skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
That's a 'lol', I never suspected.

Maybe it's more indicative of the types of statements we've come to expect here, at least I've read a few things here over the past week or so that have left me puzzled about the community, so your dry statement seemed a bit more like par for the course.
i'm a developer on 13in macbook. i run full width.

my husband is not a developer or tech-savy and he runs ff partial width of 17in macbook. (75% i'd guess?)

as for the feedback button on the side of pages: it annoys me. whatever. a good product has users that really hate it and really love it.
New Amazon EC2 competitor - SoftLayer launches CloudLayer
The guy simply bought a lemon. It happens. It says absolutely nothing about the rest of the Mac line (as I've had several Macs). While I have had some frustrating experiences, they've been pretty rare; like 3 in over a decade.

When I did have serious Mac problems, it always ended up being the hardware; something easily replaced, like bad RAM. It says something when you learn to suspect hardware problems because the OS itself is so solid.
Mike also released code on to GitHub: http://github.com/mmalone/django-caching and http://github.com/mmalone/django-multidb
Once Twitter has a business plan in place (which they do supposedly but just not executed) they stand to possibly take a cut of every one of their client's profits (depending on the model of course).

No tangible goods. What to profit on? Secret business plan that earns money from every one of their clients' eyeballs? Statement is vacuous.
the simplest mistake is not getting 10 or so family and friends to look at your site and watching what they click first/where their attention goes. This will suss out 90% of UI problems.
Mimivirus blurs boundaries between viruses and living cells, between living and dead.
Where can I get this video?
Good advice. I would suggest that the OP also encourage users running IE6 to upgrade.

You might want to take a look at the IE6 Update code (http://ie6update.com/) for ideas.
US bullying dozens of countries into following the DMCA model
Well, envisioning the souce of most blogging engines, the actual post source text probably goes something like this:

blah blah blah after the jump<!--jump--><img ...

which is then split at the <!--jump--> comment, and the first part shown on the main page + feeds, while the entire thing is shown on the permalinked page. Rearranging it to eliminate your quarrel would require replacing <!--jump--> with a little SSI-like <!--if fullpage--><!--else--><!--endif-->, which is a lot more complicated for not much reward.
That's a dangerous statement ;-)
We're looking for a graphic designer to help us win the Techcrunch50
Hi folks,
We are a startup company in stealth mode and we're working to win the Techcrunch50 (www.techcrunch50.com). To win, we need the creative talents of a graphic designer to help us out. It's about six weeks work, starting now. We don't have a cash budget but we can "pay you forward" (see job ad). It doesn't matter where you are located. Here is the job ad http://www.seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?JobID=15352696
I'm aware that finding a designer without payment is a challenge but we want to change the world and we need to be relentlessly resourceful to get there. We'd love to hear from you.
Andrew
dukedougal@gmail.com
> ... calculating the average (or arithmetic mean) of a stream's integers takes three registers and three operations per integer. One register counts the elements, another records their sum, and the third register holds the value of the average, calculated as the quotient of the sum and the count.

Here's an easy brain teaser: do the above using only two registers.
There are only so many big mistakes, and they've been long covered by the major blogs. If you're still reading "blah blah web UI mistakes" articles in 2009, expect petty annoyances that cover few sites.
Not that I am aware of, but an iPhone app would be a great addition.
I would go as far as saying "pretty much everyone but Mac users".

Of course, then I would be just as guilty of generalizing without any hard data as the author of the article.

ARE there any numbers on this?

Edit:

Here's a report from 2000:

http://www.evolt.org/article/Real_World_Browser_Size_Stats_P...

And another from 2006:

http://www.baekdal.com/reports/Actual-Browser-Sizes/actual-b...
Just because they sell devices now, does not mean they can't or won't start selling other stuff such as services (they already provide iTunes which is more of a service). Also they used to be a Computer company which turned in to a Devices + Computer. Their just spreading their wings a bit further.

Regarding your comment about IP, I doubt they do have any kind of protection, I mean their technology is trivial at best. But the value of Twitter lies within it's user base and adoption level, that momentum is hard to beat.

I am not a big fan of Twitter or Apple, but I can definitely see a interesting potential with the two combined (imagine integrated twitter in ipod and other wireless devices). iTweet?
Valleywag going to stop printing variations

When they cease to generate links, buzz, and pageviews.

I note that this story is currently #1 on a social news site for fairly discerning people...
<psa>
I've been an ER nurse for years, and the most rewarding times of that career have been when I can work my tail off to keep a donors body going long enough to harvest the organs. Donors give an amazing and precious gift to dozens people. I've cared for both donors and recipients. It's a beautiful and amazing thing. Think about it and talk to your family about it.</psa>
Interview With Eric Reis On Lean Startups
How is this particularly different from a paid GitHub account? Now that they have issue tracking, it's pretty much a one-stop shop.
There is a difference between applying your core competencies to different markets, and just expanding. Apple has been good at limiting their growth to the former. When they do expand into unfamiliar areas (like with iTunes), they make sure they contribute to the bottom line (through increased iPod/iPhone sales).

There are already good Twitter applications for both the Mac and the iPhone. Apple gains nothing, and loses $700 million.
Notice that 'most' refers to 'popular' not 'advanced'. So, the point I believe you were making has nothing to stand against. MySQL is very popular and is also advanced.
A UK newspaper website?

But seriously, if the company is making no revenue, that sum is just for the user base. So how much does that make the value of every user? (does anyone have a current user count for twitter? I could only find figures from February but I imagine its much higher now.)
Solution: http://www.virtualbox.org/ (assuming you have a licensed copy of XP)

Free chicken... should be worth the effort.
haven't tried it, so i can't comment on specifics, but here's some tips that may or may not be relevant

you're going to have to make graphics out of the tiles, and make them visually appealing (rounded edges, 3D shading, etc).

fluid animations and sounds for your "moves" will be necessary. and background music or mp3 jukebox pulling from users itunes or whatever would also help
Debugging and Testing the Web with Firebug
Looking at their S3 competitor, I can't seem to find any documentation on how you actually place data onto their storage system. They mention WebDAV, FTP, and "API", and Blackberry/iPhone applications. I couldn't find any more details than that.
i suggest exiting "stealth mode" to get better response results. basically no one is going to outbuild you on your idea in 6 weeks, and really if you're not able to pay people, what they have to go on is the strength of your proposal. which is kind of vaporous unless you just come out and tell people what it is.

good luck on your quest, gents
> You have to install a coupon printer to get the coupon.

I didn't have to install anything. I just clicked through and got a plain ol' PDF. It printed just fine using the default PDF viewer in Ubuntu.
"get over it."

Why is this getting voted up? The guy's not sobbing and there's no harm in using hyperbole.

Dustin is a very talented designer, and I'm sure he runs into this sort of stuff all the time through the work he does, so it makes sense that these details are more visible and have a greater effect on him than they would with any normal viewer.
Ask HN: What has been your experience using nootropics?
If you could comment about which substances have you used, and the ways in which have been affected by them (positive and negative).
I highly doubt this is real - and if it were I'd be extremely disappointed in Apple. $700M is better invested in a lot of technology that will get them real gains, as opposed to buying a service that is neither profitable nor in possession of any technology that can't be replicated in-house for cheaper.

So at best they're buying the brand - which is still nothing near household, and I would argue worth a lot less than the quoted price tag.
They have around 25m users according to TC. that makes it about $28 per user. Which is alright, I have seen higher numbers per user.
Nice, so it looks like reality is exactly the opposite of what the author claims. Thanks for finding the data!
When you're doing what you love, you'll have fun and you'll succeed.

The first time I heard "You have to find your bliss," it sounded like new-age claptrap to me. It took time to sink in - the way I understand it now is that someone who is dedicated to an idea will put in his blood, sweat, and tears; and they'll probably have a great time to boot. That extra dedication will lead to success, not in a mystical laws-of-attraction way, but in a concrete, practice-makes perfect way.
What about beamed power? With the power of modern electric motors, freed from the burden of carrying the batteries or fuel, there would be a tremendous gain in efficiency.
I honestly do not enjoy the B&H store at all. Possibly I'm just a misanthropic introvert, but I find it much more pleasant to stick to the website. Too loud, too crowded.
> I just feel kind of annoyed that the replies seem to suggest I was stupid in not mentioning the hotspot idea.

I didn't mean anything personal, and I don't read any of the other comments that way.

The other comments may have just been voted up by people who also like Lua or Mercurial, or something. I thought it was worth noting that Lua was explicitly designed for that style of development. (Lua's also my favorite language.)
ugh… another article filed with anecdotal evidence about how x sucks compared to y.

The internet is a trash heap and its article like this that have made it that way.
Interesting. I'll update my post. Also, hilariously...

http://dustincurtis.com/screenshots/Actual_Browser_Sizes_%28...
Can you explain why you say that? Are you in a position to know or do you just think it unlikely?
Definitely a far cry from Basecamp's intuitive design. Although, this may evolve into something worthwhile in it's own respect, as ActiveState's Komodo Edit is my editor of choice: it's fast, free, extensible and open source. In it's current state 'ActiveState Workspace' doesn't seem like much, but I'm interested to see how it evolves.
Apple Newton 2. I used to have one of those.
Thanks for the explanation. Because of aggregators I hardly ever see the front page of blogs anymore.
What this blog appears to be taking three posts to get to and previously on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=478632
What you've done is far worse than those. I run at a healthy 1280x1024px

And ye gods the whitespace. The actual content takes up less than 50% of the screen width.
Absolutely. Great ideas never die.
I'd add to the margin issue that 3 column websites (besides being a mess in general) are basically unusable without excessively wide browser windows.
Seems that "%s will buy Twitter for $%d00m!" stories have already generated more collective revenue (for news sites etc) than Twitter itself ever had.
There's still some crucial information missing from this press release (prices and API) but from the information that is there CloudLayer looks like more of competitor to Slicehost and GoGrid than EC2. There's a big difference between launching a server in <60 seconds (EC2) and 5 minutes (CloudLayer).
URL page metadata made easy with help from Earl
Man I can't wait until we can put a bunch of stem cells on scaffolding and reactivate certain embryogenic pathways to grow organs. Maybe even faces, though what you'd get is a baby face.
Why the hell?
I mostly agree with you, but Twitter has become a household name. CNN, FOX, and all the other news shows just love to toss in a comment about Twitter when it's even slightly relevant.
Free dinner from KFC
This would be a brilliant move. Apple is flush with cash so 700m is cake. The will come out with a new twitter client that pushes GPS, photo/video support, and long form tweets over 3G.

Once this happens they can identify news events in real-time. A surge in tweets from a local area dynamically creates news stories. Accident on the 101? I get photos and video within minutes. The ultimate glocalized news service.

Apple ran over top of the established music industry and they are about to do it the news too.

If this goes through go crazy on AAPL.
The rendering engine in linux is already a separate library/process, but it still locks up when loading javascript-heavy sites.

Still, I hope this will improve performance.
Ask Freelancers: How much do you charge?
I'm a student and I've been doing some freelance iPhone dev work between my coursework. I'm still an emerging developer, and I'd like my rate to be set accordingly, but I don't know where to start.

How do you calculate the rate to charge for contract/freelance work? How does it vary with web development versus iPhone versus sysadmin stuff? Per hour or a fixed amount for the project?

Thanks.
Sorry, I wasn't very clear.

The things selected for inclusion on a Google Maps tab are an editorial choice. I'm suggesting they are analogous to a "recommended book list" -- a subset of all the available books that a librarian has chosen to highlight. Just as being listed in Google's index is analogous to being shelved in the library. (Surely, no one here is suggesting that anything be removed from Google's index.)

Clear now?
Most popular websites around the world... that you’ve never heard of
I thought about that but there are still too many times when I have to do things at the command line like:

mplayer -dvd-device Barbie\ Goes \To \The \Beach/barbie.avi -mouse-movements dvdnav://

Which is kind of inconvenient to do with a mouse. Maybe there's a reasonable way to achieve the same goal (in other words, an alternative to mplayer that doesn't suck) with a gui, but I don't know about it. I'd be willing to crouch in front of the TV with a wired keyboard if it was just for occasional admin work.
The article is NOT accurate. I am a happy owner of Dell laptop with Vista - and the guy insulted those two things :)

Seriously, I think its a matter of personal preferences.I am using my dell/vista 10-14 hours a day, restart maybe once a week/fortnight and have problems once in a while,

But hey, I am a developer myself, I know the process of software development too well to complain about anything sofware/hardware related. It's just the way it is.

And I think it's a bit lame to expect something that guarantees you flowless experience whatever you do. A computer is a bit more complex than a calculator. It gives you more power and more freedom and eventually more ways to break things.
It's an important lesson not to feed the trolls. Some people have way too much free time on their hands. Anyone wanting to remain productive cannot fall into the flame war trap.
The telegraph is very credible in my book but this story is so difficult to believe. Too random and nonsensical.
This doesn't take into account wider resolutions such as 1920x1200 which is what I've been running at for years. My browser takes up 2/3 of the screen and only 3/4 of that space is actual viewable page. Having it wider than that is generally unnecessary and a waste of space.
Agreed. I would rather wait it out and see what exactly makes Twitter worth $25+/user. Unless some obscure Apple genius has the white matter to figure out how to better use Twitter.
Not to mention The White House, the CDC, etc.
This is awesome. I was getting ready to migrate us to EC2 for the reserved instance savings, but we're already with SL so it might be cheaper to stay if they're offering monthly plans (which is basically like reserved). Can't wait for pricing info!
Pearls From Multiple Languages
The Hypervisor of my Dreams: A Virtual Wish List
What salary would you make coming out of college? Figure out what that is hourly. Multiply it by 3.
I really don't understand what value people see in Twitter as a news service. Do I really need to find out about something right when it happens as opposed to 5-10 minutes later? How can I even find out about things without wading through tons of crap? I doubt that the frequency of messages from a certain area would accurately surface events of note. Processing the text of the messages could help, but it still wouldn't be a service anyone would want. I bet there are surges of tweets for all sorts of random stuff that no one cares about, so if they're sending me a text whenever there's a surge, I'm going to end up turning it off pretty quick.

Editors are valuable. Gaining a five minute head start on news is next to worthless, and the signal to noise ratio will make it far worse than just signing up for breaking news text messages from an actual news source. How many people even sign up for those now?

If 140 character messages from random geeks off the street ever supplant other news sources, I will eat my phone.
Nokia flips switch on Nokia N97 Pre-sales
the actual link is http://cloudlayer.com (it's going to be their homepage on May 11th)
High Energy Hadoop
I don't understand how this is a basecamp for developers. More like hosted svn and trac. Might do better if marketed that way.
Depends on how much disk space you need. With Amazon, the space is virtually limitless, and transfers to and from S3 are free. With Slicehost and Linode, you get really tiny disks, and you have to pay for bandwidth to S3 if you need more.

It's also hard to dynamically scale with Slicehost or Linode. You can't have a script bring an instance up for an hour and then shut it down when the load drops off. (Actually, you probably can, but that's not what it's designed for.)

Obviously EC2 is not for everyone, but it is good if you need its features.
My friend was just about to get DSL from Verizon and selected the "medium" package for $29.99. I asked what they needed the Internet for, and sure enough 1Mbps down / 368Kbps up would have been fine (this was the "small" package for $19.99). I told them that they could always upgrade if the "small" didn't do it for them.
That's why I mentioned the years, those reports are a bit old.

Still, even today, 1920x1200 is far from accounting for "most" users.
I think it's all in the algorithm and software implementation. Maybe you use #news, or maybe you implement a voting system, maybe there is some kind of revenue sharing or identity/trust model.. something... Realtime photo/video/text is where it's going, the question is how we get there. You're right that it's scary if that is our only news source, but that doesn't mean "real journalists" won't come in and back-fill relevant events with more details. How the heck they will make money is the big question to me.
> i run full width.

Really!? Can I ask why? Why not just make the browser about 1050px or so wide, you can view every website out there and you can have other things in the extra space (twitter, client, terminal, downloads, whatever).
Microsoft chucks out 3,000 more layoff notices
Almost certainly, in the most competitive professional league other teams will also be armed with statisticians.
Looks like they are going to launch, the EC2 side of things won't be available till May 11th. I hope their cloud private network is not the same as the server private network. They have major issues with the private network and if you're site is connecting to a private network address for db, you are screwed.
37Signals have said they deliberately choose provocative positions for their titles.

That's why it's link-bait. It's disingenuous because it distorts the point of the article they link to. It's shallow drivel because it adds no value to the conversation it links to.

And 37signals definitely did distort the message of the interview to push the idea that planning isn't useful at all. Here's the final sentence:

"The only plan you should make is to plan on improvising."

That's not a plan, that's just a vapid statement.

Oh, and it does link to an article, in the form of an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, not to a book.
1- thx for the ruby dsl link -- I hadn't heard of it, and I can't understand why

2- the problem with using EBS comes when you have a larger DB, like, oh, 80GB or so. It takes no less than 6-8 hours to produce a snapshot of that -- I just tried it. You can do a simple rsync to another instance in like 2-3 hours. I want to like EBS but it seems ... slow.
I do this too. My screen is pretty much always taken up either by a full-width Emacs, or a full-width Firefox.

I can't speak for diN0bot of course, but the reason I work this way is to minimize distractions. I don't want all that stuff in my peripheral vision when I'm busy trying to get stuff done.
Given Apple's previous experiences with online services such as .Mac and MobileMe, one has to wonder why Apple shareholders would consider this a wise investment.

One possibility is that this would contribute towards Apple's latest moves to position itself as more of lifestyle company as opposed to a hardware/computer company. Twitter would really strengthen them in that sense, since it's so highly visible right now.
Probably because managing windows is a big pain, but everyone still thinks it's 1980 and overlapping windows are really cool.
It's actually quite amazing how important appearance is, for people that have had it stripped away from them.

My girlfriend, a cancer survivor, envisions a young adult cancer charity that focuses on the cosmetic aspects of treatment: paying for wigs, teaching girls how to do makeup. At first, I thought her idea was missing the point, but then she explained to me how uplifting it is to have some modicum of control over your appearance during treatment and recovery.
Haven't we learned to take Apple rumors with a grain of salt by now?
I think what they have done here is a real victory for science. Also they have given back something that we all take for granted. It makes you wonder what we will be able to do next.
Apple is a household name.
Photos and videos of events before news crews get there are definitely very valuable. Getting those things in real time isn't very valuable in my opinion.

After all these years of spam filter development, I still get spam regularly. I don't think there's a way to deliver news from Twitter to people in real time with more accuracy than spam filters, and that would be annoying. Again, I don't think that many people use the breaking news text messaging services that already exist and are curated by human beings.

The Twitter messages and pictures when the plane landed in the Hudson River were awesome. I didn't care that I only saw them hours after the fact. I don't think anyone else cared either. It might have been nice to get them in real time, but not at the cost of noise. Noise is impossible to reduce to a manageable level when you're text messaging people because it interrupts whatever they're doing. You could send emails instead, but then you either are still interrupting people who check their email constantly, or you're losing the real time aspect.
"If it freezes you are doing something wrong"

wow.
iPhone Sales Progress Report (updated)
Steve, come back quick! Your company is going crazy -- _again_!