skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
One of the reasons Windows won was by being open to developers. It was pretty common back in the days for OS vendors to put a price on the SDK. And Linux was just starting.

Linux is friendly on the server side, but on the client side there are many things lacking.
The Master of Money: "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" review
For some reason it feels like that article completely misses the point.

If the record industry own 30% then they can get access to statistics then they are able to much better target what music to push.

That's just one place that spotify allows for return on investment.

But the biggest problem with the claims is simply this.

The article states that if no one can make money on music then no one will invest in music making.

That's purely and utter nonsense. Art is created DESPITE there being no money in it, further more the artist can instead make good money on live concerts because they have reached a much higher fan-base.

Don't blame spotify for the record industries lack of imagination. Actually blame the record industry for existing at all at this day. Who really needs them.
Hm. It seems the linked article is somewhat over-engineered for general consumption.
Try Algorithms by Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, and Vazirani. It's quite a short read and you can get it for free here:
http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=1050
What's with the Wolfram Alpha Control Room?
Looks like a great app, but does anyone else see the shocking similarities between http://www.peashootapp.com/ and http://www.basecamphq.com/

Open them in two tabs and click back and forth. Is there any connection between YongFook and 37s?
I was thinking of the first few chapters (Part I of the book). But your question was rather generic, actually there are mathematical techniques sprinkled through the whole book.
But he does - that premium is the only reason the US can still afford to import anything.
Chalk it down to the fact that I was just overcome by the horror of a submitter who I respect submitting such a political article (that too such a fluffy one, with n meat on its bones), and seeing it as number one on the main page, with multiple upvotes.

Exactly.

I also was surprised to see such a post come from a user who has consistently high-karma comments. My suggestion to DanielBMarkham is this: read the political article, extract those questions you found thought-provoking, write about it in your blog quietly referencing the political article, then post the link to your blog. (Don't feel bashful about posting a link to your own blog. It's not much different than an Ask HN post.)
http://www.vimeo.com/3703345
That's exactly what I was afraid of.
The record industry have used .torrents to track. Don't seem where the conspiracy should be.

It makes good sense they use that information to know what artists to push and where.
This AP article [1] (tech.yahoo.com seems to be having problems just now) says that the overall market fell by either 7.1% or 6.5% worldwide, depending on if you ask IDC or Gartner. US shipments were either down 3.1% (IDC) or <1% (Gartner). Also, the article mentions that Apple's market share increased, but doesn't have an estimate of its shipments.

So without knowing how NPD Group is counting, this 1.8% number is not very useful. If it's global, it makes Apple look pretty good. If it's US shipments, it's harder to say.

[1]: http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:tw4QpCy8JFoJ:tech.yahoo....
What you want is Nature Precedings (http://precedings.nature.com/) or any of the PLoS journals (http://www.plos.org/)
I'm biased, but I'd strongly recommend taking a look at Spreedly (http://spreedly.com). We can't help with the provisioning, but we can make the billing drop-dead simple so you can focus on getting your infrastructure right. The best part is: you can grab an account and give it a spin with no obligation, as test sites are completely free.

FYI, in less than two weeks we've sold 30 of our "Kickstart" plans (http://spreedly.com/info/kickstart) - a lot of businesses are hopping on the Spreedly platform, and we're cranking away to build the best billing platform around. Come on in, the water's fine!
Here's a relevant HN post that came to the top of Google results when I searched for 'spreedly vs amazon fps':
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=526517
ok not poor (your right that was unfair). I think "clunky" is better then. Your correct I cant fault the actual music playback.
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Nigerian scammers using your gmail to get money from your friends
That's just a random list of features, "I can get" anything too. What you need to do is link to some online stores where you've built machines with an exact set of features and prices (assuming that initial purchase price is the only consideration anyway, which it wouldn't be).
While that’s really neat (and something I didn’t know about) it’s not something that makes an appearance in either the CSS3 Colors or Backgrounds & Borders specs. Call it a vendor specific CSS extension rather than CSS3 for the time being.
It's not like you've got six democratic or republican parties in government in a giant pit fighting each other it's more like you've got two blocks with an internal cease fire that yell at the other group and occasionally slip and complain about a block partys politics.
Normally when we talk about monopolies being inefficient or "shaft[ing] the end user" we are concerned with the monopoly raising price and restricting quantity. Search engines do not (generally) charge a direct price, but they do implicitly charge a price in the form of ads on the page. If Google decides to blanket their search results with many more ads than they currently do, I have no problem switching to a competitor. Lots of other people will switch too.

There are conceivably other ways that Google could indirectly raise prices on consumers, but realistically it is a huge waste of money to prosecute a company that gives stuff out for free. Furthermore, threatening such action poisons the business environment by making investment more risky. It is a terrible idea.
One possibility is that advertising becomes smart enough to know a lot about you from your profiles on social networks. Instead of ads when you're looking for something, there would be ads for when the system thinks you'll want something

If the system is good enough, that method of advertising will be better than search.

Also, as we need better filters, search will become contextualized based upon friend recommendations. That will also happen on social networks.
Are you familiar with the Open Access movement (http://www.plos.org/oa/index.html) along with the legislation recently passed (and currently under attack) which mandates all NIH funded research be made publicly available within a year of initial publication? Please write to your congressperson to let them know that you support the Open Access initiative!
Wolfram Alpha Fails the Cool Test
I'd strongly echo this - it's the reason I grabbed some co-founders and started Spreedly. After spending weeks building a billing system for a client and not being at all pleased with the result (bad API, insufficient budget, etc.) I knew there had to be a better way. Billing is the red-headed stepchild of an application, never getting as much time as it needs and simultaneously taking up more time than it should - indicators that point towards outsourcing it ASAP. I think Spreedly's the best option, but even if you don't go with us, please don't do it yourself!
Google Searches for Staffing Answers
Pseudocode is an informal representation of an algorithm using informal language. Not only is that copyrightable since it is an original work, but I would also argue that it could be patentable because the underlying algorithm is patentable.
This is great! But you also have to monitor the cells for mutation not just bacterial and viral contamination.

Monitoring for mutation is a very tricky thing, it's like you would need a kind of immune system. But if we can do that, it truly would be tissue engineering, and spare parts for everybody would be around the corner.
"Do not use Google's products or services when you can avoid it" is probably a reasonable guideline if one is concerned? A milder version would be "try to distribute your services between different providers."

The question to ask is not so much whether they are a monopoly, but "what if Google went down for a couple days?" Quite a few people would be completely and utterly screwed.
> it seems like there is no easy way to browse about and find suggestions etc

Not sure if you've seen it (and I don't know how Last.fm does it), but try this:

Type in an artist's name and click on the name in the result list to go to their page. There will be a list of suggested similar artists in the top right corner.
That's the most poignant argument for WA that I've seen yet.
Depending on what you want out of the app, you might also consider Buxfer. My wife and I love it. $21/yr well spent. I even like it better than Quicken or Money.
It goes deeper than that: https://peashootapp.com/plans and http://www.basecamphq.com/signup
This essay seems particularly relevant (and contradictory):
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/09/stratified-by-c.html
This language offers contracts, and built-in unit tests - both of which could probably be done in python (contracts could be done as decorators, I would think), but are far from being built-in to the language.

Eiffel is the only language I've heard of that uses contracts (I'm sure there's more though). They seem like they could make some aspects of OOP in a dynamically-typed language much easier.

Maybe I'm reading you wrong, but it sounds like you think this is a set of changes to python. It's not, it's a different language with some syntax inspired by python.

Either way, I don't think their goal is to overtake python - besides, the language is still really young.
Hey, Spreedly guy here - we're definitely a full-featured solution, and we're already servicing dozens of businesses (we've sold 30 Kickstarts [http://spreedly.com/info/kickstart] in less than two weeks, so we must be doing something right!). Sorry if we've ever given off a different impression. What you may be referring to is that we're primarily focused on time-based subscriptions for now, vs. usage based subscriptions - that much is true. That said, very soon you'll be able to pile usage charges on top of any time-based subscription, which covers what a lot of businesses need in terms of usage fees.

Still not clear? Probably my fault! Hit me up at support@spreedly.com anytime and I'll gladly clarify.
Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs
You can do imperative in Haskell if you really want to (or OCaml).
It is difficult to quantify what constitutes an "average" american or an "average" Indian.

However, opinions and knowledge of a person is a function of the inputs they receive. For most people it is the media.

The US media paints India as a country of poverty and "exotic" things. If you scan through the major newspapers, heck! even regional newspapers of India, you will see a informative and balanced coverage of world events.

My comment was more about the lack of usable information to the US citizens that they obtain through their media to make informed decisions about India.

My intention was not to critique their general knowledge and world affairs.
"Acquiring it may not be pleasant: doing so may help support a neo-Nazi with a grudge."

What? Is there some news story this is referencing that I missed?
i'm getting a little tired of these types of articles. apples and oranges, people.
if you don't mind my asking - what's involved in the process that generates the PDF's?
Are you using a Secure FTP Client? | TechJaws: Internet Security and SEO
TinEye: image recognition search
CUDA-Enabled Apps: Measuring Mainstream GPU Performance
But it's written so well that it's a pleasure to repeatedly bang ones head against :) So go for it but expect to have to take it slowly... oh, and do the exercises otherwise it won't make sense.
BzzScapes: Brand Tracking Made Social
In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth
The fact that people do say 'ooh! new apple ads' is pathetic.Why would anyone care? it's an ad, if you have the product you don't need to see the ad, it only serves to stroke your ego and confirm your choice (which is an insecure thing to do). If you don't have the product why would you search for the ad rather than any actual information?
they make Microsoft look cheap and Apple look
premium ... this is not a message Apple is going to be upset by.

Wrong. Apple should be upset and is upset because the market for "premium" computers is a lot smaller than the market for non-premium computers. With this ad, Microsoft is making that premium market even smaller for Apple.

Us geeks can laugh about the ads all day. But for Microsoft, it's a hit.

If WalMart did an ad campaign to steal potential Gucci customers, Gucci should be very worried.
It’s actually in Microsoft’s favor to cast the choice as “Mac vs. PC.” There’s plenty of room in the market for a premium brand and a value brand. The endless Mac vs. PC flame war has been tremendously profitable for both companies, and it keeps other competitors from gaining a foothold.

If Microsoft looks like a good value, the idea of a free OS or a browser-based OS can’t penetrate the consciousness of the mass market.
Brazil is launching 10,000 new public telecentros using free software
In Brazil, the government has been opening these telecentros, which are basically public computer labs that anyone can use. In addition, they employ young people and train them on the care & feeding of Unix boxen. There are also free trainings for the public on using free software. More info at the link..
Doubt it, but does it really matter that Egg-co took inspiration from 37signals designs?

Of course I'm not saying people should blatantly copy another companies designs, but that I don't see why people should ignore perfectly good concepts (i.e. the way the mid-range plan sticks out) from other companies designs, just for the sake of it…that just seems like an awful way of spending your day, "umm okay, so how can we make this information look as good as this, without it actually looking like this?"
Cufón, the Javascript font rendering engine
The Lost Robot Saga Continues: Munich
??? I don't see the relation. Are you suggesting that, despite the economic conditions, only bad managers of bad companies have to lay people off? I think this is specious reasoning. I'd be careful of such advice if I were you, OP. And I mean no offense to jakewolf; I just think it's wise for the OP to be wary of this type of advice.
If you want a good feel for this stuff, try downloading and going through this course, "NAND to Tetris": (Link is not the course, but a talk about it.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507

The book is only $26, last I looked. The course software is all Open Source.

You'll see how digital logic is used to construct components like logic units and memory, which is then used to construct a computer, for which you create a computer language, which you then use to write an operating system, and finally, you program games on it.

This will then give you the wherewithal to really understand Godel-Escher-Bach:

http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/04...

If you want, you can read the book first, but then go through the course and read it again. The 1st time you read it, much of it will be lost on you, but the 2nd time, you'll have many Ah-HA! moments.

One key is Automata Theory. Understand that, and you can understand what you are trying to ask about.
If you are aware of some, point them out. In Microsoft's case, they are known, proven and verifiable.
Sometimes I think that the only way there will be a music industry is for the current one to go ahead and totally collapse, and then for the doomsday scenario to actually occur: For some reasonably value of "good music", there really isn't any more, for some large number of people's definitions of "good music". Only then would there be some real pressure to figure out how to make some money model work in the face of "free". The industry makes noises about how necessary they are, but "we" as a whole clearly don't believe them, and the only way they can prove they are right is to stop.

Of course, the music industry is stuck, in that it's very easy to make and distribute music. It's a common hobby, and has been for decades, and just gets cheaper and cheaper.

Maybe the movie industry could pull this off; while movies will continue to get easier and easier, I doubt a "summer blockbuster" will ever get as easy as music is now, if for no other reason than the fact that a five minute song is adequate but a "full" movie is an hour and a half, and each minute is intrinsically harder.

What if there isn't actually any way to monetize these industries? Should anything be done about that? What should, and what could, be done? I don't think going all draconian on copyright is worth it for society (the value of the movie industry is not infinite and it's distinctly less than free speech and freedom in general, no matter how they feel), but are there any other options? Because let's get real, we're not going to donate or micropay our way to "Star Trek" or "Terminator 4".
Ruby's Symbol#to_proc in Python
While I second the advice not to swap contact for equity, I might swap his getting me the contacts and getting the deals done for equity. 50% seems quite steep to me though for that; I'm with whoever said 5% but even that might be too high or too low depending on the value of the contracts he's able to get signed.

One word of caution, OP - be very careful of people on HN telling you absolutes. I see it over and over on this site: smart people are quick to offer advice in the form of, "This is how you should do it. That other way is ridiculous. {I|my friend} did it like this and we know it works." Careful... Just because one person says one thing works doesn't mean it will work or is right for you.

And I don't mean to douse anyone's flame on this thread; I'm just trying to add a bit of perspective.
Someone needs to give these guys a big wad of cash so they can index more sites. I got some interesting results even on some moderately obscure images, but many others returned no results.

Even with a small index, though, this is pretty damn cool.
Does crowdsourcing lead to boring products and services?
A book i used and liked: Mathematical Thinking, by West and D'Angelo.

It's more than a discrete text (it covers construction of the reals, limits, etc), but it covered a lot.
Yep. Seems too similar for there to not be some connection.
People want to see some new ads because those ads are entertaining in and of themselves. The entertainment value of an ad doesn't necessarily bear directly on its effectiveness at selling a product, but it can make people want to watch, which encourages exposure (even of those who don't currently own Macs).
haha, yeah, that is an embarrassing mixup. i even use it under linux and os x these days.
'The entire campaign has struck me as strange. "Hey, we know you want a cool, desirable Mac, but you can't afford one -- so settle for us, we're cheap!"'

Know. Your. Audience.

Where are these commercial being run? America. Now, I bet they'd crash and burn in Western Europe and I'm virtually certain they'd crash in Japan, but in America, they work.

Also, it should be pointed out that it is not just that they are cheap, but that they "do everything I want" (which is all the Apple could do) and that they are much cheaper, not just a little cheaper. "Does everything I want" for $2000, or "Does everything I want" for $900 is not a bad sales pitch.

(Incidentally, I'm not trying to be anti-American, nor do I think this is anti-American per se. Being cheap is neither good nor bad; it has advantages, it has disadvantages. Being able to be sold something "premium" just because it's "premium" isn't necessarily a good place to be, either. It is simply that American culture will take cheap over almost any other attribute.)
TuneUp Puts Boxed Software in Apple’s Stores
I second this. From time to time my mom sends me news stories related to startups and innovation in the US I have never read from the Indian regional language daily she reads!
People have a long history of watching and enjoying advertisements, and they have become increasingly elaborate over the years. A lot of people watch the Super Bowl as much for the ads as the sporting event. Given the high budget for ads and the current trend of "funny" or "ironic" ads, it's neither surprising nor shameful that people like them.

The "ooh new Apple ads" could be in part because the ads have two excellent comedian/actors who help do the writing, and because most people find the current stance that Microsoft takes against Apple to be somewhat comical. Personally, I enjoy seeing John Hodgeman every chance I get, even if it is in an ad. He's a funny guy.
I don't think that anyone has denied that they are able to monetize users in some fashion. What is hotly debated though is whether or not they can monetize users sufficiently enough to make those users profitable in the short and/or long term.

Facebook's overhead certainly appears to be quite substantial. They are literally building new datacenters and are running a ton of equipment. Even if you could theoretically fire all the sales, marketing and HR types, you'd still be left with a pretty big bill at the end of each month.

Various online sources say that Facebook has a little over 1,000 employees. Let's say the average employee is $80K fully loaded. That's $80M/year just in payroll. You haven't even talked about real-estate to sit those employees in, PCs for them to work on, or the servers and infrastructure to run the company.

Also, much of that revenue (for all practical purposes, maybe all of it) seems to be advertising related. There is a lot of talk about the declining values of online advertising, and no one seems to have cracked the system on how to do that advertising in a fully effective manner. So, Facebooks revenue is coming from a source that they don't have a strong ability to manage and control (vs., say, user subscription fees).
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I thought this was interesting because it's similar to the App Store - paying the margins is worth it to be exposed to customers used to paying money. I think more (definitely not all or even most) will specifically seek paying customers, as opposed to free or freemium.
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Blogging for Bucks: FTC to Crack Down on Pay-to-Play Posting
Brooks is one of their designated conservative columnists. Don't expect the op-ed page to sing with one voice.