skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Really? What business practices would enable journalism to "survive" a transition to a world in which their product has no value? Perhaps their business decisions are all just whistling in the dark? If there are no paths forward for them, blaming them is counterproductive. I don't think "blame" can accrue where there were no good decisions to be made, even in theory.

(By "survive", most people mean that while it may shrink a bit or grow a bit, it's the same fundamental business doing the same fundamental things.)

This sort of analysis is critical. Frankly, I could sum up the article even faster: Journalism supply has shot through the roof. What do expect to happen to the price, given that demand can't shoot through the roof at anywhere near the same speed? What does that say about the probability of journalism "surviving"?
I take your point about the Redditness of my comment. I guess it matched the value of the submission.
Yeah, I fully agreed with your view. That is why I am building a service that allows authors to easily create an iPhone application simply by uploading their book. The idea is to use the iPhone application as a base from which the authors can build their community or fans upon.
It's not that those features aren't exposed in C++, it's that C++ has different (more modern) mechanisms for doing the same thing.

C++ has templates, so you don't need to do as much with macros. C++ has virtual functions and overloaded operators (allowing for functors), so you don't need to do as much with function pointers. Structures can have methods in C++, so the way that you'd set up an opaque type is quite different in C++.

C++ also has about 10000 other features as well though, which is what makes it unwieldy to learn. The patterns mentioned above aren't about efficiency; they're about encapsulation.

Just to give an example -- in C++ if you want to set up a callback, for example with an observer pattern, you'd use a pure virtual function (and then pass in a concrete instance of that class) or a functor. You can't do that in C, so you use a function pointer. You learn to work with function pointers more because they're a necessary part of designing C APIs, whereas they're not in C++.

(Note that it's the language I'm best at, followed by C, so this isn't random C++ hating.)
That also explains the smile on this guy's face: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/nyregion/22pirate.html

He doesn't realize how much trouble he's really in, though.
I guess it depends on your definition of "well".

The videos I've seen of it make it look pretty second-rate. It probably compares well against other smart phones but it doesn't seem like a "real" competitor to the iphone. A JS/HTML SDK might be nice but it's not as deep and powerful as the iPhone's.
Africa Hacks - Monster Truck Madness in The DRC
20 Palm Pre Videos to Learn
I am already a Basecamp user and am happy with how it's worked for my startup in the past. I know why I use the software but I wanted to understand other customers motivation. Thanks for the advice though.
Both of us having been raised in the households of psychologists are inclined to believe that personality inventories such as this are pseudoscientific. We're well acquainted with the Forer (or Barnum) Effect [2] and are not very willing to trust anything based entirely on self-evaluation of 45 or so questions.

You have the right idea. I think there are some litigation possibilities for job-seekers who are screened out of jobs by psychological tests that haven't been SPECIFICALLY validated for the jobs in question, and an employer would be well advised not to use such tests.
That's $9.99 more than I'm willing to pay for any book which I cannot sell, cannot lend to a friend, and could be retroactively censored or deleted from a central location at the publisher's whim. Not to mention one which will vanish when the publisher goes out of business.
Can't say I've ever had a problem paying a decent amount for a book. Never been a fan of ebooks either.
CouchDB Bloom Filters
Ironic that they don't mention the capsaicin from the chili peppers, which can temporarily speed up someones metabolism.

If you ate lots of small portions a day, just enough to boost your metabolism then there's a high chance you'd lose weight. However, if you want this effect then you might want to buy a pack of jalapeno's and mow down on one every half an hour or so.
How to Get Fired with Dignity
Sometimes I am really proud to be a Somali; we have got to be the most full-shit people on this planet ..

The guy is from Boosaaso; if there were Sharia there, the Islamists would hang him in the center town for Piracy before the thought of taking his floater to see crossed his mind. Jihadis don't fuck around; they amputate thieves, petty or professional, for the fun of it. They did horrible things to currency forgers and drug traffickers in the south.

Quite the contrary, proceeds of piracy in the north-east are funding the anti-islamist militias. His own cousin was the deposed Somali president, Abdullahi Yusuf, backed by Bush Jr :-)
> extremely small government that by built in limits couldn't be oppressive

Unless the limits are enforced by benevolent, technologically advanced aliens, you're screwed. History offers massive proof if you're willing to look.

As for robots: at least FDR had to convince actual humans - the kind with their own interests, and some measure of built-in resistance - of something in order to pack the court. As opposed to, say, personally programming a 100,000-strong robot army to fire on his command.
Anyone remember that classic Star Trek episode with "Ring around the Rosie"? Scary in a Twilight Zone fashion.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ring_Around_the_Rosie
Ageing satellites to offset GPS accuracy
Yahoo: We’re Moving From Web Of Pages To Web Of Objects
This is one of the reasons why I don't think the front page should allow for upvotes. Only in the new section.
Yahoo vows death to the '10 blue links'
I did not offer an alternative because I expect that existing customers are already familiar with them and have made their decision to pay for their software logically. I also was talking about their set of products and how the philosophy ('getting real') of their company influences the characteristics of their web applications (less features, interface first, monthly charges, etc.).
Thanks for the reasons you use Basecamp, I found them quite useful and succinct.
If you were offended by the 'RoR hype' statement, I'm sorry. It just comes to my attention that with the origin of RoR being at 37 signals that they probably get a fair amount of traffic from those who are dedicated to the framework and I'm sure some of those visitors convert to customers...i'm just not sure how much :)
Pseudoscience and environmentalists
Even in the absence of legal obstacles, how many autonomous tanks could you personally afford? How many communication satellites to direct them from? How many repair technicians working around the clock? Etc.
Just because _you_ can replicate something on a weekend doesn't mean other people can (or want to).
Oh god shoot me now. They're even worse than Rogers, who at least have good customer service. I suppose if Bell has a good data package, I might be able to deal with them; I'm pretty good with accents so I suppose I can do customer service in India for a few more years.
I am not saying it is indisputable, but the article did a much better job of supporting its arguments and conclusions. I did not detect any confusion.

What is 'the manner in which businesses have been run over the past 20 years', why does it matter, and why does it trump the article's arguments?
HangerPak: Transformer Packaging Turns Into Shirt Hanger
He can be right (i.e., there is a risk from bioterror) and still be misleading. His complaint boils down to: dangerous bioagents can be easy to grow. we know this.
thanks axod! I feel like this is a valid forum to ask this question. I think some of their products can be emulated quickly in feature sets but it usually is their design and user experience that sets them apart. also i believe their audience is either small businesses (fortune 5,000,000 :D) that don't have resources or ones that would rather not allocate the resources to develop similar solutions.
SchemaBank: database modeling tool on the web
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitzur-Vaidman_bomb-tester
> Why are people accepting this?

Because Apple has no competition. At least, not in the smart-phone market. It has "competition" - pseudo-rivals who manufacture absolute crap, which is more often than not a slavish (and poor) imitation of Apple products.

Anyone who insists on a well-designed, consistent user interface is currently at Apple's mercy.
That labor has to create value, though, right? No one would get paid to dig a hole on Monday and fill it back up on Tuesday, ad nauseum...
Not particularly impressive, now if we could somehow use mouse gestures we're getting somewhere.

Although I avoid the mouse completely during programming, it may be convenient during code reading to just click, scroll and gesture as if the code was in my favorite browser.
A Chili Sauce to Crow About
There are indeed so many things to learn, but as a developer or someone who would be in the development world (be it building tech startups, developing software, etc) there is a must-know set of tools. C/C++ happens to be very high on the list. And learning more really doesn't hurt.

Not just C++, but also learn C, Java, Perl, Python, Erlang, Lisp, PHP, Shell Scripting, Assembly, Ruby, along with their most used libraries/frameworks. The more diversify your skillets, the better you can use the right tool for the moment, improving performance of that, lower development time. (Eg. A spoon can be used to build a house, but it's hardly the best tool out there).

This way, want to hack up a quick content management or low computational front end system, whip out your php/python/ruby with your favourite framework out. Got a bottleneck at high cpu or memory bound place, rewrite that piece in C/C++. Need to deploy a cross platform app really quickly, Java. Want to bind or write a test for a bunch of tools, use Python or Perl. The list goes on.

Summary: Learn More, use the right tool, do less, get more accomplished.
thanks rrival, i actually own the 'getting real' book and have a fairly good understanding of how their philosophy affects the outcome of their products. i especially like the mindset when your developing a web application of asking yourself 'would i pay for this product?'.
Long Search for a Universal Flu Vaccine
Well the papacy has acknowledged it for a long while now, I just don't get why all those creationist nuts can't get that the leader of their own religion, quite literally God's man in charge (of the catholic religion, where many of the nut's seem to be coming from) is telling them that evolution is real and doesn't contradict the bibles teachings in any way. I believe the layman's translation goes as this: "The book's not literal morons, get a life."
"C/C++" is not a single language, by all means learn C.
It is hard to claim that eBooks are too expensive while audio books are already profitable at 10$.
Hence, I think that the discussion about the need for high prices for eBooks is ridiculous.
Eating a lot of Indian curry isn't eating all you want :-)
Intercepting status bar touches on the iPhone
What the Luddites don't understand is that by attempting to restrict amateur (and increasingly, official) research, they hasten the arrival of the very same synthetic plague to-kill-us-all by further alienating smart, resourceful people.

I must say that my feelings on bioengineered plagues are somewhat mixed. One one hand, I'd rather not be killed, esp. in a grotesque and uncommonly painful way. On the other hand, I think perhaps there ought to be a death penalty for civilizations which alienate and oppress their intelligent, creative and free-spirited minority.
He's what 18, probably illiterate, from a failed state who's waters were used as toxic waste dump. Perhaps he's smiling even though he knows he's in trouble.
I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case pre-December 2008. In December, Apple lifted the gate on farting apps for all the flack it was receiving for rejecting them. Around the same time about ~6 massage apps landed on the store.

AppStore Mkting Hint: We toggle our massage app between FREE and .99, it's a great little promotional tool. Every time we switch back to free, all the Twitter bots and web tracking services pickup the price decrease and we get a massive influx of downloads and web traffic.
<blockquote>Intrinsic value involves things that are good in and of themselves, such as beauty, truth, and harmony. Instrumental value comes from things that facilitate action and achievement, including awareness, belonging, and understanding. Journalism produces only instrumental value.</blockquote>

I disagree. I've seen some journalistic writing and photography that I'd say qualifies as art.</p>

Also: journalists have been poorly paid (excluding the national talking heads) for a lot longer than the Internet has been stepping on their turf. Terrible pay was one reason I left journalism.</p>

Nowadays it's supply and demand, but it seems a bit like salt in the wound to say "they deserve it."</p>
I am saddened by how many votes this is getting.
You make a good argument that follows logically from your initial assumption - that "clearly some people are willing to pay money for inferior products." So I'll just challenge that assumption ;-) By and large, I think you and the OP are defining inferior products as synonymous with less fully featured products. But it's not that simple (witness the iPhone, still lacking cut & paste).

For example, compare Highrise with Salesforce. My company (a 50 person consulting firm) is moving away from SF to HR right now, even though SF has many, many more features. Why? Because HR has all of the features we need, and most of the features we like (but don't absolutely require). And we are much, much more productive when using HR. It's easier to use. I don't have to think much when filling in information. The reports take me about 5 seconds to read and comprehend. This time savings is very valuable to me and my company - I've got better things to do than think about how to use a CRM application. The features Salesforce possesses that HR lacks, by contrast, don't have any value.

You'll get it if you just look at things through a slightly different lens. You might be getting tripped up by the confusion of effort and size with value. Value is what software has to a customer - effort is the cost software has to developers. And size is just a number. It would be nice if these three number always correlated. But unfortunately, that isn't the case.
Clicked through to say the same. I would have put it:

"Yet most people who are really good at sports are rich."
One should learn both. If you spend the time to learn C, might as well spend a tiny bit more and learn the C++ concepts as well. There are ton of pure C libraries, but a lot of algorithmic stuff in C++ STL/Boost kinds, knowing both C and C++ is essential, each by them selves wouldn't necessarily help one too much.
The familiar "only the market can resolve this" viewpoint.

Regulation is also a powerful tool for resolving issues like this. The usual tripe about profits suffering and everything made worse can now be cued up and played...now!
They SHOULD be low-paid if all they do is act as a stenographer and just repeat verbatim what is said by the anonymous sources of power.
Yes I am sure he's wrong.

Read through my recent comments for a slightly more elaborate explanation in an that amateur bio hackers thread.

For even more information take some college classes in the life sciences.
Anyone else besides me pass the first two tests? Pretty awesome way to attract a group of nerds, if you ask me. (going to work on the third at home).
Contrary to what you might have been told, there is a lower limit to physics.

I agree. But...

There is no limit to the determination of people defending their beliefs against any theory for which science provides evidence.

Creationista Lisp v1.0

CL-BELIEVER> (= evidence truth)
nil
Because 1) the product is good enough for my needs and 2) because I know them and 3) I expect them to still be there in 5 years. There are probably tons of other similar products out there with the same simplicity and reliability (or even better), but why would I want to change to something that is not extremely better?
Dangerous bioagents are being grown at a phenomenal rate all around the world, every day. Swine-flu, HIV, Ebola, MRSA, everything else - comes NATURALLY.
Microsoft included Digital Locker with Vista allowing you to purchase applications from 3rd parties via Windows Marketplace, but it has since shutdown, presumably due to lack of popularity.
Google falling behind Twitter, admits chief
All this to-do app needs to do is integrate with twitter and provide url-shortening services...
1. These rejections are largely invisible to consumers.

2. Nothing on the market comes close to matching consumer perception of the iPhone's features and flash.
Nearly 20,000 slots still left in H-1B visas
Won't fly...the jerk arrow is clearly aimed at one of the photos in the background
Where are they now: iWon
Can we bring back the pirate's gibbet now?

(In the 18th century and prior, pirates were often sealed in small cages hanging in port, to die of exposure. Their bones would serve as a warning to sailors tempted to hoist the Jolly Roger.)
US Immigration: When Only 'Geniuses' Need Apply
IBM "Smart Cube" appliance speeds up software installation
"My normal job is way up in the clouds," he said. "This is so much more down to earth; this is really a great change."

I'd rather put it this way:

"My normal job used to be in the trenches. Now it's in the clouds. This is really a great change. I'm never going back."

The more things change so that I can concentrate on the software, the more I like it. No more serial or parallel ports, no more soldering or crimping cables, much less resetting & rebooting..." With USB, plug & play, & wireless, I almost forget how much it used to suck. Now if only I could "think" my code onto my monitor without a keyboard...
That's not very constructive feedback. How about a hint?
Interesting.

Sometimes I scan the titles and give my votes to these articles on the frontpage thus having these links saved in an easily retrievable list for later consumption.

It would be nice to have a separate bookmarking capability distinct from the ability to vote.
Working on embedded systems and sensor/actuator networks should satisfy both the virtual and physical aspects of engineering/hacking.
The minimalism and design sensibility is nice, but the real reason we use them is that they're (a) hosted and (b) a reliable, proven company. You could launch a 10x better Basecamp or Campfire, but I don't believe you're going to be in business a year from now, so I'll stick with 37s.
I'd say a sure fire signal that it's inferior is if it can be replicated by someone else easily. If so, they can replicate it, then improve it - making the original inferior.

The iPhone looks extremely simple. But it's a ruse - it's actually massively complex and a feat of engineering. It's hard to copy.

I agree, it takes a lot of thought to decide what to leave out - lack of features can be a good thing. But those decisions are not really defendable in terms of IP (Unless you complain Huddlechat 'stole' your whole UI and they roll over)

I haven't used basecamp or highrise extensively, so perhaps they make up for campfire.
Time to get bullish on SOA, IT, and the economy
It looks like Sun is going to get into the game with an app store based around Java:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/165219/sun_see...

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/will_java_be_the_world
I suspect those lamentations are largely due to a combination of selective memory and the spirit of the times. Getting back to journalism as an example, there wasn't much investigative reporting in American journalism before the Watergate scandal toppled Nixon's administration. It existed, but that's about all: most American journalists weren't Tarbells, Sinlairs, or Naders.

Before Watergate made it fashionable, most investigative journalists had strong personal motivation for their work. They would have fit right into the last election cycle as bloggers. I suspect that's also true of Bernstein, but under today's conditions Woodward might have chosen law or business.

After Watergate, every journalism group seemed to jump into investigative journalism with both feet. Afterward it became apparent that this wasn't sustainable, and investigative journalism declined again. However, there will always be a certain number of motivated investigative journalists (or, if you like, muckrakers). With modern technology, they can publish their own work at a very low cost.
Is this a suggestion that Congress needs to step in and provide oversight on the iPhone App Store?
I believe they do yes, I've brought the full version on multiple apps after being satisfied but restricted with the Lite version.
This is a monumentally-stupid idea.

Do you want people to actually use your app's functionality? If and when they start, and word spreads, Apple will delete your app. Given their history, they might not even pay you what you're owed. All of your efforts will have been wasted.
This is such an uninformed argument, publishing has a narrow profit margin. These companies aren't trying to extort you at 2000% profit like other companies.

The entire publishing process is designed to filter out the chaff. First you need an agent (this is undeniable when some publishing houses won't accept a submission without one) whose job it is to first find publishers that are interested and then to make them pay every penny they're willing for it. When a first time author like Stephanie Mayer gets handed $750,000 for a series, that's because their agent just got handed 75,000-112,000. If you go it alone you'd probably get less than what your agent alone would get.

After the books in the publishing house, it is usually reviewed by like up to 5 editors who give their opinion before it's handed over to one editor who they believe is the best for it. You then get an editor, who through multiple revisions helps the author get the book to a better standard and quite often to more closely resemble the authors original idea.

I've worked with editors, and they're very passionate and put a lot of themselves into the work. This isn't something you're going to get at some slapped together organization. The argument that they're being replaced by digg (in the disaggregate link) is completely laughable, I'm sorry but digg and HN link mostly to articles at websites that all have editors. Just because people aren't committed to one information source and choose their own news (hence why some people get several news papers in the morning) doesn't mean the editors job is [gone].

Then he argues that it's help authors by allowing them to produce more books... Some authors release a book every few years and some release one nearly every 3 months (Stephen King). This isn't an efficiency model that can simply be stepped up by a new technology. It's an entirely ignorant argument.

This article is just plain bad. No one should sell their work at $9.99 a copy if it isn't going to cover the costs. In the publishing world especially, you should never release a copy for such a low price when the majority of books make most of their money in the first few months to a year when the book is priced the highest.

I hate these articles, because they're always written by people who are so uninformed on the issues. They're by people who assume the end is nigh for corporate publishing, despite the fact that there's been little to no effect on traditional publishing media, in fact global book sales have been on an increase over the past years.