skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I haven't commented on this dustup until now, but what the heck.

I guess I can't understand how this could even be argued. Of course being difficult for your main audience to understand is going to make it more difficult for you to be successful. It just is.

I'm going to give PG a pass on the 'foreign accents' bit because he'd probably as soon say a strong southern accent would be just as detrimental as a strong russian accent (I hope).

I look at it this way. I ran a dev team 8 or so years ago. Half the team was in the US and the other half in India. The half in India, while speaking English, couldn't understand the team in the US (including myself) when we spoke. And vise versa.

We were both speaking English but we couldn't understand each other. As the manager at the time I had to make sure I was understood to both teams all the time. It was a great effort on my part. I wrote quite a bit more in the beginning and spent a LOT of time on the phone with the team in India. Did I mention that it took a LONG time? It did.

This is compounded when you are a founder. A founder needs to be understood all the way around as precisely as possible. I completely understand what PG was saying, or maybe, trying to say.

Now, all that said, if he stands by 'foreign accents' rather than 'accents' or, even better 'being understood', well then, I'll take back my defense of PG and mostly just say how important it is to be understood by your audience.
With the apparent growing trend on emerging markets of Windows Phones (the Lumia series produced by Nokia, and pushed by carriers on LATAM like Telcel/America Movil)

This seems like a great move from MS, they have bought more runway.

But come on, the move was telegraphed a couple of years ago.
At the end of the comments.

BQ

Sometimes, to fuel my orneriness, I read the comments at WSJ.com. I usually end up in despair, but today I was rewarded with this unexpectedly germane nugget, posted in response to a feature article about the lives of middle managers in America:

> My VP at Charles Schwab, a white man named Chris Nichols, told me that none of my top direct reports in my IT group (all Asian-Americans) could be promoted because of their "foreign accents". Thus ended my career as a middle-level manager. And I couldn't be happier. <

/BQ
Nice article. I love how some of the most widely used stuff now days is just something random that some developer at the time thought up whimsically.
And now Microsoft has a hardware division. I can easily see most hardware vendors being ousted by the trio of Google/MS/Apple - all of whom now either make or have been making their own hardware to go along with their software. And so the walled garden grows...
Considering the amount paid for Motorola by Google, isn't it cheap?
When the Windows NT kernel began driving mainframe-class hardware they weren't selling software for microcomputers either.

It's just a name.
All I got from the linked pages is that every month I will get an additional 1GB to store things.
Apply directly to the forehead. Head-on
Apply directly to the forehead.
Nokia to sell Devices & Services business to Microsoft
I'm working fine on a late-2009 MacBook Pro, still pristine with <50 battery cycles, just lacking some RAM upgrade (still on 4gb). If I replace the HDD for SSD down the line, it will last even longer.
Wow. Some call Tomi.

For copious, copious background on the MS/Nokia debacle, 'burning platform' to present: communities-dominate.blogs.com

(Not affiliated, just an avid fan of this mobile industry analyst-become-blogger who does his own stats. Some of the charts are chilling.)
So, they promise 50gb cloud storage for $5/mo (not initially, but after you sign up and wait 4 years). That's about $5 at current S3 storage prices - http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

Why not "invest": unproven reliability and performance, uncertain future.
There are some good tips and links here, but I don't understand the "hacking" metaphor. There are no big secrets. It all comes down to the "always be coding" idea that was presented a few months ago [1]. It just takes discipline and time-management. Succeed at that and many offers will come your way.

[1] https://medium.com/tech-talk/d5f8051afce2
Was this posted because of the story on NPR earlier today? http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/09/02/217287...
Make a meat-based one and we'll talk.
How's on Motorola?
This is an example of what I love about the open source community. Some argue that signed boot was an attempt to force the open source community out by holding the keys to the ability to boot, as it were. Some think it's just relentless advancement of the forces of centralization and the establishment's view on security. Regardless of all of that, we can now take advantage of it to ensure our machines can only boot our trusted, linux/bsd/home-built OSes. I'm reminded of the car dealer crossroads from "In the beginning was the command line".

Open Source FTW.
Gcc: The Wonders of a Loosely Typed Compiler
Samsung is several times larger than Google. Their phone division probably isn't, but it makes no business sense to buy part of a vertically-integrated market leader.
Well from a bit of Googling it would seem that Samsung has a market capitalisation of ~USD$120B vs. Nokia's ~USD$14B.

I'm unsure of what % of Samsung is mobile devices, but one would assume Google would have to throw a lot more money at Samsung to buy their devices division than MS is spending to buy Nokia (according to their press release: USD$7.17B)
'If you want a friend - get a dog'. Likewise, if you want empathy, watch Oprah.

I believe there needs to be room for honest realistic views to be voiced - even if you don't like the reality they describe.

PG did not say that janitors need to polish their accent - he's talking about startup founders. These are the guys that want to strike it rich, let's be real. If you want to "make it" in this part of the world, deal with the fact that command of English is expected from company founders here.

And yes - it's not my native language either.
I'm not sure that was ever likely with Elop at the helm, but Nokia is now out of the phone business until at least 2016.
Am I out of line thinking Mozilla should be far more conservative? It seems vaguely irresponsible for a non-profit to be so lavish in the number of employees they have, their office, their perks.

I'm not suggesting they need to be extreme in the other direction, just somewhat conservative.

That Google money can't last forever and it seems like they should be stockpiling a large portion of it for the long term, not blowing every dollar -- living, effectively, paycheck to paycheck.

I wonder if the employees/interns there have a sense that it's all eventually going to come crumbling down. Because I get that sense every time I hear about how they operate, and I really hope it never happens because I think they're a good thing in the world.
Samsung has a market cap of around 200 billion now. Google couldn't afford it.
> I really enjoyed the pre-Microsoft Nokia, I had account in their dev forums, and loved their SDKs, community, Sybian, whatnot.

Really?

I thought their SDK circa 2007 (especially the emulator) and API docs were terrible, and Symbian C++ was a real pain to work with. Also, segregation between regular developers and Nokia partners (who paid to have access to extra private APIs) put unnecessary barriers to development.

I won't miss it.
BQ

Sometimes, to fuel my orneriness, I read the comments at WSJ.com. I usually end up in despair, but today I was rewarded with this unexpectedly germane nugget, posted in response to a feature article about the lives of middle managers in America:

> My VP at Charles Schwab, a white man named Chris Nichols, told me that none of my top direct reports in my IT group (all Asian-Americans) could be promoted because of their "foreign accents". Thus ended my career as a middle-level manager. And I couldn't be happier. <

/BQ
Drunk hulk and devops borat
Android is partly open source. It's neither open nor closed in the same way as gray isn't black or white.

Google has all the right to change the openness of it's software, but generally should be truthfull in their marketing. I haven't lately found them promoting Android for being open source, so all we need to be aware of is that Android, iOS, WP, BB are not open and are of course made to create profit for their companies from their users.
Do we imagine Elop tanked Nokia on purpose to cheapen the cost of this acquisition (and shutter the patents under one roof)?
Great product, I'm sure. CAT's should be mentioned too, they're used on arms and legs and can be applied quickly. Hope I'll never have to need one (not serving)

'preventable death'... Policy and politics has the ability to prevent death by greater numbers even before we feel the need to rupture the aortas of our fellow human beings.

I'm curious, I was told most use cases of tourniques would require subsequent amputation. Is this the case here, as well? Do you amputate the pelvis? What would the life of a soldier look like in the hours, days after he received an injury to the abdomen and being saved by a device like this?
Samsung has ~5x the revenues, ~5x the assets and ~2x the profit of Google.

Unless Google wants to leverage itself for the next 10 years to acquire a company that does engineering services, shipbuilding, heavy industrial manufacture, life insurance, theme parks, aerospace and oh I guess some mobile devices here and there, I don't see this happening.

Edit: for the interest of passers-by, the deleted comment proposed that Google might buy Samsung. It was possibly a light-hearted remark, but luckily nitpicking folk like yours truly were here to save the thread from inaccuracy. :D
Well, it finally happened...
I disagree. I doubt purchasing Nokia's phone business would make PC vendors any more worried than Surface/Surface Pro did. Windows is still king of the desktop and unless Android becomes a desktop OS or Apple starts licensing OS X there aren't any real alternatives with consumer brand recognition. If Ubuntu were the answer then System 76 would be more than a boutique PC maker. If MS starts making desktops, laptops, and servers... Then yeah it'll be a hectic day for the people responsible for Windows OEM relationships.

The worry here for MS, as I see it, is really that they loose HTC and Samsung and any other potential Windows Phone partner. I'm guessing they're prepared to deal with the consequences.
You're in a demographic that clearly chooses not to spend money or doesn't have any money to spend, which is not attractive to people trying to make money on the internet. I'm guessing government sites would be the only sites that are interested in serving you.
There's no doubt that Nokia has been buoyed by Microsoft leading up to this acquisition. The lack of android devices would have been completely illogical if this wasn't the long game.
Nokia sold to Microsoft for ~$1.5 billion less than what Skype was sold for
Were F#%ked - Australian Sex Party
The Australian Sex Party shows why we are f#*ked in this election.
Wow. So he kept nokia stagnant while samsung and apple exploded in the smartphone market and now he gets to be CEO of another company thats been stagnant for years(he was already passed up for being CEO at MSFT before he left to nokia). I guess microsoft's strategy is to keep chasing after the devices market.
That’s very, very hapless coming from Mr.Graham (and is pretty offensive to people who had lobotomies for medical conditions, they are surprisingly normal).

Is this parody?
or HTC?
It's the retailer's responsibility - after all, the manufacturer might not even have a channel for the general public to access, or even go by the branding on their parts.

The problem is as elithrar points out - 'doing something about it' doesn't necessarily mean 'replaced right now'. Responsibility for the repair may lie with the manufacturer, but the retailer sold the goods - if they're faulty, then it is the retailer's responsibility to make good on them. Just as it's the manufacturer's responsibility to make good on faults encountered by the retailer.

MSY (a super-cheap retailer) got slapped for foisting warranties back onto the manufacturer, and 'now honour warranties' (see section 2 here http://www.msy.com.au/pdf/TermsofTrade.pdf).
The UK is also an example of effective, well-used conventional rail (up to 125 mph) in a densely populated region. It went downhill a bit after privatisation, but it's mostly recovered, and usage is high and increasing. There's now a high speed north-south line planned, because the busiest major route is soon going to be running at capacity.
<quote>Two turkeys don't make an eagle</quote>
> How much science do you actually know?

I think you need to address the topic, not the participants.

> If you seek positive proof of everything, then you can never generalize from experience at all.

No, you can generalize theories that have been supported by reliable evidence. You know, like in science?

> Sorry, but you fail at basic logic.

Are you now going to try to argue that scientific theories eventually become true? Are you aware of the history behind that falsehood?

> It is absolutely valid in science to ask, "What is the consequence if this theory applied to that system."

Yes, and that remark has no bearing on the present topic or conversation.

> ... even though it means accepting things we cannot test at the moment.

Not in science. This is science 101, and you need to learn it. Scientific theories must be vetted by empirical evidence. If this isn't possible, the ideas under discussion are hypotheses, not theories. Here's why:

The bottom line for scientific theories is falsifiability. This is non-negotiable.

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

Quote: "The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain, which is measured by its ability to make falsifiable predictions with respect to those phenomena."

What is a "falsifiable prediction"? In order for a prediction to be falsifiable, it must be open to a practical, empirical test, a comparison with reality. No test, no science.

Many other ideas are interesting, some of them may eventually rise to the level of science, but until they can be tested and potentially falsified, they are not science.

A tempest in a teapot? Before you decide, try keeping religious fundamentalists from teaching Creationism in public school classrooms. They want exactly what you want -- a more relaxed idea of what constitutes science.

> However the path that science has taken for centuries says that we should make that assumption ...

Science makes no assumptions, it performs experiments. If no experiments or repeatable, objective observations are possible, it's not science, it's philosophy.

Why do you think it took so long for quantum theory to be accepted? How did Einstein justify arguing against it for so many years? The answer is that, in the early days, there were too few ways to test the theory. That's all changed, and the only reason quantum theory is a theory are the great number of empirical tests that have been made, and repeated.

Feel free to speculate about multiple universes and the many-worlds hypothesis, but without evidence, don't expect to be able to bully people into accepting it as science. And guess who will be least flexible on this issue? People called scientists.
Why not? Companies certainly have no problem interviewing B-list candidates.
The Great Language Game: How many languages can you distinguish between?
This is a great move. There is no money in being an Android vendor except if you're Samsung and are totally vertically integrated. With Windows Phone, Nokia and Microsoft at least have some hope of carving out a profitable stake in the market.

Anecdotally, I'm very impressed with some of the new Lumias. I got a 620 to replace my stolen iPhone, and for $200 unlocked its phenomenal phone. The build quality makes a flagship Samsung feel like cheap plastic crap. And Windows Phone flies despite the modest specs. I was disappointed in the 920 I had earlier, but at this price point the shoe is on the other foot.

I hope this is portends a Microsoft phone...
They already have several hardware products including Xbox, Kinnect, keyboards, mice, and the Surface.
Microsoft Enters Into $7.2B Deal To Buy Nokia’s Devices And Services Business
Yeah, it would be interesting to see if any MSFT shareholders are that dumb. Elop's idiocy destroyed Nokia, now let's sic him on Microsoft too.
I hope this doesn't sound like piling on, but I agree with your parallel to music and come to the opposite conclusion. Even a small amount of ability is better than none, and it's a good thing that the barriers to access and boundaries between professional and amateur are being blurred. Being untalented and unable to produce music anyone would pay for is a terrible reason to give up on making music.
I'm not down voting you, but "end of story" is not a great way to begin a dialogue on your unsupported opinion.
With the iMac you would have 1x27" and 1x30" — that's not too bad is it? (That's my current setup and I find it quite good.)
Hey guys, stop it, April 1st is like 8 months away!
3 walled gardens is a very, very bad thing. Couple this with what Google's doing with the new Play Services and Motorola and with what Apple's been doing the entire time, and we could be in for a world of hurt when there are no "open" platforms (as in, for OEMs to build for).
Because most people in Europe and North America have to wake up first? ;)
I hope Ballmer and Gates have a dedicated CEO in mind now that Ballmer's leaving... very few people will be able to lead a company this large, and it will be quite a tragedy if Microsoft's reputation declines and takes down Nokia with it.
"Everyday everyone creates more data by editing files, taking pictures, and sending messages."

'Everyday' should be 'Every day'. 'Everyday' is an adjective.
The market certainly seems to be agreeing with you in that the 520 and 620 are the most popular models.
Cheap baby monitor with Android and a Tenvis IP Cam
How well does the first party Instagram app run on that Lumia?
50 in four years? Wow, I have a new retina that I bought first day and its at 75. I thought I was not all that big on cycle counting my laptops.

You sir, win that award.
So Microsoft just handed the entire Asian manufacturers’ bunch to the Android ecosystem. Not that they’re not already there but it would be hard for any manufacturer now to invest on Windows when they would think that MS is already giving the edge to Nokia.

Also this comes like an acceptance from MS that they can’t penetrate the smartphone market. So they prefer to invest heavily on devices they own. Which is a first in their 30+ years of building software. Could this mean a similar approach in tablets?

The price though is a bargain. It’s significant less than what Google paid to buy Motorola and Nokia is in a pretty much better state than Motorola in many aspects.
"New/changed since last month" would have been a great filter.
plant based isn't for everyone but here is an MMA fighter who is on a similar diet (MMA Fighter Mac Danzig: Athletic Prowess on a Plant-Based Diet https://www.plantdietlife.com/post/11/).
Exactly. "GPS" data is certainly available and part of the standard open source framework: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/pack...

But access to e.g. Google's giant wifi-to-location database isn't part of that API. And it's a good service, and something that is hard to replicate and thus a competetive advantage.

But to speak to the upthread parent: it has nothing to do with "drivers". The HAL interface for GPS data is part of AOSP.
We've yet to see Google do anything interesting w/ Motorola though (unless I've missed something). The Nexus line are all currently built by LG, no? So sure they own Motorola, but they haven't (tightly) integrated it into their Android plans.
You want to keep hitting refresh, refresh, refresh?
You may be correct, but google's acquisition of Motorola didn't limit the growth of android at all.
If canonical plays it's hand well, they could benefit, as could firefox on mobile, but displacing microsoft on desktops is still a huge challenge.

Windows 8 'lackluster performance' still has greater market share then osx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_system...

I know some will say 'but iOS/android...', but those are in addition too, not a replacement.
But now they're in control of a hardware vendor - one in a position to allow them to close off WP8 to other OEMs, and potentially a future version of Windows.
Why is that an unreasonable expectation if their job is to write such a thing? If you want to write software for aircraft then I don't see it as unreasonable that you be expected to understand both software and aircraft.
Pascal was (is?) a great language, never had trouble hacking and figuring out Pascal/Delphi code, even code clearly written by below-average programmers. I don't think many languages pass this litmus test.

Also interesting is looking at old Pascal code and seeing how it stood the test of time. I had a lot of fun reading the Photoshop v1 source [1]

[1] http://computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code...
It might also depend on your ethnicity. If you're Korean, I would suggest a Scottish accent, Scotch-Koreans are rumoured to be hilariously funny.
Here's my take. Nokia's downfall has literally been the biggest business failure in the history of the planet - see communities-dominate.blogs.com for backstory. (As I mentioned in a previous post; I'm largely summarizing things Tomi proves with hard data.)

My interpretation of this is that the increasingly untenable position of Stephen Elop began to incriminate the whole board, as any toppling of Elop would invite all sorts of questions as to why he wasn't booted yonks ago. The only way that Microsoft had of avoiding another black eye for Windows was to buy Nokia to appease investors (seriously, how many black eyes can one platform get? Is it a potato?)

Consider: Had the headline read, "Microsoft deal destroys World's Leading Manufacturer of Mobile" (which incidentally is the actual, ink-on-paper market position held by Nokia circa Elop's hire, shows Tomi) and it could have destabilized the larger Windows ecosystem too.

If this claim seems histrionic, recall that the ENTIRE PC INDUSTRY is like a tenth the size of mobile. Yes, I love my PC too, but most consumers seem much happier with other devices for a wide range of use cases. Therefore, getting Windows on those devices mattered. Windows Phone mattered. Windows RT mattered. Intel is on its back leg, and ARM is about to make its final assault on the server closet, where Windows Server is melting away faster than ice on a VAX.

And yet I don't think people realize exactly how vulnerable Microsoft is. The one good thing Ballmer did is notice. Way too late, though. It seems strange to me that there are others who are even less clueful than Ballmer. If your business depends in ANY WAY on Microsoft -- and it probably does -- plan accordingly.
It was expected all along since Elop ditched Meego which was key to Nokia's success. It won't help Microsoft though, but expect a lot of damage from this. Nokia already attacked VP8 codec with their patents. Now Microsoft will use all Nokia's patents to bring patent trolling to new heights.