reload code.
A gallery of large graphs
Fake Snake (a different way of saying "python simulator" :)
It would be better, but I want to do some cool things that I'm not sure if I can support in an existing language.

One thing is automatically preserving state across a reload. This is really hard if I allow the programmer to store state any way that they want- I can't tell which things I should preserve. So the language forces the programmer to declare their stateful things in a special way.

Another thing is introspecting on code. I want to be able to click an image and then see all of the calculations that went in to that image's position (maybe so that I can change them). But this is pretty hard in most languages. Aliasing makes it hard. So this language discourages operations which are hard to introspect.

So I could theoretically support Ruby or something, but it would turn out to be "not really Ruby", because there would be a lot of stuff you wouldn't be allowed to do.
hahaha that one was good but the chris rock gun control routine is waaaay better http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdJGcrUk2eE
It wouldn't work anyways, people would just make their own bullets.
Wall Street 2.0: The Twitter Script
There's nothing stopping them from using BSD code again, or buying someone else's OS. Apple did both (they bought NeXT for NeXTStep, but NeXTStep had BSD code).
OK, it’s a pandemic. Now what?
Yes, for a known IP address you can use the kernel. HAProxy ACLs can match user agents, URLs, referrers, etc.
> Once again, everyone in the tech industry assumes everyone not in the tech industry is stupid.

To be fair - as far as the law is concerned - this is a learned response. No, lawyers aren't idiots, but there is a history of lawyers and judges making decisions that affect the tech industry and those within the tech industry while clearly not understanding the issues at hand.

> That seems like exactly who I'd want to issue a takedown notice to if I were Warner (...)

True, if Warner knows they have a rock solid case and assuming they know who they were picking a fight with. On the other hand, to date Warner and their ilk have mostly sent out waves of takedown notices on generally unproven issues under the apparent assumption that they will receive little to no push-back. Or at least that's how it seems to me (IANAL).
"Serial Time-Encoded Amplified imaging, or Steam"

How do people come up with these names?!
In Major Shift, Apple Builds Its Own Team to Design Chips
I think one of the reasons that those people who prefer vinyl over digital do so, is that the recordings on vinyl are mastered with different qualities in mind than their digital counterparts. There's a YouTube video floating around called The Loudness War (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ) that describes what I'm talking about.

I distinctly remember albums on audio CDs sounding better to me (great clarity, vibrancy, etc.) back in the early 1990s. Then, somewhere toward the end of the 1990s, CDs just started to sound worse. I blame the trend described in that video. I suspect that vinyl recordings do not suffer from this same tendency toward loudness in the audio mastering process, and that is why you have audiophiles insisting that vinyl sounds better than digital.
Physicsthing 6.2
him tweeting doesn't help him do his job any better. it's just one more thing he doesn't have the time to worry about.

oh, should i solve the world's problems or worry about what insipid little shits think about my moment by moment agenda?

if you want to know what he's working on, watch the weekly update (and be thankful for that). if you want to know is his shoes are fitting snugly or how he likes the crisp new hampshire air, get a fucking life.
For the Storm botnet it'd be on the order of one hour.
How is it spamming when its a place to submit articles? Let the haters hate because thats what they do.
For those interested, this is basically the theory of law professor Cass Sunstein in his book Republic.com. He calls this problem the "daily me," the idea being that content can become too personalized to one's views, resulting in irrationally extreme perspectives on those views and their correctness.

I would recommend the book, and also the numerous criticisms of his theory (that prompted him to partially retract his argument in the second edition), easily found online.

A book? Yes, a book! Go out and stare at a fixed-content display for a while.
tickmarkt at gmail

Sorry Edit its tickmarkt not tickmark
I will never ever understand all the hate for Vista. Excusing the annoyance of UAC, it is their best effort yet. Not without problems. Not without missing features when compared to your favorite OS. Not an incarnation of a perfect OS by an ideal company. But certainly a very functional and reliable product. Maybe my dataset is just too small.

Though, Microsoft just can't do anything right by techies anymore. A comparison to ME? Really? Such fanatical hate.
You're welcome to submit your own things, but it has been said that if you mostly submit your own things and no one votes them up that you should try submitting something different.
My theory is by letting the house rot, he is battling the historic registry people. The house will be demolished by nature, the point rendered moot.
Joseph, thank-you for ending on a high note (I was beginning to second-guess my post)!

It's nice to hear a professional designer's perspective for a change. I adore the Tesla roadster and especially what the company has done to show what is possible when the rest of the auto industry claims it's impossible, but I agree that some of the marketing material that comes from them tastes over-sweet.

...which is unfortunate, because the work almost lives up to the prose.

Thanks again for your thoughtful response.
Working on a messaging client that integrates Twitter and GTalk... And I mean really integrates. The end user doesn't know the difference between IM and twitter but the context in which the user sends a message decides the service to use. It's C# and WPF.

http://github.com/jcbozonier/alloy/tree/master
I'm writing my own compiler and designing my own programming language, just like everybody else!

Practical, no. Fun, YES.
Yeah, I'm not at all convinced that it is infringing.

1. It can definitely be argued that it is for an educational use, and I can't think of any valid argument that it is for a commercial purpose.

2. It's a user created music video, so he has a case here.

3. Warner might have a good argument here. Lessig did use about 50s of the song.

4. I really don't see Lessig's presentation as having a useful replacement for the song.

Lessig starts playing a lot of copyrighted material around 9 minutes into the presentation to illustrate remixes.The Muppets song is played at about the 11.00 min mark. The presentation is about 50 minutes long, so I really doubt that his purpose was to violate copyright law or to even play a specific song.