skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This was bound to happen. I've never understood why they continued to raise money and develop the product. It's as if they didn't understand the way most people operate and behave. No one wants to watch a 1 minute video of someone expressing their opinion when I could read the same comment in text in less than 5 seconds. And I've always gotten the impression that those who do actually make video comments, who actually position their camera, look into it, and press record, are those who think their opinion matters a bit more than the rest. Most of the time, from what I've seen, people try to project some sort of personality with their comments, which is fine and all, but that usually, in my opinion, takes away from what they're actually saying. Also, Loic always tried to pull it off as video for Twitter, which is really flawed. Twitter's beauty is in the speed of the information stream. I can glance at tweets tens at a time. You don't get that with video. And I didn't quite understand their raccoon mascot and what they were trying to pull off.
It looks like they had problems producing the dyes on a bigger scale. The so called 'zubbles' seem to have launched just a few days ago.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-06/exclusive-colo...
one thing I don't understand is, does that mean it's bad CSS style? Is doing the suggested optimization equivalent to writing really huge functions in c before compilers could inline?
But it's not the pure genius of Symbolics LISP. The genius of the Lisp machines is in their extensibility and consistency all the way down. (This has nothing to do with Lisp, BTW, but rather with the design of the system and runtime. The syntax is nice, but largely irrelevant.)

The closest I've ever come to day to day use of a Lisp machine is Emacs. It is wonderfully different from "worse is better" systems like UNIX and Clojure/Java. With a few keystrokes, I can use my tool to change my tool... instantly. Everything is as deeply aware of everything else (if it needs to be). The result is an extremely comfortable environment where anything seems possible. (I recently switched from bash + ansi-term to eshell. UNIX is much nicer when you can see it through a lisp-colored shell.)

Anyway, I guess this isn't really related to the article... but if your view of programming consists of strings being passed along pipelines and huge, monolithic cathedrals that claim to be "IDEs", you are not seeing the whole picture.
HN moderators?
Make sure to choose "I want one" in the membership section - this is probably something we could make clearer
I'm not sure what you've written here is entirely in opposition to the Crossfit philosophy, although they don't emphasize bench. I agree that beginners should be cautious about learning the movements properly and scaling.

Crossfit hits all the major groups, but not every day. You might hit squats one day, then the next be doing running and pullups--one group recovers while you work others.

I'm not claiming that Crossfit is perfect for everyone. If you're training for specific sports or for general bulk or for a model's physique with a lot of non-functional muscle, then maybe Crossfit isn't ideal for you. I just haven't seen any better all-around program for a sound athletic base.
Hm. Disgruntled former employees in failed New York startups can go after the founders houses. Can I call that "psycho"? Hey, I just did!
ICFP Programming Contest 2009
This was my first thought when I read the entry, as well. I felt somewhat silly sharing it for its own sake, but I found that line to be very poignant.
Terrible Password Security Advice From Jakob Nielsen
this competition is probably the most challenging programming contest in existence, or at least one of the few where you'll regularly have entrants who are research groups in computer science or Putnam fellows
Not only execution but execution in the right direction. Amazon succeeded in part because they picked a target (sheer volume and efficiency) and drove singlemindedly towards it. Ditto companies like WalMart and FedEx.

Other companies have executed as well in orthogonal directions (I'd argue that both GM and Microsoft are marketing companies with vestigal engineering organs) and not done as well long-term.

I suppose that's where the vision comes into play; you have to see the target to aim.
EBay’s Fight With Skype Founders May Threaten IPO
I liked that as well. Although I am no expert on exercise science, I believe the science behind Crossfit is relatively solid. I've been doing it for about 2 months and it really is the most effective all-around workout I've done. The focus is on functional movements and a mix of strength and metabolic conditioning. And you really only need 30-45 minutes to do a warmup and workout.

That said, there is a somewhat off-putting Crossfitter ethos of overdoing it and injuring yourself, and some of the folks give off a cultish vibe. But if you're smart about learning the movements and knowing your body, I really think it's worth trying. I was skeptical and now I'm hooked.
Also, video comments just look terrible. Awful. How am I supposed to take a video comment seriously when I see some guy in his pajamas with his face scrunched up into the camera? The experience of watching these videos is thoroughly unpleasant.
This is a pretty broad guideline - One that, if applied at face value, would dramatically decrease the quality of this board. Although I see a fair share of Reddit bashing from time to time on HN when discussing this degrade of quality in discussion, I have to admit that I like Reddit. This said, there is already a Reddit and I think most of the HN community would agree that HN is not supposed to be 'that type of board'.
I feel pretty safe in saying that one's intellectual curiosity can often times serve to be another person's bird cage lining. Further, is there anyone here claiming that posts pertaining to MJ's death are actually intellectually stimulating? Sure, the posts of the Internet slowing MAY be relevant - but only because of their relation to networking and Internet trends and traffic patterns... not because a pop singer died...
> Is Execution More Important Than Vision? (techcrunch.com)

I saw this and thought, "Maybe, but how would TechCrunch know?"
Well hopefully they realize it won't take over the world and they are okay with that.

The minute you start doing actual work for paying clients is the minute that compromises sneak in. Certainly the last thing these people would want is for the LISP community to become like the PHP community where the few nuggets of good code are drowned out by flood of sewage. Maybe someone thinks you couldn't write code that bad in a pure LISP, but believe me you would see some pretty horrendous crap if LISP had 10% marketshare of, let's say, web programming.
“I think it’s not a technology problem,” he said. “I think it’s a human problem, that there are very few people like you and me.”

While I can certainly sympathize with someone whose dream goes unfulfilled, blaming the Internet at large for not 'getting it' rather than acknowledging you were solving a problem no one apparently had is pretty haughty.
Protein + Fat destroys hunger. Eat them together. In fact if you don't get enough fat you starve. [1]

One reason protein is filling is it signals a hormone PPY for satiety [2]. Ever try eating a jumbo can of tuna? You'll feel a lump in your throat. You can't eat much.

Hormones usually are dismissed as wonky, but they actually do factor in weight loss.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

[2] http://scienceandreason.blogspot.com/2007/10/peptide-yy-and-...
So, all the submitted algorithms are going to be open sourced now, right? Right?!

In all seriousness, can anyone enlighten me as to who owns the submissions now?
I've been going to a local affiliate gym twice a week for the past two weeks and am already seeing pretty good results. They had a 75-minute introductory class that taught all of the movements, and they review form and answer any questions before each workout.

It's basically a super intense 15-30 minute workout, preceded by a standard 10-15 minute warmup. For example yesterday was 12 "sumo style" deadlifts, 6 burpees (squat thrusts), 12 pullups, and 6 more burpees, repeated as many times as possible in 15 minutes.

My only complaint is that it's a bit pricey given the level of facilities, but since all of the sessions are small groups with a coach, it's not unreasonable.

Of course if you have a reasonable level of self-discipline (I don't) and room and money for the equipment (I don't) there's no reason you can't do the workouts at home by yourself or with a group of friends.
Then, since it's supposed to make accurate predictions and does not do so, you do have a problem with the science. (As you should.)
I don't think it's a complete failure yet. I don't think they've spent 12 million yet either. They're adapting and guarantee they'll incorporate video into their new strategy. Their growth has stuttered sure, but they're clearly well into their new phase. Best of luck to him & the team...they've got some heavy competition.
It's not clear they've spent the whole $12MM. The submission headline includes spin not in the source article.
Android goes beyond Java, gains native C/C++ dev kit
The interesting thing is that almost everyone believes that flag burning ought to be totally legal; the argument is just over the circumstances.

As is routinely pointed out, burning a flag is the approved way of "retiring" one when it's no longer fit to be flown. If you fly a flag every day, this will be about once a year or so. In my area, the American Legion or Boy Scouts do "flag retirements" as a fund raiser once in a while; you turn in your old flags and they respectfully burn them. (Maybe they play Taps at the same time or something.)

So the argument isn't over flag burning per se, and it never was. It's over flag defacement or "desecration," i.e. burning the flag in the context of a political demonstration, or as an overtly political act.
Yep, expense is one reason I haven't joined an affiliate. Luckily, I'm able to get through most stuff at my Bally's if I go when it isn't crowded, but I've thought about finding an affiliate.

The reason I thought this might be interesting for hackers is because it is high-intensity but fairly low time-commitment, it is effective (results/time), and it isn't boring (lots of different movements to learn).

Also, desk-bound people like programmers tend to suffer from weak posterior-chain muscles, which are emphasized in Crossfit.
What a waste of money. Not that this is the only example.
I agree that Crossfit is not a beginners routine, so the title of this post is possibly misleading. That being said, Crossfit is a great routine for someone who is already in decent shape (looking to get in better shape) and doesn't have hours to spend in the gym. I've been doing Crossfit (not religiously, but as much as I can) for about a year now, and not only does it get you in great shape, but it's fun.
Ask HN: Please review launchly - The home of website launches
Launchly actually started as a direct result of some interractions here on HackerNews so I hope you will all help me welcome her into the world!

Launchly is all about getting iterative feedback for new websites. The goal is for a community similar to HackerNews to follow launchly via RSS and/or Twitter, checking out and providing feedback on new webapps that they find interesting.

Each new launch gets published to various social media outlets like Twitter, Delicious, Digg, etc. We track all sorts of metrics for the the launch creator and present them in useful and appealing graphs.

Please check it out and let me know what you think! Feel free to use the launchly launch on launchly (that's a mouthful) to leave feedback or just leave it in this thread.

http://www.launchly.com
I do not use crossfit (yet) but a friend of mine with serious fitness requirements for his day job (firefighter) does use it. He takes fitness very seriously, and is quite a fan of crossfit.

If you do want to consider doing it, take your time ramping up -- it is very intense.
Safer Code - Secure Coding In C \ C++ And More
http://www.launchly.com
very very interesting/good move by google....
How did he unwittingly contribute to mixing church and state? He was a big proponent of separation. From wiki:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state#...
Wow, they are very thorough.
I sense sarcasm - much more than is usually acceptable in Economist articles (I was checking to see whether it was a blog post!)
I do understand why it hasn't taken over the world. I also don't care. But then I also don't listen to Britney Spears' 'music'.
"The founders retained rights to the peer-to-peer sharing technology behind Skype when they sold the company to EBay four years ago."

That is a remarkable oversight by eBay. I can't think of another case in which an acquirer made this type of mistake.
Oops. Turns out the Keyes hypothesis (fat = harmful) was awful science based on cherry-picked data.

High-carb is actually the killer, and it's not a coincidence that has our diet got higher and higher in simple carbohydrates, our obesity levels have tripled (since 1970).

Of course, since we evolved to be hunter-gatherers and live off of high-fat, high-protein diets, it's sort of bizarre that medical professionals ever thought that high-carb was healthy in the first place. But that's what you get when you let doctors do the research instead of scientists. Iatrogenic disease has a long and sordid history.
Congratulations to the team Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos. Now if they could only spend some of their time researching how to make a page that doesn't look like it was coded by an 11 year old myspace user.

An example from the source

<br>
<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<big><big><big><big>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</big></big></big></big><big><big><big><big>&nbsp;&nbsp;</big></big></big></big><big><big><big><big>&nbsp;

</big></big></big></big><br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br>
Thanks! Don't forget to subscribe to the RSS or Twitter feeds so you don't have to check the site every day!
It's worth checking out his full twitter page, https://twitter.com/donttrythis

In addition to being pissed at AT&T, this is what he says about the RIAA/MPAA:

"I believe the RIAA to be a bunch of venal idiots. I don't think much of the MPAA either for that matter."

He seems to be a genuinely cool guy, with a well calibrated BS detector.
The exercises look OK, but they seem to prescribe near daily workouts? That's pretty stupid unless you're a competitive athlete. It's often stupid even in that case. One or two intense twenty minute strength workouts a week is plenty if you're doing it right.

Sustainably working out hard three or more times a week and benefiting from it requires somewhat rare genetics or growth hormone and steroid injections.
How much impact had Guy Steele on the design of Java? My guess was always that Java was mostly designed when he arrived and he was hired for his experience in standards and his writing capabilities. Given that Mr. Steele co-wrote a book on C, worked on the standard for High Performance Fortran, the CL standard, and other things.
I guess if you're completely unfamiliar with running, lifting, and movements like pullups and pushups, then you should probably start by going to an affiliate where a trainer can start you out on proper progressions, as opposed to learning the movements yourself. But I don't think going from couch-potato to Crossfit is any worse/harder than going from couch-potato to the sorts of low-effectiveness workouts I see out-of-shape people doing at the gym all the time. The key is knowing or getting to know your own body.
Oh man, I want the SDK so bad!
I think the Pre still needs something 'fun'.
> It confuses me that anyone can believe that liberalism or technological advance are not universally desirable.

I'm trying to parse this. Are you saying, "Everyone should believe everyone should desire liberalism and technological advances"?

> I am similarly confused (though interested) by the "prime directive" approach that academics often advocate in dealing with undeveloped cultures.

When it comes from academics today, it's usually a reaction of guilt to the imperialism of the past. That doesn't mean there aren't other reasons to take that approach, though. Even if your culture is more "developed" how you can be 100% sure that interfering is a good thing to do; i.e., that it won't lead to bad results?
Personally, I like p90x. It's regimented an realistic. There's not that much equipment needed and having it in your apartment kills any excuses related to going to the gym.

The only downside is the price of the DVDs.
I dare say, if you can do what they are doing ~ your not to worried about perfect html or design.
I believe splitting things up that much is counter productive. You're better off getting contiguous three and four day periods of rest. The typical human body just isn't made for sustained stress like that.

Also, any approach that turns exercise into some near daily chore is a bad idea. You will burn out on it. Ideally, exercise should be somewhat spontaneous.
I was never even tempted to think it would catch on. Video phones failed to catch on too--most people don't want to see or be seen when they aren't physically in the conversation.
In a similar vein, but a little less OTT, you could check out Ross Enamait's site: http://www.rosstraining.com/

It's a pretty good all-round fitness 'program' of sorts, or perhaps more of a collection of exercises, and much less prescriptive than the above. Emphasis is on bodyweight exercises, but not at the expenses of weights training.
They mix up the movements and there is a rest day every fourth day. If I do deadlifts one day, box jumps and pullups the next, and running/situps/back extensions on day 3, my body can handle it just fine. It beats running or biking every day, and I know plenty of people who do that, putting the same stresses on the same muscles day in and day out.

You have to listen to your body of course. When I first started, sometimes I would take extra days off when I knew I needed recovery time. As with any activity, you have to be smart about what you're doing.
Symbolics LISP machines were pretty awesome, you're right.

People are writing real software, right now, in Clojure. In my book, that's a win for LISP and beats wanking about what could have been any day.
Unfortunately, this is kind of vague. I could easily spin this to refer to either actual liberalism (support for individual liberty) or social democracy (Progressivism). Which one do you mean?
House Passes Bill to Address Threat of Climate Change
not really. The Symbolics Lisp Machine came with a huge library of thousands of class and 30000+ functions.

Additionally it had compilers for Fortran, C, Pascal and others. It could compile things like TeX and X11 on the Lisp Machine.

He just does not want to build on the JVM. I can understand that. The JVM is optimized for Java and nothing else. SUN has not done much to support other languages (functional, dynamic, ...) on top of the JVM (Microsoft does that with its .net infrastructure, though). Using the JVM for Lisp is fine, because it is there. But it is ugly, since it is alien for Lisp. More alien than x86 is for Lisp.
after 12mm, and 2 years in the industry. Gaining only 250k uniques a month is a failure; only because im sure all the video cost a lot to put out.
And so it begins. It will be interesting to see what other teams will do now with such a tight deadline.
So you would not write hybrid Java and Clojure programs? You would not reuse and extend Java classes? Strange. I thought Rich went to the JVM because the eco system is so rich ;-) and not just because it happens to have a code execution environment and a garbage collection implementation.
Logically, you are totally correct. In the business world, execution turns vision into cash flow. So, a successful business will necessarily have both.
or grammar, apparently ;-)

("your not to" => "you're not too")
Strange, most people on comp.lang.lisp seem to use Common Lisp on UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, JVM. Many edit in Emacs or VIM. Most use some kind of X11 window system.

Seems to me pretty pragmatic.
It sounds very much like excessive training to me. I bet you could work out a lot less often and your actual performance would measure the same.
> In April, Burbank, California-based Disney acquired a 27 percent stake in Los Angeles-based Hulu for about $35 million, becoming a co-owner with News Corp. and New York-based NBC Universal and agreeing to supply shows and films.

The more I look at that the more I think they got a steal. Hulu has much more advertising potential than YouTube and they got in for pennies on the dollar for what Google paid. All of their streams have big revenue potential, versus only a small number for Google. That makes scaling economical, no big deal to pay for the bandwidth when each byte out is bring dollars in.
I often get the feeling we, as the tech startup community, spend too much time looking inward. I understand that everybody says "scratch your own itch" and "solve a problem that you have, because you can't really understand other peoples problems", etc. But, it seems like maybe you've chosen a very small market (web startups), who are broke practically by definition, and then selected a dramatically smaller niche within it (web startups that have just launched). Not only that...it's a niche that means the people who would want to post a launch would never have reason to return after the initial rush of the launch period.

So, what you've built looks very nice. You seem to have executed well from a technical perspective...but I fear you're about to find out that you don't have a sustainable business (beyond maybe paying for the server costs).

Then again, what do I know? I work on boring stuff all the time, and I thought Facebook and Twitter were kinda dumb. I could just lack the vision to see what you see in this particular niche of this particular market.
just not for a Lisp dialect. The mismatch is known and widely documented.
"Today the tweeps became twoops. Just got off the phone with AT&T and they've taken care of everything to my great satisfaction.#twitterrules"

Seems like it's all settled, for him at least. Wonder about everyone else, though.
Glad someone pointed this out.
No, you're right. I can't do what they're doing. However, my talents lie elsewhere so I submit to you that they can't do what I'm doing, so the point really is moot. It would be like complaining that a plumber can't cook as well as a chef.

That being said, HTML is a form of code (even if it is only markup) as it is a structured language and their solution is based off code no doubt, so there really is no excuse.
I just did it naturally. When I realized it, I tried to listen in another way to see if it was just a habit or necessity. Needless to say, when I tried the other ear or looking in a different direction, I couldn't understand a thing.
...and I eat crow: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=393667

Haskell wins: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=394528
I do sometimes wonder if the people from ancient civilizations could see what we think about their writing and tools and culture, whether they would just laugh out loud. "No, no, that's just a spoon! And that little squiggle? That's a curse word, you idiots!"