skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
iPhone was changed everything.

Facebook and Twitter shows what the people really want.

No body cares about OS or PC anymore. Stay connected - it's a trend.
To cool data centers, let the breeze flow in
PG, if you're around, are you able to post your entire response? This article reads like there's a lot more you said that wasn't printed.
Along these lines, keep a daily log of work you've done. That way you can look back and see how long stuff really takes to get done.
The software is Impromptu [http://impromptu.moso.com.au/](http://impromptu.moso.com.au/..., it sounds a lot like [fluxus](http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/) which emilis mentioned.

> Impromptu is an OSX programming environment for composers, sound artists, VJ's and graphic artists with an interest in live or interactive programming. Impromptu is a Scheme language environment, a member of the Lisp family of languages.
I love this idea, but I'm not clear on the goal. Are you looking for feedback on the idea or are you only trying to improve the way you talk about the idea? If someone quickly understands what you're doing but thinks it sucks, did you succeed or fail?

Once (if) I've succeeded in making myself clear, I think I might trying asking explicitly what the 'pitchee' thinks is wrong or could go wrong with the idea. Oftentimes people need to be prompted to give negative feedback. To friends I just say, "What sucks about this idea?"

Finally, people are surprisingly game for things that are out of the ordinary. I don't think you need to lie about what you're doing so long as you're friendly and clear. "Hi, I'm Joshua Paine. I'm working on an idea for a business, and I'd like to practice pitching it to you to get an outside opinion. I'm not trying to sell you anything, I'd just like your thoughts." Or something like that.
I'm no PHP fan, but you Ruby people really are insufferably pretentious cocks.
I fall pretty dead on into the Level 1 category, though in certain areas I fall into the 2 and I think I managed a level 3 someplace... But, then I have < 2 years professional programming experience (proceeded by 3 years of management experience) and a masters in information systems, but even that is more management oriented.

Hopefully at some point I'll be able to make up for my terrible education in the areas of math and algorithms.
What a terrible headline, Ztail doesn't even sell any merchandise. They are no competition to Amazon. In fact, they may even add Amazon as one of the merchants you can purchase through.

Ztail is selling a put option on retail products (well sort of, with eBay being involved too), interesting but not revolutionary. Considering all the bail outs we're having to do for firms that wrote tons of paper they couldn't back, who knows if Ztail will even be around next year when you want your $50.

It's sad that the HN headline is less reactionary than TechCrunch.
Likely those developers in places like Zimbabwe would be thinking it's in octillions anyway.
Well, in contrast to other startups, I think we can all agree that the current page design has some serious flaws which needs to be fixed ASAP. By voting up we show that we actually care about this issue and that Get Satisfaction is doing the right thing.
From Wikipedia:

M$ (Microsoft): used to emphasize the allegation that Microsoft has business practices that focus on making money rather than producing good products or looking after the end user's needs and interests. Microsoft was convicted under United States anti-trust law of taking unfair advantage of its monopoly position. Also criticized for taking advantage of loyal customers and upgrading products annually for an expensive price, thus "shafting" the people who bought last year's products.

I don't see anything wrong with using M$ to imply all of the above in one simple and worldwide recognizable satiric misspelling.

See also, satire
The linked to article is weak. Summary: 1. PG wrote that article 2. I called him, and he reinforced his sentiment by giving 2 more incidents for support. iPhone Apps and the fact many web startups use Amazon's services for hostinge ect.
ShoeMoney Files Suit Against Google Employee to Protect Trademark
I wonder if Jeff worked somewhere across the pond if he'd be writing the same article. I think people underestimate just how puritanical America is compared to most of the rest of the (non-theocratic) world.
eBay has a program that lets you see historical selling prices for goods, so I'm guessing that's where they started.

Who knows what kind of cash reserve they're working with though, I wouldn't trust them for anything more than a vague estimate of what products are selling for in second hand markets. And that much is free!
Political decisions are very, very relevant to our lives. But, as I said, there are also lots of other places to discuss them. Reddit, to pick an example at random.

Why shouldn't we discuss them here? Let me quote one of my favorite writers: Myself. ;)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243606

I'm often tempted to disagree with the effective HN ban on political issues, because it leaves so many of the most important facets of life off the table.

But, alas, I think [it] is correct. This is a terrible forum for discussing political issues -- because the signal-to-noise in politics is very low (any political discussion is mostly about team-building, horse-trading, and tooth-baring, not problem-solving or analysis and certainly not software or technology) and we don't have the time to wade through waist-deep piles of personal statements, deal memos, and threats; because this site draws people from very diverse political backgrounds who will take a very long time to reach equilibrium if they start team-building, horse-trading, or baring their teeth; but mostly because the place just works better if there's some focus. It helps us to know when to shut up.

If you can't find another site that is suitable for hosting your political debate, why not build one?
The Photoshop example is a little bit unique...

I too do not want Photoshop in a browser. I shoot Canon 5D and 5DMkII. My RAW images are HUGE. I'd either have to upload them to the server to "edit", or download a fairly hefty app to run locally. Photoshop (true photoshop) is processor and bandwidth intensive when used as intended. It won't live in the cloud for a very long time.

Now, what my parents and similar folks want is a way to reduce red-eye, crop and convert photos and apply some simple effects. Sure, THAT can be a web-app. But, the cloud is not killing photoshop.

I also personally do a lot of business travel. Until planes have free, good wifi, then "cloud apps" suck for me. I want to be able to read emails and queue responses while in-flight. I want to be able to edit and organize docs and presentations. I want to be able to look up an address or phone number from my inbox QUICKLY, without having to establish a wifi connection, accept some TOS for the free access, go to gmail, find the message, etc. Just pop open my MBP, give it 8 seconds to "wakeup", go to mail.app and pull the message I want.
inference is different from a static tree.
I am comparing PHP Frameworks vs Ruby on Rails because that is a closer and more relevant comparison.

PHP frameworks such as Codeigniter are dead simple to use. They do not have the deployment, scaling, and performance headaches that Ruby On Rails has.

I don't get why people worship ROR, maybe because it is the original MVC framework.

Why hate on PHP when the popular and most successful website runs on it (facebook, yahoo, flickr, wikipedia, digg)?

The only mainstream ROR sites is Twitter which is still buggy even though it is 50x simpler than Facebook. I wouldn't put Basecamp into that category yet.
I'm not a native English speaker but the wording of "Ask a Question of Cyberdyne Customers" seems odd. Did they mean "to Cyberdyne Customers"?

Also, "People-Powered Customer Support" doesn't really convey what they say it conveys. All customer support is people-powered. 'Community-Powered Customer Support' or 'Customer-Powered Support' would be more accurate.

And as others have suggested, "Get Satisfaction has no affiliation with X" is much better that 'X is not yet participating'
Bah, what does this have to do with Lisp? It seems like something that could be done in any language.

Now, what I would like to see is how the AST of a large project evolves over time. Not just the commits to a repository, but the entire AST of the codebase as it's being typed.
There's a pill for this already -- it's illegal. :)

http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/clenbuterol....
More universities join Yahoo for Net-scale research
Economy, Visa Restrictions Scaring Away Foreign Workers
This is silly. The "typical" desktop runs MS Windows, with only a few user processes running at a time. Some of those processes may have a bunch of threads going, but the process count is small. Of course all of those processes share the low-level OS libraries. And guess what: each JVM process shares those OS libraries, too.

The Java standard library does duplicate some of the higher-level OS features, which is the only practical way to achieve cross-platform compatibility. Any cross-platform solution is going to impose some overhead. Of course you can write native iPhone apps with no extra overhead, but then they can't be used by the 95% of mobile device users who have other platforms.

I'm not sure what you mean about code running in server rooms being obscure. That's what drives web applications and network services which are more visible and critical to many of us than our desktop applications.

By the way, anyone who wants to use the JVM for writing desktop applications should take a look at the Eclipse RCP. I haven't had a need to develop for that platform myself, but the results I've seen from other companies look pretty good.
I can't believe this kind of crap is still floating around. Sorry to be harsh to anyone, but if you call yourself a "professional web developer" and think that:

a) Tables can even compete with CSS-based layouts;
b) Replacing tables with DIVs is all it takes to do "standards-based" development; and
c) Think CSS-layout is hard

then you probably need to reconsider your profession. The difficulties of this are well-documented and have been solved long before the current date - can we move onto real problems now?
>The idea of being forced to use all software through a browser sounds bloody awful to me

To me too. I never understood, ten years ago, why on earth most people would prefer a web-based email client to a native desktop app but they did. And today that percentage is just increasing. Most people just don't have the same concerns you and I do.

>>Their victory is so complete that I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows.

Yeah, this one didn't make sense. If you're surprised when you come across a computer running the desktop OS used by more than 75% ([citation needed]) of the populace, then you clearly move in very narrow circles.
Sorry, I don't have time to write a detailed answer but here are couple of interesting things to know about software estimation (from a book I have at home but forgot the name) :

* For a known task, developer are usually too optmistic by about 30%

* At the very beginning of a project, your estimation can be off by as much as 400%, by the time you have the UI done (at least in wireframe), your estimation can be off by around 25%.

Also, I suggest reading the "Three points estimation" part of this article : http://www.projects.ed.ac.uk/methodologies/Full_Software_Pro...

It's usually for "big" project, but the Three points estimation technique can be used even if you are by yourself. Also, it's more scientific than just "doubling" your number (check Standard Deviation on wikipedia if you want to understand how it work).

Finally, with this technique, it's easy to spot tasks which have alot of uncertainty.
It is an overstatement designed to attract attention at the expense of more considered and truthful statements. Like other forms of lying it should be discouraged.
Never worry about scaling? That's silly.
No it was not the wrong wording at all. "X is dead" is a very well-established rhetorical phrase. The only controversy that resulted was due to the enormously over-literal nature of argument on the net.

The "Microsoft" in the title means the "Microsoft as bogeyman of the tech industry". This is implied. That Microsoft "still has cash, people, and ... position" is neither here nor there.
Isn't brown adipose tissue news in some other century?
So, this E-Commerce site will "steal some of Amazon's thunder" by linking people to products on Amazon?

Interesting analysis.
Most people already do most of their stuff through a browser

We merely settled on a standardized approach to networked GUIs. Instead of proliferation of 3rd party networking apps like usenet/email clients, ftp clients, various VB/Oracle business forms apps, people simply use HTTP-based UI stack. Frankly, not that big of a deal. People _feel_ like that's a big deal because this opened networking to the masses, presented a lot of business opportunities, but fundamentally, this hasn't changed anything.

The type of applications people are running hasn't changed. If your data needs to be shared with others, you need an application with a network access and it means a web site. If not - why does it need to be in a browser?

Yes, people waste time online a lot, that only means they aren't really using their computers. It's like watching TV: most of them have CPUs and RAM and stuff,yet you aren't seeing "TV evangelists" screaming that new era of computing has arrived: with 50" screens and remotes instead of keyboards. That, however, is happening with the iPhone: look how excited everybody is about "desktop apps" you can run on it.

Paul is right: new website founders have no reason to fear Microsoft because they aren't competing with them. But that's not new: it is exactly like starting a landscaping or dog walking business in the 90s: Microsoft couldn't care less.

If anything, they have won. They have such a strong grip on Windows platform that it takes big balls to start a company in that space. My deepest respect to Xobni for taking on the challenge.
The Google App Engine JRE Class White List
I agree. Way too much effort.

If they can really guarantee these prices, they should just let you return the item and get the guaranteed amount of money back.
Yesterday I spent 10 minutes implementing the 'Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns' that works in all of those browsers. Why make more work for yourself if there are solutions already out there? :)

(I am of course assuming you mean a standard css navigational drop-down menu - you didn't specify.)
you Ruby people

s/you Ruby/some/

Others of us try to be polite.
Google App Engine for Java: Will it play in App Engine
Like I said, I'm interested in data, not speculation. Reading this is like reading a review of a power cable that makes your speakers sound better. People can convince themselves of anything they want to.
This article was certainly not "against Silicon Valley".
>> "My RAW images are HUGE"

In a few years time those will likely take less than a second to upload though.

I agree, video editing, large photo editing will take longer to move over.

>> "Until planes have free, good wifi"

It'll certainly happen, it's just a matter of how quickly. I'd bet maybe 5 years :/
Mint.com reduces the PITA level by 99% (for me, at least).
As feedus points out above, it might have driven iTunes sales. I'd like to know those numbers as well.
no, no, no. Microsoft is far from dead. PG is simply wrong.

Just look at the work that Live Labs is producing. No "Web 2.0" company can compete with the brilliance behind photosynth. They are kidding themselves if they think they can.

I'll tell you why Microsoft won't survive. It's because Microsoft isn't a leader in innovation. Steve Ballmer doesn't have any balls. He's simply satisfied with being #2 and playing it safe while letting Steve Jobs create new markets and dominating them (with style).

Again, Microsoft isn't dead. If anything, this whole "Web 2.0" and Ycombinator incubation thing is dead. If the big boys think that there is any serious competition coming out of these programs then they have another thing coming. The recession has reduced a lot of this noise, and the real animals have been let out of their cage.
I'm pretty much on the right side on all of these. I probably should be getting paid more.
Since there is a contract in place, it means one of two thing: 1) Google is failing to keep their end of the agreement or 2) the PRS is taking the lions share.

150M views * .022p/view = 33,000£. I doubt Google is going to risk a lawsuit over that amount, so my guess is the PRS took 32,500£ and divvied out the other 500£ to the various artists (including the writers 11£).

Now, who is doing the exploiting here? Of course, if Google didn't pay the 33,000£, then it is a lawsuit is in order.

Google should not be blamed for the PRS' poor bargaining. Nor should they be the target of what really amounts to another smear campaign by the music industry.
>> "If anything, they have won. They have such a strong grip on Windows platform that it takes big balls to start a company in that space."

I disagree though, the 'windows platform' is irrelevant for most people for the reasons in the article. Most people don't care what OS it is, as long as it has a web browser.

The 'windows platform' is about as relevant as the computers BIOS is - it's there to allow them to start a web browser.
It only reads like a natural language if you have already learned how to read ruby. To the rest of us, its still just just Heavenly Script.
(http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1024)
Hey Geithner, Get Your Grubby Hands Off The Venture Capital Industry
Safari 4 Beta vs Firefox 3
It's alive! http://convotrack.com
While the article is written in a slightly gratuitous tone, I think it was intended to be instructional/informative to people who are clearly struggling to understand how semantic markup works, more than admonishing, scandalized, or dismissive towards them.
I keep all my email, because I use gmail and keeping everything is easier than bothering to think about it.
> The only mainstream ROR sites is Twitter

Oh come on. Yellow Pages, Urban Dictionary, Hulu, 43 Things, ...
http://rubyonrails.org/applications
The point of the article is just to say that some people will consider working on a porn project to be a negative and that could have an impact on your programming career.

So while I understand that U.S. citizens in general are more puritanical than places overseas I also believe there are people overseas who are just as puritanical as the majority in the U.S. And those people might be responsible for doing the hiring in overseas companies.

Which, to me, means the article's point is universal.
Yeah, no doubt cheaper cycles are a good thing. So help me out here - do you know of supercomputing (MPI or hadoop) apps where the bottleneck was finding time on a computer. I think development cost is still the bottleneck

In bio and geo anyone with a grant can get access with little difficulty. I guess people with grants covers most of the people here.
Post-launch analysis of an e-commerce build in modern perl
Wasn't this killed a day or so ago?
The law will be reexaminated as soon as the government can afford it, and , given the domination they have amongst the parliament, the law will probably be voted this time.

This is still a nice thing. It's letting some time to the people who are against this law to organize themselves and inform people about the obvious constitutional violations of this law.
Funny you mention performance headaches that Ruby on Rails has. Someone actually benchmarked PHP frameworks against Ruby frameworks, and guess which were faster?
Video is here: http://www.merbcamp.com/video/katz3.mp4
Slides are here:
http://www.slideshare.net/wycats/merb-camp-keynote-presentat...
> it might have driven iTunes sales

And as I've pointed out elsewhere, more studies have arrived to the opposite conclusion than to this conclusion.

Also, again as I've pointed out elsewhere, the notion that YouTube plays drive iTunes demand doesn't square with the reality that over the last 10 years (the last two of which have seen an explosion in the number of music video hits on YouTube), net music sales (online minus CD) have fallen. If YouTube really drives iTunes sales, then why haven't they materialized?

> I'd like to know those numbers as well.

I imagine you want to see his tax return also? My point is that your immediate assumption is that he's a liar. I don't see that this a fair assumption -- after all, what evidence do you have that Pete Waterman is a liar? Other than that he works in the "evil" music industry, one of the "bad guys" as a juvenile poster here has pointed out?
The security and privacy trade-off is way too much for me.
I keep trying to apply PSP, but I find I get distracted so much that I'm unable to keep track of my metrics and how close I come to estimates (mostly, my boss pulls a time estimate out of his butt).

One of the key elements of PSP is to record what you do each day in a little diary. One of the biggest ways you can improve your estimation skills is:

1 - make estimates

2 - keep track of how close those estimates came to reality

3 - compare what you did right/wrong so you can do less of the wrong and more of the right.

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

http://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Software-Engineering-SEI/dp...

http://www.sysmod.com/psp.htm
Indeed, after reading this line I went straight to the date. I mean, it has all the hallmarks of a great April Fools joke, up to (but unfortunately not including) a rickroll.
True, I've spent a few months in Europe for the first time last fall after a life-time in US&Canada. It's quite interesting how people and organizations are more open-minded regarding "adult" discussions and demonstrations.
It shows right away with the advertising billboards you see coming out of CDG airport. And if you walk around Nice, Canne or Monaco. When you talk to the people there, even they know about the puritan aspect of the US that shows in mainstream Hollywood movies or american TV censoring where the mature content is far outweighted by gratuitous violence.
Just the insecure ones. If someone charismatic were to write and present "PHP: The Good Parts," it'd suddenly be in style among the tool polishers again.
"module" is definitely a bad word to drop from the query [php cms module tutorial]; that's a problem. But I think a lot of times dropping a word makes the search work and the user never even realizes what happened. It's one of those things you only notice when it goes wrong, so what is an acceptable success to failure ratio?
"I don't get why people worship ROR, maybe because it is the original MVC framework."

Um, what? No. RoR is rather late to that game. You might be interested in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller#Implement...
There are a-holes that use every language. Ruby actually had a reputation of being a really nice community until about 2007, and most of those people are still around (despite the influx of some less savory types).

Personally, I really wish developers didn't get stereotyped based on their programming language of choice, and communities weren't pigeonholed based on a few loud members.