skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Oh yes,I am not taking personally. I am just reflecting about it. However, one thing I do not like is people preaching something that they do not do. Michael Arrington is always questioning people's integrity but does not like to be questioned. You cannot have both way. If you are a warrior, then fight, do not hide.
Interesting, but I find it odd that he discounts how universities will change and adapt. Will the university of today be irrelevant in 10 years? Absolutely. But most universities are successful because they've adapted several times in the past.
Steve Jobs would be pleased:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...
Emacs org-mode Tutorial
Well, this long article is mostly addressed (by the director of Princeton University Press) to other University presses. Unfortunately, Dougherty’s suggested domains of strategic leverage for sustaining university presses barely alludes to the issue of electronic-vs-printed publishing.

I think that the next decade will show that such timid, traditional strategies will lead University Presses down the same road as newspapers. Embrace the new technology. Revolutionize your business model: seize the lead. Or welcome extinction.
Anahita Social Engine on Joomla and Nooku Framework
Software architect Rastin Mehr, of RMDstudio.com, talks to Pete Russell about Anahita (a social engine framework for Joomla). At its core Anahita is powered by Nooku Framework.
Ask HN: Disrupting online dating - valid thoughts?
I just assumed this was going to be about the Locator.com guy ...
Creating value versus optimizing revenue
> You're playing against other people, not against the casino.

You're playing against other people's bots, not against other people.
I am not sure if this is ok to post - I checked the guidelines but found nothing against this. If there is some kind of policy against for feedback like this, I will delete my post.
This is definitely not meant to be some kind of ad, just an honest wish for feedback on my conceptual idea. I hope that's ok?

I am new to HN, but Paul Graham had dating on his "ideas" list for startups he would like to fund, so I thought HN might be a good place to discuss it.
Also, note that if you are in Ontario (as I know several HN'ers are), OHIP will subsidize up to 750 dollars of your CPAP, if a sleep study yields a prescription.
"It is a shame that his email went unnoticed"

The gloss over that fact very quickly: the investigative side of me was suspicious straight away. Why ignore the email? It's a good coup.

I could well be over suspicious though. :)
A suggestion for another time: call the guys 'Feds'.
There wasn't much you could do with one? You must have a complete lack of imagination. Let's see what I did back then:

- A menu-driven File Management system because I was sick of typing commands.

- Checkbook management system to make balancing my account easier

- Heating & Cooling timer thermostat control

- More stuff I can't remember any more

Oh, by the way, they were all written in BASIC!
http://www.myvu.com/
Extradition is kind of a pain too.
Can someone point me out to the video "What If." mentioned in the Article. I tried searching in Youtube but just couldn't find it.
20 Things You Didn't Know About...  Elections
Paper, pen, napkins, the voice recorder on my phone, Google docs, my friend's listening ears, long walks and taking a shower.

Point being, don't fall into the trap of trying to get your info to live in one, unified, perfect system right from the start. Chaos is ok, just work in whatever format your brain needs you to at the moment and focus on reigning it in at a later date.
Excellent article. Freemium is much better for both consumers and producers:

Consumers avoid annoying ads, and they get something they don't mind paying for (one reason being that it costs so little).

Producers just win all around. :)
Oliver's simple fluid dynamics simulator in Javascript
Getting Your Quarks in a Row - (Quantum Computing)
I find it appalling that they dare present this as news. This has been known for at least two decades. If they want to draw attention to it, they should at least be honest about their own failure to do so earlier and not try to pat themselves on the back for reporting it. Bah.
I think he is missing the third feature : opening of the platform to third-party hardware.

Thus we will soon have 3d goggles, sensors for anything, chip implants, body hacking, brain-computer interface and the kitchen sink on the iPhone =)
Well, there are plenty of social dating apps on Facebook at the moment. :) so I guess the model works.

Making one cross network might not work so well: I wouldnt really see it working for, say, linkedin (too business oriented), Twitter (lack of info), Myspace (too young a crowd). Facebook would probably tend to be the target for this model.
Uh, he asked what people use, and that's what I use.
Damn straight! The outfit I work for builds medical instrumentation and you can bet your butt that experience counts a huge amount. It's also getting harder to find people with recent C++ development on their resume.

I think you'll find that in industries where safety & reliability is critical, experience is always a great benefit for the applicant.
There's clear evidence that a leader that founded the company with a clear guiding vision is irreplaceable. The large companies that have survived for 15+ years; Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon come to mind; are those that are most successful even upon maturity.
"if you don't think you have any control, then you don't."

Or you've tried to get some control, and have had your hand slapped away. And then realize the part that you don't have control over is the crux of the product's value proposition, and that it is a bad value proposition. Having control of the how isn't going to make it valuable enough, because it doesn't solve the right root problem. If you've ever tried to push a certain direction, only to have people respond "that is management's decision, not yours," that's what I am referring to. Perhaps you have never experienced that.

"If anyone else ever produced a specification rigorous enough for me to code from, I could die happy."

That's not quite what I meant. My point is that, in a large number of development shops, this is the way people deliver value. Their manager and the organization he represents is the customer, and often times they already know what they want, even if it is the wrong solution. It comes in the form of a specification, even if that is badly written. The value they bring is their technical skill set, such as it is, because most of the other decisions regarding the product have already been made by the time it gets to them.

I'm not ascribing this method of delivering value to you and those you know, nor to I and most of the programmers I know. I'm ascribing this to the people in the stories they and I tell of the other programmers we've met who operate this way: offering technical skills, and otherwise having faith everyone else will figure out the customer value part. Some are getting Darwined, as people find out they don't even provide what they claim to offer, but enough people out there find good value in a cog.
You should really try to buy devver.com (godaddy parked site), it will give you more credibility...
It is really surprising. I left out a couple pages worth of why I decided to get one because I thought it too boring, but suffice it to say last minute reviews had me skeptical and I was counting on Sprint's 30 day return policy. I knew after about 15 minutes I wouldn't be using it though.
How we built Facebook Connect (video)
I've been looking for something like this for a while. Thanks!
I don't think getting drunk while chatting online is going to build the same sort's of bonds.
I hope you meant 'micro-billing is much better'....
Why it's wise to launch softly
You are probably pretty much correct, but at the same time if it was that cut-and-dried then the contracts would stipulate tenure a lot longer than 2 years for founders when a startup gets bought out.
When you type something ambiguous, why can't the IDE just ask you right then and there for a clarification, which will become part of the (possibly hidden) data for that word in the source code?
I have done this from time to time, but often the notes are totally unintelligible.

However, I once solved a difficult code generation problem on a compiler project I was working on while sleeping. This is seriously not recommended.
Well I'm assuming the 3rd party battery manufactures are pushing hard to make a "mega" battery pack that will maybe double the milli-amper hours.

This will of course add more weight and thickness, but it sounds like the phone is pretty light so shouldn't be a problem.
I understand, but none of the mobile analytics solutions provide the freedom we need in our products. We have hired developers who specialize in business intelligence and data mining to build us the analytics code.
The fact that the most elegant solutions are rarely secure is yet another reason why otherwise sane developers shouldn't be going anywhere near cryptography.
Ask HN: Project about projects - Worth reviving?
This question (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=647563) prompted me to dig out an old project of mine:

http://projectank.grytoyr.net/

The idea was to track and review new and interesting projects on the web, much like the "review my startup" entries on HN. Marketing isn’t really my thing, though, so the project withered away and was taken offline, but I still think the idea has merit and would love to see it get some use.

Is this idea worth pursuing? Should I bring the site up to speed? The code (and design) is three years old, so it could use a bit of a makeover (federated logins comes to mind), but I’m wary of investing more time in something that isn’t used.

(As mentioned in the comment on the previous question - It used to have its own domain, but I let it expire.)
Attention North Carolina startups: StatSheet wins $47K grant
I can't just declare myself a resident of a state that has no income tax. That doesn't work

I know many expats, my cousin and sister included, who establish residency in South Dakota for this purpose. The state only requires a one night stay and a mailing address to establish residency. Once you stay overnight you can get a driver's license which I think is good for 10 years. Many retired people who live in Mexico do this and there are mail forwarding agencies who will act as your mailing address for a fee.

It might be a pain in the ass for people who grew up in more populated areas, but I'm from the high plains so it wasn't such a radical idea. Some of my relatives actually live, or have lived in SD. There may be other states with similarly lax residency requirements.

edit: here's more info from a quick google search:
http://www.roamingtimes.com/blog/south-dakota-residency.htm

note that it says "a handful of states make it easy to establish residency." i tried another google search to find a list of the residency requirements of each state. i found this:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781452.html

From a cursory look at this list I THINK that SD is the only state with no state income tax and very relaxed residency requirements.
http://venturebeat.com/2009/06/10/apple-hyperwall-tracks-iph... a video of it in action
Nate Lawson's Yahoo Talk About Crypto Pitfalls For Developers
Just being in the same room as a monitor with this presentation on it will make you a smarter person.
Take a look at Zoosk for an example of your idea in action. It may not be a one for one to what you envisioned but they are using social networking applications to add users to a central dating site and seems to work fairly well.
Most developers would probably find Crypt++'s implementation of RSA verification --- or even, gag, LibTomcrypt --- a better rundown of how to do this safely. Too much of Mozilla NSS's functionality is scattered across multiple modules and indirected through function pointers.
No, it's cool - good article in fact, although I'm not sure I see a clear path to monetization in there. After all, one could do a facebook addon called 'you'd be perfect (for each other)' and let people play matchmaker for fun.

On the dating-as-sales-generator, Mrs Browl keeps telling me to set up 'forgetfulguy.com' so you can put info about your significant other and it will remind you to buy flowers and so forth. Maybe she's trying to tell me something...
Well, _Accelerando_ or _Halting State_, anyway.
I think this is it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2855786550703993653...
I personally think that a blog post as an extended Ask HN is a reasonable way to go. I've considered it myself. This is a fine line. I can see self-posting as the way to spam, especially for opinion pieces. People who regularly blog shouldn't self-post.

That said, I think yours falls within the spirit of Ask HN. Others considering doing so should contribute more before such a post to get a feel for what works an what doesn't.
One aspect of freemium models that you are giving seriously short shrift to is that they often have an element of value exchange to them. Additional users free or pro, make the service as a whole more valuable, if the cost of subsidizing a freegan is less than the value they contribute, it's a perfectly rational exchange. This is why craigslist, flickr and myspace were able to sustain that model, the marginal cost of an additional user is usually much less than the utility they provide to the rest of the users.

And that isn't even considering the value of peer production, from mutual support to people building tools within the ecosystem that is hosting them. In your spreadsheet example, the use who posts a widely used rent/own evaluation worksheet is still charged when she uses the site, even though you should be compensating her for the value she adds to the site.

While I like the idea of microbilling, I think it's somewhat orthogonal to freemium models.
So... the reward for a career in software is to be lonely and to live in a shoebox?
Anyone know of NC-IDEA type organizations in other states?
Don't people do this already? Search through Facebook or Myspace pages for compatible mates?
I like this one better, http://www.digilens.com/, looks a little better and designed as HUD.
You solved a problem while sleeping? Do you care to elaborate?
Graph Databases and the Future of Large-Scale Knowledge Management
Judging by how many lectures people skip with the justification that "the notes are online" it seems like some parts of the current university set up could possibly change with things like online video lectures. On the other hand, a good professor will speed up, slow down, answer questions, etc.. which will surely be difficult to bring to an online format.
Yeah, seems like a good submission.

A couple thoughts:

People do pay to get into a certain building to meet other single people (I'm thinking about nightclubs and bars that have cover charges here).

Also, your point about people mostly meeting partners through friends is valid but the REAL question is does it happen this way becasue that's the 'best' way to meet somebody or becasue it's currently one of the biggest ways humans meet new people? In other words, does it work this way becasue this way works best, or does it work this way because it just happens to provide the most chances?

That being said, your assessment of the problem is solid. It's an idea worth honing in on. The one thing you'd want to be able to hang onto from the "walled garden" sites is the fact that everyone there has expressed interest and availability for a dating relationship. This lowers the risk for those who do the asking since you are less likely to get rebuffed in the "EW, I'm dating already, thank you very much creepo!" sort of way.
We have but trust me the price they are asking is unreasonable.
I recommend that you don't turn it up to 512 resolution on a macbook in firefox. =(
Might very well be. But there might as well be a business model in simplyfying the process for them and making it a lot more efficient. What do you think?
Thanks for such a clear answer.

I am more of a Mac programmer. ... In a Microsoft/Windows/Intel world, ... what would be one (or a few) specific examples of hardware id that would be available on most PCs??

I don't need a detailed explanation. Just a few quick links to online info sources would be a great help.
Isn't the model this article describes exactly what Amazon does with AWS?
Speeding up brain networks might boost IQ
Wow, that's mesmerizing.

I would love to see this on a multi-touch display. I wonder if you could make an iphone app like this. Maybe have a little paper boat that floats on the surface which you can't interact with directly but you have to use your fingers to change the flow of the water to shepherd the boat through certain obstacles?

If anybody wants to do this I'll donate my time to make the art :-P
I can see some degrees becoming virtual, computer science may be one, but things like those based on history or other less interactive environments may be perfect for virtual learning however as a student for an engineering degree I would no way have learned anywhere near as much online than interaction with labs and the interactive environment with professors (asking questions/correcting/furthering understanding).
Awesome. This one is definitely getting bookmarked. I'm definitely planning my next project around Clojure, just to learn the language (my current project is in Erlang and mostly because I got the book for it first).
Yeah we currently support GemInstaller and Rails built in gem dependencies. We talked a bit with Heroku and hopefully we can figure out if it is best to support the .gems directly or through some geminstaller compatibility layer.
GitHub:FI publishes pricing
"How it certainly doesn’t work is by going into a predefined building - sometimes even with an access fee - and only finding potential partners in there."

Actually, certain kinds of dating work exactly like this, and translate well to the online model. It's just that most people don't want to live that way.
Thanks for your feedback!

Great point about the most efficient way to meet a partner! This is indeed a great question one should ask oneself. I see a problem with that approach though: I guess many people don't want to mix 'efficiency' with dating and human interactions and emotions too much. It's probably socially accepted to use dating sites, but are we already on our way to rethink our entire approach to dating?

The expression of interest is indeed a good concept to hang on to. Which is why social networks are especially suitable for adding dating - you can add a simple "are you open to dating approaches?"-setting.
Your idea is pretty good. I signed up for OK Cupid a while back and repurposed the photos and certain other information from my FB profile. It would have been nice to just auto-import.

I would take a look at OK Cupid, if you haven't. The other dating sites like Match or eHarmony seem very "find your future husband or wife" oriented. The other end of the scale, AdultFriendFinder or even the Onion / Nerve personals are very ghetto/spammy and seem to be best suited for ugly people into weird sex stuff, or actual prostitutes.

OK Cupid has worked out very well for me in finding people who just want to go out on a few dates and have fun without the pretense of sizing me up for marriage or whether or not I'll fit into a harness in the dungeon.

If there was an iPhone app for OkCupid it would be nearly perfect. (for actual "dating.")
Kiva.org Brings Loan Program to the US
I remember on time I dreamed I was working in my 3D program continuing to create a model that I had been working on that day. Man, I was pissed when I woke up and realized I hadn't actually done the last half of the work in real life.
Agreed. When I first saw the name I thought it had to do will illicit youtube videos.
Online dating is a way to scam gullible lonely people. It works perfectly. No need for improvement.
A Working Theory About RC4
Yep. Although there is plenty of evidence that Yoga can be a very effective health exercise and can help prevent conditions that cost far more to fix than a few more mornings a week working on your body.

It's not impossible that her services are systematically undervalued currently; after all in the real world markets are not at all rational.
They probably lost the inactive users. The ones who pay $18 a year will undoubtedly want to get their moneys worth and promote an active group. Great decision on their part.
In implying the penny gap can be eliminated, this article fails to account for mental transaction costs. No matter how simple a microbilling service is, there is still a mental transaction cost for deciding whether to pay or not. If my time is worth $20/hour (US average wage), and it takes me 3 seconds to read your microbilling screen and understand what you are charging, it has already cost me a penny. 3 seconds is enough time for the average reader to read 5 words. I would estimate you have about a minute to explain your service and charge for it, if you want the customer to spend a quarter on something that is worth fifty cents (or more) to them. (See http://szabo.best.vwh.net/micropayments.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropayment#Theory.2Fcriticism for more background on mental transaction costs.)

If the price of your freemium service is artificially high, then you are doing it wrong. The freemium model is for services where the price of supporting free users is less than the price of other ways of informing your paying customers that you exist. (Including cases where free users contribute value.)

The best way to structure the freemium model is such that you only charge for things that are natural scarcities, not things that can be freely replicated. For example, charging for support (human time to solve your problem) is better than charging for features. (Existing features aren't scarce, it costs nothing to roll them out to all users. Implementing new features is scarce.)
Since Ubuntu wants to become the one true desktop distribution, or so it seems, they should focus more on usability and improving user interface because to be honest as long as it boots faster than windows xp (excluding a fresh install) they should be fine.
I'm fairly certain that the iPhone part is what is getting at most people, including me. It seems like it would be cheaper to break the contract and get a bare bones plan.

Food stamps. iPhone. The incongruity of that alone should be enough to excuse any unwarranted judgement, if there has even been any in the first place.
Agreed. In fact, I think getting 6 pages of profile to look through to try to find somebody you may want to contact on a dating site is counterproductive and probably frustrates people a lot.

At first I thought that maybe your idea subverts the role of the intermediate players in our lives. (The people who go "Hey, I know this person you should me, let me introduce you.") But what if you actually allowed that to happen in the social 'net? Do you think it would be handy if you could anonymously suggest to friend A and Friend B that they connect if they don't know each other?
Kindle formatting for web geeks
There are threats every day. The fact that no one has claimed responsibility makes a terrorist attack very unlikely.
Are Commercial Buildings Ready for Open-Source Energy Management?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EA8xlicmT8

That's a video of what Augmented Reality can do on the G1... definitely cool app.
The tech-savvy ex-hipster geek-trash I know in Houston all love Ok Cupid. But they use it heavily for the sort of social networking that Facebook is suppoed to be for. (It's apparently better than Facebook for finding people with similar esoteric interests.)

On the flip side, Facebook & Friendster started out as surreptitious dating sites. People went on there to figure out who among their friend's friends were cute enough to date.