skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> No chip and pin. You still sign credit card slips.

I don't sign them, I just move the pen in a wiggle. It's gotten to the point that many stores don't even ask for a signature at all. If you use the debit card network then you have a pin. The difference between mag-strip and chip isn't that large in practice.

> You have to interact with the branch where you set up your account for a bewildering array of things.

I haven't been in a physical bank in over a decade.

> Sending a wire transfer overseas involves sitting in a branch and filling in reams of paper work.

No it doesn't. You can do it online and it takes just a few minutes.

> Wells Fargo...

Sorry, don't know what this situation is.

> Bank account numbers are treated as secret information - they are starred out in the online banking interface! Apparently, it I know your bank account number I can take your money?

Sort of, but your account number is printed on every check, so it's not really secret. And anyway it's not really that easy to take money that way - you have to be a validated organization.

> People still use cheques for things! Which you have to pay extra for (you actually buy cheques from your bank). And "electronic banking" incorporates mobile apps that scan cheques.

We don't use cheques, we use checks. :) Depending on the bank you may get them for free, and they are pretty cheap from 3rd parties (you don't have to buy them from the bank). Legally you can even print your own - especially if you get magnetic toner. Or just write one on a piece of paper.

But people with checks are becoming less common - people use online bill pay which will print and mail a check for you for free. (And convert the check to an electronic deposit if they know the account number of the recipient.)

> As a general rule, paying someone some money (for rent, for example) is fraught with difficulty, especially if you hold a non-US bank account.

Bill pay. It's free (usually) and very easy. A non-US bank account is a big problem though (but one very very few people experience).

> No obvious equivalent to the UK direct debit system for automatic bill payments.

Bill pay again.

> Coming from Europe, It all feels decidedly third rate. I don't think the solution is bitcoin, I think the solution is fixing regular banking.

Don't go to a physical bank. Online banking is where it's at now.
This sounds very familiar. In the Haskell community this is one of the reasons we enjoy Haskell.
I disagree. Can't is "we are unable to", not "we could if we just changed a couple lines of code".

They can claim they won't, but can't is misleading to the point of fraud, in my opinion.
We are one step away from a communist takeover in Brazil and now they talk about a "safe e-mail"? Yeah right.
Integrating the cultures of both companies will be the most difficult thing to do.

I foresee more changes in Nokia than in Microsoft (being Microsoft the acquirer that shouldn't sound strange).

But, is this the most desirable?
Creating a UK company is pretty easy, and you can use Stripe UK... I would imagine that invoicing the company for profits would be fine and wouldn't cost more, but, well, this is a pretty drastic step just to be able to use a web app! Goes to show you how much better than the competition Stripe is.
It's looking more and more like a blatant take over from within via Elop as a Microsoft puppet. Now Elop has a high chance of becoming CEO of Microsoft.

Either way, it's not looking good for either Microsoft or Nokia. Those massive mega mergers rarely go well, for one party or the other.

I suspect that the name Nokia will be no longer in 2 years time.
> It also spans desktop, mobile,

Yes, one desktop. One mobile

> online services,

That everyone else also integrates with. Apart from live/msn email accounts, which are exclusive because it doesn't expose any sane interface (unless it changed with the move to outlook backend?)

> private/public cloud and you can integrate anywhere.

I don't even know what that means. Integrate anywhere?

You know what else could have the same description? Nokia/Maemo - spans linux desktop, linux mobile, online services (can connect anywhere), private/public cloud (it's just an account), can integrate anywhere (whatever that means). And where is it now? Dead.
Wow, I'm a South Korean married to an American, and I've been in the US for 15 years too. Your comment is fascinating. I'm gonna have to devise some tests to see which pidgins my husband is sneaking into his English when he talks to me!

The switching back-and-forth in social occasions worries me -- it may be all good intentions, but I want to have better contol over how the 3rd party may perceive us/me.

It is definitely interesting to hear the observations from the native partner's point of view, and the "coping" stories from the other side :) Thank you.
> If someone doesn't agree with you it doesn't mean they are a shill.

Maybe, but sometimes this is the simplest explanation to a well-timed explosion of PR-like, blatantly untrue, astroturfish and "loltastic" statements.

Nokia is a failure in the smartphone business, only out-failed by Blackberry at the moment. Microsoft has been a has been in that sector since the arrival of the first iPhone. If anyone seriously believes two bricks float better than one, it's time to change the meds.
Please put "Free Software (c)(tm)(r) FSF" or some appropriate similar notice. Otherwise people not familiar with the overloaded meaning of "Free" used by FSF would get a wrong impression that they are actually free to do whatever they want with it.
The article is full of errors and unbacked claims.

> ... adding on a mobile phone business that Microsoft probably should abandon ...

Why should it be abandoned? Just because the author isn't a fan of WP8?

> have argued that Stephen Elop made a massive strategic error by choosing Windows Phone over Android; ... It would have been to Nokia’s benefit to have everyone running Android, including themselves.

Not necessarily true. There's only one manufacturer making money on Android at the moment, Samsung. When Elop got aboard, Nokia was already waaay behind. It's not like he drove them down, he merely tried saving them. Choosing Android might have gone better, but probably not. At least it was better going for WP than sticking to their own, dying systems.
they didnt buy Nokia, they bought part of Nokia no?
>My vote also goes for Nokia being financially in trouble, and M$ have their hand forced by the fear of a collapse in Nokia would gut the distribution channels for all the flagship windows phone models.

I believe M$ and Nokia made a strategic agreement around 12 months ago that guaranteed that if anyone were to purchase Nokia, it would be Microsoft. The writing has been on the wall since then. I don't know why people are surprised by this move.
Do you have plans to make it work without a Twitter account?
This post doesn't address the main reasons for PE.

- Accessibility
- Spiderability by search engines

If you want to say PE is dead please explain how these don't matter to most websites.
Can you provide more stats? I'm curious for the full list of language stats - which ones are easy to guess, which ones are hard to guess.
I'm not sure why so many are predicting WPs death - it's actually doing pretty well outside the US. Here in the UK it's now just under 10%. Pundits are far too US orientated.
Except you have tabula rasa in console business every few years so you could jump anytime if you have the money. And games as entertainment products rarely have legs longer than a generation - we the PC master race are spoiled with decade long backwards compatibility but in the console world it is rarely so.

And entertainment business (because the console is just a hardware dongle) is different beast.
Microlancer – Fast and affordable digital services
> This is an acquisition that arguably puts Microsoft mobile capabilities above that of Google's, and closest to Apple's.

Man.. What have you been smoking?

> They're getting industry veterans with great design talent

Who consistently failed to exceed 3% of market share.

> They're acquiring proven channels to access global markets.

Very low-margin markets.

> Both Nokia and Microsoft have been floundering in the mobile space recently; neither have had any real explosive successes. Together they might make some really compelling offerings.

According to your logic, two bricks tied together float better than one.
(Disclaimer: I am a native croatian speaker.) There's a significant difference between croatian and serbian language: croatian language is composed of three dialects and a standard language which are not found in serbian. It was a political movement to merge one of those dialects (shtokavian) with serbian language. So, serbian is somewhat similar to shtokavian but not to other dialects that compose the rest of the croatian language.
Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography
California Abruptly Drops Plan to Implant RFID Chips in Driver's Licenses
Mega Man's Creator Turns To Kickstarter To Fuel His New Game
Few ways to get business loans effectively
The tragedy in the deal, as I hinted at earlier, is that I think Microsoft ought to abandon Windows Phone.

According to the author, MS should abandon the fastest growing class of computing devices. What kind of a strategy is that?!

Meanwhile, Windows Phone sales are up 77% YoY.
Don't you mean within the eurozone? Because otherwise this is not true.
It'll be fascinating to see how this plays out. What's Tim Cook's magic number for price/performance in the iPad to justify an architecture swap, and can Intel hit it? I would have thought no a few months ago, but ULV Haswell looks like it's the precursor to something very, very nice.

It's hard to underestimate just how easy a platform swap would be for Apple (and Google already supports both in shipping products).
American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids. Here’s How
Can someone verify the Turkish sample (http://media.greatlanguagegame.com/samples/752c4c30d475748a3...)?

I've only been there on holidays but it doesn't sound right to me, perhaps it's just the low quality of the sample but the phonemes seem far more 'Eastern' to me.
> This must have been in the works for months

This thing started before Elop left Microsoft. They have perfected executive outplacement as an offensive weapon.
SQL JOIN tables should be used rather than comma-separated tables

Having used SQL since long before the ANSI JOIN syntax was well supported (first Sybase, then MS SQL and then Oracle) I resisted it for a long time out of habit, and also because at first the syntax was buggy when used in Oracle.

But I have come around to being in favor of it. The bugs have been fixed, and the main advantages are that: inner and outer joins are more clearly stated than by using '*=', or '(+)' suffixes on one side of a predicate; and the join criteria are clearly separated from the WHERE clause. It makes it much easier to see how the tables are being joined vs. how the results are being limited.
First, Windows doesn't "manage" a dizzying array of hardware profiles, try to install a vanilla windows-copy. Literally nothing works. The display is 640x480. USB is out, network is out. I had to burn a CD rom with the network driver to download the rest of the drivers. The vendor manages the hardware profiles and puts them on the installer CD.

If manually managing drivers teaches you to "appreciate" anything, do yourself a favour and install Ubuntu, if should cure you from such folly. Even if you'll never use it a day in your life, it will show you that "managing a dizzying array of hardware profiles" might well be difficult, but it's NOT a discipline either Windows or MacOS even competes in.

EDITED to respond:

Yes, this was XP. But even back then, Windows was marketed (and had been for a decade) as the "just works" OS, hardware wise. I'm glad they've improved, but it took them long enough.
Great idea! I'm going to sign up
This is the sort of hysterical comment that does not belong on HN, to quote you.
Neither of those are the full definition of the terms mentioned. Both have connotations of violence.

War is an armed conflict.

Battle is a military conflict.

Both have non-military meanings, but what is being said about the use the terms is not weird or bizarre.
Has anyone ever considered groupon as a technical challenge? Most of their personnel were salesmen, were they not?
Good spot, thank you. Will add it to the list.
For zsh users, I created a similar command with auto-completion! No root access needed to install!

https://github.com/Tarrasch/zsh-bd
IPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Lumia 928. Those are my last four smart phones.

I didn't feel locked in at all to the "app ecosystem". Honestly web and email were paramount and everything else is secondary. At some point in the future I believe native apps will be passe in favor of a complete move to web applications making the underlying platform completely personal preference.

...oh.and at one time I was locked into my Palm Pilot. After that my Blackberry. Tell Apple to look at Palm or RIM if they want to know how long being the popular phone on the market lasts.
Update: thanks for your submissions! I made a mistake in my post and need to amend it, but can no longer edit it. Here's the change: for this position we're looking for fluent Dutch speakers. Thanks!
Not currently, no. Twitter seems like the perfect way to allow people using the site to connect and get learning.
Good point. Which ecosystem seems to be stronger again?

It's like mercedes, only mercedes also gets to drive on nicer roads that go more places.

When market share translates to usage and developer revenue, as it may some day, this will change. But network effects scarcely reinforce your point.
But they've been all cheap, ugly and badly built plastic things (I've owned a couple). The 515 is an attempt to see if people are still willing to pay slightly more for a simpler phone if it is good looking and well built.
“For Nokia, this is an important moment of reinvention, and from a position of financial strength, we can build our next chapter,” said Siilasmaa “After a thorough assessment of how to maximize shareholder value, including consideration of a variety of alternatives, we believe this transaction is the best path forward for Nokia and its shareholders.”
The move is a clear sign that Microsoft believes it can and must succeed in the phone business, and that it cannot afford to leave the success in the hands of a partner – even one like Nokia, that had bet its future on Microsoft’s phone software.
This is why you have a test instance for developers (or more likely now, every developer runs his own engine locally or in a VM).
Growing without market-share tells us comparatively little.

And to be the person for once that posts the obligatory xkcd comic: http://xkcd.com/1102/
> You pay a monthly fee to the bank for the privilege of banking there.

Free banking is not as ubiquitous in the UK as it used to be, especially as rules regarding using admin charges (for letter sending and such) as a revenue source are getting tighter.

A number of banks are planning to drop their free options in some instances. FirstDirect, to name one, already have: their standard (and only) current account is free if you pass at least a grand per month through the account or maintain an average balance of a grand, otherwise it costs £10/month (they word it the positive way around: the is always a £10/month fee, but if you pay enough in or otherwise keep a good balance they "waive" the fee) - so it is free for many but far from all (if you are on, or close to, the statutory minimum wage your wages won't be enough after tax/NI even if you work full time (assuming full time is between 35 and 40 hours per week).

One thing that still gets me is how long it takes for payments to get from some accounts to some others. Over the last couple of years "faster payments" has become common so between most current accounts payments take less than an hour (sometimes less than a minute) to show up at the destination, but it still takes three working days for money to get from my current account to my credit card account despite the fact that the two accounts are held at the same bank.
I think Amazon devices comprise more than 0.0001% of non Chinese devices. OK not exactly Android.
Hi KiwiCoder,

I recommand you to read Alberto Savoia' book (pretotype It) it's free. http://www.pretotyping.org/pretotype-it---the-book

Instead of collecting an abstacts feedback/opinions, you have to pretotype your idea (as cheaper as possible) and start collect real data from real cutomers who are using your pretotype.

Have a nice pretotype
The ruggedness part is very true, and I miss that. Some of my carpentr/fishermen/boatbuilder friends still use old Nokias they buy used because they can handle the rough conditions they work in. an Iphone wouldn't last a week.

Back in the day I often used my Nokia 3210 to stir drinks and open bottles. It would take an incredible amount of beating and still just work.
> The missiles fell into the Mediterranean Sea.

On another note, are the seas and oceans ever cleaned up from all this junk which falls into it? Is there any plan at all? Or, it's on the bottom and nobody can see it so we don't have to care about it.
For me, the real indicator that progressive enhancement is "dead" was that as I began reading the post, I was left wondering "what the &*%^ is this progressive enhancement that he's declaring as dead?" until, pretty much, when I finished the post.
The first thing you need to ask is if it's programming you're not enjoying or the role in the particular company that you're not enjoying.

There are many roles which combine technical skills with people skills if that's what you're looking for. For example consultancy, sales engineers, dev evangelists, etc.

You should build a list of what you'd want from a role and then finds roles that meet that criteria. You can always wait until you get a new job offer before quitting your current job if you're worried about unemployment.
The first thing I noticed in this article is that the continents on AFP's visual seem warped. You can even see parts of Antarctica away from the empty south pole, and Siberia seems to occupy the north pole.

This is weird, they could just not have added meridians and parallels, and it would have been fine.
The BR Gov said the brazillian equivalent of USPS can do the job because they delivered letters for 350 yrs and everybody trust then (maybe it's because only them can do it by law).
Just for a funny anecdote, an Android user at.my work asked me what virus scanning software I used on my Windows Phone 8. I laughed because I thought he was making fun of Windows Phone. Turned out he was serious - his Galaxy had gotten two different viruses and he was running virus scan on it. I told him that ironically Microsoft's market share wasn't high enough for malware authors to target.
It's not illegal, unless strong arm tactics were used to force the board into it against their will.
Nope. I believe there are nuclear reactors and warheads sitting on the bottom of the ocean from submarine accidents, though possibly those have been secretly recovered.
I, as a native Serbian speaker, have a 100% understanding of what is being said on Croatian national TV, and 100% understanding when reading websites in Croatian.

While the difference exists, calling it significant is just... untrue. For non-speakers, it is barely noticeable.
Both articles misses the mark. There are still autoworkers out there, just not in Detroit (OK, there are less of them, but they're still there). Autoworking didn't fail, Detroit (ie "big auto") failed. And they failed because they spend all their energy building moats (trade policy, emissions policy, unions etc) rather than improving and innovating (like the asian auto companies excelled at and the european ones partly kept up with), so when the house of cards came down, it came down hard.

As long as we (software engineers) don't sequester ourselves wholesale in a homogenous monolith but continuously keep up with innovation, we should be well equipped to respond to changes in the market in time. The first article touches on this in the last paragraph, but I'm not convinced it's for the "right reasons".
Lenovo's new ThinkPads
Even on land they aren't cleaned up (see http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xVwr9gMopMY/UGhek26WYJI/AAAAAAAABz... for example, on Kerguelen island there is large area littered with missiles remaining from France-USSR testing in the 60's) so under the sea? Not a chance.
Read the first couple sentences on the github page
Aaron couldn't wait either, but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wShNx6cdk_8
I think you identify as a programmer and hacker, and things that encroach on that identity--such as beginners doing html/css calling it programming--causes you discomfort. And that blinds you to the interesting things about this.

Of course it is. Driving is a skill. You only consider driving the operation of a tool rather than a skill because its accessibility is so good.
Maybe it's different elsewhere but every college I applied to I wanted to go to. Between the essays, interviews, application fees, and entry requirements I wouldn't waste my time applying to a place I didn't want to get in to.

I've also cut an interview short once I realized it was a waste of time (H1b formality). If I'm not being taken seriously I won't take them seriously and I certainly won't waste my energy on fizzbuzz questions.
> If Android magically evaporated tomorrow Google would be just fine -- the core of their business (ad sales) doesn't fundamentally require that they control the mobile platform

I do not agree. They don't necessarily need to control the mobile platform, but they do need access to the distribution channels.

Witness how Apple replaced Google Maps with their own solution, even before their solution was good enough, as if they couldn't wait to get rid of GMaps. At some point not so long ago, they also threatened to replace Google's search engine with Bing by default. In 2009 Google Voice was also rejected from iTunes because it was "duplicating existing functionality".

Google is basically playing Microsoft's own game from the nineties - controlling the platform makes them a valuable distribution channel, ensuring not only their survival, but also giving them leverage in expanding to new markets.

Google is bigger and much more dangerous today because of Android, which IMHO is vital for them going forward.
Yeah, this is how we trust then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO_-KSuhOHs
No need to bother. SO is pretty notorious for shutting down threads at the merest hint that the discussion isn't in line with their remit, which is that of collaboratively solving specific programming problems. I'm guessing most of what comes across Nitrous.io's support desk doesn't qualify.

When most of Nitrous' paying customers get annoyed that their support queries on the 'official channel' are being nuked by some third party outwith both their and Nitrous' control, Nitrous will get the message.
"No missiles were fired from U.S. ships." That doesn't mean they weren't participating in the test.
Actually, a media PC is the one time where it's ok to tinker around and build something esoteric. Sure, you might need to fix it every three months, but who really needs a media centre? The worst that happens is that you have to watch TV on your computer instead.

Work computers, though, need to be rock-solid.
Apple:
* Fire Steve Jobs
* Randomly follow pundit advice for twelve years
* Jobs goes and builds second billion dollar business and fantastic technology no-one uses
* Get Jobs and bis technology back at hour of need
* Become incredibly successful

Microsoft:
* Elop leaves of his own accord
* Microsoft continues to make money but fails to create any new markets
* Elop runs Nokia into ground with Microsoft's conspicuous help
* Get Elop and his now shattered company back at Microsoft's hour of need (?)
* ???
<button type="button"> does not do anything, even inside a <form>.