skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I write checks for my rent. My apartment building has an online payment system but charges $4.95 for the "privilege" of paying electronically or $39.95 (holy cow) to pay by debit or credit card. Sadly, paying by sliding a check under the door of the management office is still free, so I do that.

Canadian here. I still use cheques for rent as well. Once a year I give the landlord a set of twelve post-dated rent cheques, and they deposit one a month. If I move out before the end of the year, I ask for all the unused ones back and void them. If they were to not return them, I have the cheque numbers so I would go to the bank and stop them.

It works out pretty well, all things considered. They're post-dated, so the landlord can't deposit them before the start of the month, and I don't have to remember to cut a cheque each month. I just have to ensure there's money in the account.

It does feel old-fashioned to write out a cheque by hand these days.
But presumably you'd need to hit the server for new content. The RTT on that alone would take more than 10 ms.
The smoothness thing is actually an architectural choice. On Windows and iOS, the multitasking subsystem will stop the world for a user gesture. On Android it treats a user gesture as one task to handle among many.
Lanyrd acquired by Eventbrite
hmmm,

2 weeks => 8 work hrs. per day. 5000$:80hrs. = 62,50$

1 $ = 0,7592$
= 47,4479€
= 47,45€
----------------
total: 3796€ in two weeks.

50€ per hr. is a german student designer/programmer (first uni year) price. nothing special. the most work for 70-120,00€ p. hour.
Steve, thanks for your thoughtful comments, I know you're talking from experience in this domain.

So "candidate A" needs to be told the truth and confront their limitations, else they will never improve. Candidates deserve honest and unbiased feedback from people who actually do the hiring, not their proxies, but at present there is precious little feedback given.

You make a good point about the size of the market, so I'm not about to sink life savings into a venture. I am however seriously considering spending a few days working up a MVP.
You make an interesting point. When I think back to the 2007, there was a huge buzz around what the iPhone would turn out to be. At that time, Nokia had some interesting R&D experiments such as the Nokia 770 tablet (followed by the n800 tablet). I worked with those devices from 06 and saw the UI improve at a steady but slow rate. The toolchain was very promising since it was just Linux+ARM. The UI chrome was called Maemo.

When Android first came out, I remember thinking how inferior it was compared to the Linux OS on the Nokia tablets. Nokia had the Symbian platform at that time... how can one fault them for not promoting the Linux based system then?
None. Gov is just too proud to seek professional guidance over the issue and is planning to reinvent the wheel.

Probably we'll see millions being spent into something nobody will use.
most of this is just a discussion in the abstract. I'm not aware of what citations he would need? Maybe cite the dictionary for definitions?

It seems very much like more of a FQA than a FAQ though.
Bootstrap Magic featuring Boostrap 3
Weird how this shows up today. I played Monopoly over the weekend and we were discussing the same thing!
It uses BigText (https://github.com/zachleat/BigText) to make each line of text to fit the container width
Sorry, but there is no remotely possible U.S. political world in which Afghanistan is not invaded after September 11. If avoiding military action after an attack on that scale is your standard for a "smart about risk" society, you'll be waiting a long, long time.
Also, I just realized, the rampaging patent monster is another reason MS did not buy the patents outright. Nokia has active lawsuits against many companies and I doubt anybody wants to inherit that kind of baggage.
Misleading title - Microsoft acquired the handset division; Nokia lives on in infrastructure and maps.
My first programming gig was in a windows shop in a small market doing plug-in programming on a proprietary platform. I stayed way too long, but my next gig was really interesting and paid over twice as much. I had to move to a bigger market, though.
If anyone wants to do it with Norwegian dialects, there's an awesome set of audio samples of the same text here: http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/nos/nos_kart.html

("I would be willing to guess that no speaker of these languages would be able to differentiate one from the other" – I highly doubt that. Dialects/languages differ more and more the closer they are to your own; I can tell if someone grew up a 15 minute drive away from me, but if the choice is between a place that is e.g. >3 hrs north vs >4hrs north I have a really hard time placing them.)
Arcane magic with the SQL MERGE
but at present there is precious little feedback given.

That's a massive pain point right there. Even the best candidates bemoan the fact that they rarely get feedback from interviews so you might possibly be on to something. Either way, good luck.
Eventbrite acquires Lanyrd and Eventioz to speed up its global expansion
The catch-22, of course, is that at some point, MySQL was the "new thing" to Diane, so how did she learn it in the first place?

The answer of course is that judgement is less about making decisions upon familiarity per se and more about knowing when unfamiliar technology seems to provide good trade offs given what is known about it. For example, PostgreSQL may be unfamiliar, but choosing it is a wildly different type of decision than choosing another less mature unfamiliar data store, since at a high level PostgreSQL is known to be a well-understood, mature technology that may provide significant leverage over MySQL in certain scenarios. Being able to understand the various dimensions of technology choices and make good ones with limited information and experience is what makes good judgement, not just an outright aversion to unfamiliar things.
I'm not sure that Thompson and Ritchie really did the world a favor with case-sensitive identifiers. I write a fair bit of PL/SQL, and don't mind the narrower range.
No Code is Good Code
And thus begins the successor to Linux.
I don't agree with the article at all. At least, not in the way it was presented.

Sure, designing such a small system to use Cassandra and Protocol Buffers might be overkill. Then again, it might not. Without more information, it would be impossible to know which one is the best developer.

For instance: how much time did the Node+Cassandra+Protobuf implementation take? How is that, compared to the junior dev that only knows MySQL? Was Jack on a deadline, or did he have time to explore alternatives? Was Jack really inexperienced, or he did have experience in the new tech, but wanted those in his resumé?

Were they billing hours? What about the coworkers, do they only know Ruby and MySQL too, or are they confortable about learning new things? Do they even have coworkers?

Was Jack's solution modular enough that components could be replaced, if they were a problem? (Cassandra, for instance)

And most importantly: what was it that made Jack's implementation unmaintainable? Sure it wasn't because they are "new"(the article is rather old) technologies. Was the code badly documented? Was the design flawed?

Jack's biggest flaws, as can be inferred from the article, is not asking enough questions before diving into the implementation, and not getting permission before using "new" tech.

I know the author did not get in depth about the personalities or the project itself because he wanted stereotypes to illustrate a point, which was taken. But the problem with it is that other people could get the impression that "new" technologies should never be considered, or that any attempt to make the application "scalable" from the beginning is a "Jack trait" and thus, wrong.

Not to mention that Jack might even be right, should the company's expectations prove to be too low.
Congratulations, guys! This seems like a really natural fit. The slidedeck was a thoughtful touch to explain it, too. :)
Geospot - No-Registration Nearby Chat with optional precise geolocalization
A couple of useful extensions to Ruby's Enumerable module
What would you choose: small profits, or no customers? That's the choice.

Android was "IBM PC trick", and competititors trying to preserve high margins and differentiate their products will end like Amiga, Commodore or Atari.
I was expecting something more along the lines of this post that I wrote a few months ago: http://interuserface.net/2013/05/flat-is-not-the-opposite-of... One of my draft titles for it was "moving beyond flat and skeuomorphic."
Nokia's most recent quarterly had them sitting on $4 billion EUR of cash ($5.2 billion), with barely any burn. I don't think the company was poised to go bankrupt anytime soon.

Either Microsoft is completing a long planned purchase, or Nokia threatened to dabble in Android. Other than that the purchase is irrational.
> Dianne's solution creates a maintenance problem if the number of devices grows too much or if network stability is a problem, or if there is an expectation down the line of, for instance, push sync.

None of those are maintenance problems, they weren't part of the additional spec. For custom to-spec development, if the requirements change then it's expected that the code will have to change as well, incurring a change order.

A maintenance problem would be something like MySQL being an unreliable DB or the code she wrote being unreadable. If someone needs to go in and fix inevitable bugs then there will be issues.

If the customer wants to add features later then they'll have to pay for the changes and if the new features are different enough from the original spec then the changes might be quite expensive.
I can barely do the most basic tasks in programming and you wrote an OS in high school? Bravo.
I agree with the op but have a different spin on it. It depends on what you see as your core business. Is your business about the technologies used to build the application or are you using technology to let, "kitchen devices synchronize their list of recipes". If your business is the later then you are better of using tried and tested technologies your developers are familiar with and can maintain without detracting from the core business.

Edit: grammar
The user experience is significantly worse for some cases, where Microsoft could have grabbed market share (though I don't know if it would have been worth it strategically).

I've posted several times about the awful experience:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6012362

I had some very ugly experiences setting up one for my cousin (I stupidly didn't lie and registered her as being from Uruguay and under 18), which made the phone behave like a brick ("sorry, no apps available in your country", "sorry, you have to be over 18 under laws from another country to use most of the features of this phone").

Changing the Live account did not work, I had to reset the phone and create another account for her, lying about her age and country so the phone could work properly (she wanted to use Skype and WhatsApp, not exactly the most demanding use case).
Maybe we should be asking why the things we make need to be maintainable. Why can't I just make program module x to input a and output b and never touch it again.

I believe modular code is the future and the sooner we get there the better.
SEEKING FREELANCER - Northeast Ohio, US / Remote

We're in search of an expert Drupal backend developer and server admin to add to our team. This position is not for a Drupal themer or front end developer. This position is not for someone that is satisfied building cookie cutter solutions.

- Fluent in PHP, Javascript (jQuery), MySQL Admin, etc

- Obsessed with doing things the Drupal way (using Drupal APIs whenever possible)

- Comfortable building custom modules that tie into external APIs

- More than capable of managing a large Drupal multi-site server configuration and motivated to see it operate as fast as possible

- Wouldn't dream of building anything outside of a git repo and understands the importance of branching often (loving Github is a bonus)

- Able to take a scope of project requirements and estimate its cost accurately

---

SKYCATCHFIRE (http://skycatchfire.com) is a small group of guys that are passionate about building world-class solutions that solve problems large and small. We take a lot of pride in our work and have a blast one-upping each of our client's competitors. If we can't be proud of the end result, we don't take on the project. Period.

To apply, please send examples of your work to hello@skycatchfire.com. No agencies or teams. Single applicants only.
The person that asked me the question was a very experienced Android user that legitimately got two viruses on their phone that were causing link hijacking and popup advertisements.

He just assumed that Windows Phone would have the same virus issues as Android.
The ideal way is to build for either postgres or mysql, using vanilla SQL, therefore both shipping something that is known to work (mysql, in her case) and learning something about postgres. My observation is aside from anecdotes and peculiar corner cases which should be very strongly avoided, the philosophy of mysql is always the cub scout motto "try your best". The philosophy of postgres is more like "It shall be perfection at all times or I will curl up and die horribly as the ultimate prima donna". When times are good and there's nothing unusual, there is absolutely no practical difference. Its a meaningless personality test to walk up to a dev and ask which outlook on life matches their own outlook and which makes them feel like vomiting. It tells you something about the dev and nothing about the problem. Rarely, if ever, does actual business need enter into the debate.

Postgres/mysql is a business needs decision that needs to be made at a higher pay grade than hers, most likely. Assuming anyone at a higher paygrade knows anything about databases or specifically mysql vs postgres. If no one at a higher level understands, its her job to put it into simple little one syllable words even an overpaid MBA can understand, or they simply have to trust an underling to make a higher level decision.

Something not discussed in the article specifically is this behavior comparison is classic bodger/tinkerer behavior aka Jack vs true engineer behavior aka Dianne. Most people are flexible between the two, some are notoriously inflexible... I have a backyard garden swing built to hold 4500 pounds because that reflected my junk pile at the time and desire to never maintain the swing after installation, although over-specification behavior like that at work would lead to my firing or the financial failure of the company, so I gotta know when to switch. This should have been explicitly discussed in the article.
13 Secrets Airline Pilots Won’t Tell You
1981 Article, "Why Japanese factories work," Relevant for Healthcare in 2013
I used to frequent a bookstore whose owner loved Pascal. He didn't like it when people pronounced it the way it looks.
Bravo indeed! I only started programming in my senior year of high school. I wanted to write an operating system for my senior project, but I thought that was WAY too ambitious. Kudos!
My phone does this for me as well, including when I am using a pull out keyboard which lessens but not eliminates the chance of a dirty touchpad.
You're right. I meant to say one of the signs of a leader, you also need charisma && (authority || prestige).
Instagram didn't even make an Android first-party app for 16 months after the iOS one.
> Nokia Siemens Networks

NSN is no longer Nokia Siemens Networks; it's Nokia Solutions and Networks now, and Siemens is no longer part of it.
The REST/Sinatra/MySQL solution was chosen in contrast to protocol buffers and Cassandra - the scaling potential of the systems are very different.

If you haven't worked on a project of this nature then the complications are likely not to be obvious to you. For instance, once this ships, they will be required to maintain that version of the REST API that was designed forever, including any side effects or semantic weirdness. If they determine that some changes are required for the sake of scale, they need to cross their fingers pretty hard that they can squeeze all of those changes into the existing API.

If this system were truly designed with Dianne's current abilities in mind, we don't know what that REST API looks like. Is it possible to imagine that it sends the full listing of recipes on every request? Absolutely. Are you going to be required to do that forever once the device ships? Yes.
it would be much more productive to discuss the merits of the article and the author's efforts rather than trying to look smart.
Yes. However, that $5000 was at a point where I wasn't actually actively working on the product itself. The total is nearly $9k at this point, but assuming I put in 140 hours of work that comes out to roughly the same per hour amount. Like I said above, this is definitely not a full time thing yet.
Three wheels, 84 mpg and $6800
I self-published a programming book a while ago, and it brings in about $700 per month. I didn't see the big initial spike the OP did (shame), but the money has been consistent, and I would expect it to continue for several years.

Total start-up costs: $150 (proof copies etc.)

We're lucky as programmers that we tend to be able to wrangle LaTeX, and some of us have taste in typography and an ability to write decent prose. This means that the up-front cost of editors, typesetters, cover designers and so on is gone.

The disadvantages compared with my previous (real) publisher are a) no advance and b) no marketing and c) paying for translations to be done. Everything else has been an advantage.

When someone buys my book on Amazon for $35 I get $21. No traditional publisher can beat that.
How is Dianne solution not maintainable or scalable? I have used flask gevent and mysql to take similar load. MySQL is not bad at all if you check everything you send it with explain detailed while developing.
Who in their right mind would do something like this? Even the most technologically illiterate person I know understands how their Apple ID/Google Account works and that their purchases are tied to it. As for forgetting one's password, this is why just about every login form on the internet has a "Forgot Password" link/button.

This is NOT the norm.
Indeed and if you look at the accuser's account, it reads like a Slashdot profile :)
The language has changed? Singular "they" has been used in English since at least the 15th century.
Where is the 'correct use of TLDs' documented? I hope you never come across URL shortening services, like goo.gl, or bit.ly or you'll really get confused.

Do you run afandian.com? You should change it to afandian.co.uk because that's really not a commercial website and by your logic, you're misleading people by using incorrect usage of the TLD system.
Remember Hanlons razor...
So after these revelations of government spying, the idea is to trust email to a government? There is a potential user of such a system born every minute, I suppose.
I feel this would be the best way forward.
Hosting a file
+ handling payments (in all major currencies)
+ providing worldwide visibility via search and app categories

Those last two are pretty big, if you ask me.
"Strange how much human progress & accomplishment comes from contemplation of the irrelevant." - Scott Kim
Because at some point f(a)->b will need to be very slightly different, and it won't make sense to write f(b)->b' for performance reasons.
Extremely slow unfortunately.
Promoted tweet used to complain about British Airways
If it has an SD card slot, you can fix this problem by rooting the phone and installing a custom ROM that lets you force apps to be stored to the card. That's what I would do. In the process you would even get to have a 4.1 or so version of Android.
How can I use this as a home web server if my ISP blocks port 80?

"Don’t want the trouble of buying your own domain? Don’t worry. arkOS will allow you to connect your node to the Internet anyway, through a variety of services like dynamic DNS and port relays. Sometimes your Internet connection might prohibit you hosting your own data. In these circumstances, arkOS will provide ways to connect your node to the greater World Wide Web."

How does that work?
At least they never got their paws on Qt.
Percona Server 5.6.12-60.4 third Release Candidate is now available
Not anymore, since they require accounts now.
What Does Udacity Do with Data?
You are free to do whatever you want with the software. The only real restriction under the GPL is that you are not allowed to distribute modified binaries of GPL software without releasing the corresponding source code.
Microsoft and Nokia? Steve Jobs would be snickering
I guess it depends on how efficient you want to be regarding your hardware costs. I have had to replace systems built in exactly this way because of traffic from fewer users than you'd think.
We interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA
ACH funds land next-day, (usually early morning) if they're sent by the cutoff time, which is usually 8pm EST. Source: My business is built on timely sending of ACH funds.
I really, really like the idea. However, I neither have nor want a Twitter account. Would it really be difficult to allow people to use the site without a Twitter account?
That's awesome, congratulations!

> no marketing

That's definitely been the biggest learning component of this project. Having to do all of the marketing myself has been eye opening and very instructional.
More importantly, the people at the top need the people lower on the ladder to pay their salary, either through companies that advertise or by paying directly. There may be an implosion at the top if they automate too many jobs away before magic market forces create replacements.
Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri. The double i would only occur if the stem already ends in i, such as radius: radi- + -us.

http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/WORDS.EXE?virus

In English the plural is viruses.
> At some point not so long ago, they also threatened to replace Google's search engine with Bing by default.

In iOS 7, Siri (the only search interface Apple cares about) will search Bing by default. Source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/06/10/a-wiser-siri-snubs...