skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Maybe because it was Amazon's fault they sold the "illegal digital copy" in the first place? If those customers had bought an "illegal physical copy" from a bookstore - the bookstore would have had to deal with the problem to the legal rightsholders satisfaction _without_ taking the physical copies back from the customers who'd bought them (with the assumption that the bookseller was selling legal copies). Amazon _shouldn't_ have the right or mechanism to do any different. It wasn't the _customers_ mistake that led to them purchasing an illegal copy, it was Amazon's mistake - they need to fix it. In my opinion sending a free ~$10 copy isn't a particularly onerous requirement for Amazon. If I were the original rightsholder I'd consider insisting that they do that - they led customers into believing they were getting a fully legal version for $0.99 - it's up to them to bvand any profits _or_ eat any losses associated with that transaction.

And I can't resist the opportinity to RT @Mike_FTW "Now I'm afraid Jeff Bezos will come in the night and take my shoes." ;-)
Very very interesting.

If it's not supposed to be secret, how does it work? Does it look for similarity of what you like or does it weight people in your feed and just skip x% of tweets from heavy low-value tweeters?
When I have time after work.
http://leaguesmart.com
http://socialfact.com -- collaborative thinking and blogging
I like this site. Question: I can't tell from the source if you are using a CMS of any kind or if this is custom developed in Django or similar. Care to reveal what you used?
But the issue is that most every person is not going to go "ohh boy! Compound interest!". Even though society is better off when both sides understand mortgages and car payments.

They aren't going to go "ohh boy genetics!", in order to understand what they're voting for when it comes to science positions of political candidates.

Basically, in my view, both society and individuals benefit with a certain base level of knowledge. I also believe that a majority of people would never learn parts of that base level if they had to do self-directed learning. I know that I never would have picked up poetry, or music if I wasn't forced to.

Remember that we are the exception here. We are the cream of the crop in self-educating, self-motivated people. I think it's far too optimistic to say "let people get self motivated", and hope that they learn everything they need.
Have any serious economists looked into the matter of hugely mis-priced luxury items? There are the mostly-comedic treatments (as by Veblen) but it would interesting to read a serious study. When you have something that costs (maybe) a few hundred to produce, and sell it for $35,000, what is the actual effect on the economy?

My guess: Very little. It's basically an idiotic millionaire writing out a check to an intelligent millionaire, with a little token for remembrance.

...

Fun fact: The results in Amazon's "Sort by Price: High to Low" are algorithmically identical to its "Sort by appearance: Shitty to Attractive":

http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1248405570/ref=sr_st?keywords=wa...
I would expect to be downvoted by eunuchs.
DHH reviews, refactors and shows BaseCamp code.
url sharing and personal archiving framework

http://urls.matthewm.boedicker.org/
Even this comment is a higher level of detail than that which was provided in the article.

In the end I think what you're saying is relatively intuitive but the internet needs less arguments based on value judgments, and more discussion centered on things we can point to, at the very least, as generally agreed upon facts.
is one bunny humping the other in the logo?
I think the most important lesson here is buried deep into the article - "Mr. Brücker was never disdainful of customers - in fact, he championed the need for better, more thoughtful service that makes the customer sense caring and quality - the stuff of luxury.

"You’re selling pure emotion," he said."

The rest is tips and tricks - interesting and useful perhaps, but by focusing on them the article comes across as scummy sales instead of the ongoing relationship that is essential (and very profitable!) in the $35,000 Watch market.
Playing with Google App Engine (& hence Python), very nice platform for quickly putting together small web apps:

http://rmmbr.appspot.com/ - SMS notes (reminders etc) to your inbox

http://therealurl.appspot.com/ - send a URL, get a JSON response with the unshortened version + page title
Rancher/farmer here, from the Salinas Valley surrounds.

There are some factual errors in the article, like this gem:
"The deadly bug first appeared in hamburger meat in the early 1980s"

E. coli has been around approximately forever, so I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they wrote that. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli

However, they do make some valid points. One of them is the bit about wildlife being killed off in pursuit of food safety. The Salinas Valley is essentially a dead zone for birds at this point, as they're seen as a disease vector for food. This is a far cry from the direction agriculture had been taking prior to the spinach scare, which was towards organic and sustainable agriculture.

Secondly, they do mention the feral pig vector (just Google for "feral pig e coli"). California has some fairly ridiculous ideas about feral pigs, among them being the requirement that people purchase a pig tag to kill them ($19.70 each, plus $41.20 for the hunting license). This is absurd, given that they're one of the most destructive invasive species in existence. If they really are a vector for the spread of E. coli (which is easy to imagine... there are millions of feral pigs in California, and especially around the Salinas Valley), there should be a bounty on them, not a fee. There are depredation permits available, but they're not in widespread enough use to make a dent (and I know farmers who have killed hundreds of pigs in a year, on a single plot, with a depredation permit and one rifle).

And, yes, I realize the two above paragraphs may sound contradictory. There's a difference between trying to enable sustainable agriculture and letting invasive species spread unchecked. As it stands, California is getting the worst of both worlds.
sorry for being dense, but i just tried for 15 minutes to figure out how to use firequery without success. is there a firequery tutorial for dummies?
This could be included in a list of more acceptable arguments for Hg. Along with a list of interface comparisons for common actions that points to a "saner interface", an explanation of the branching strategy differences would make for a blog worthy article.
Clearly the guy who wrote this has never had to deal with a corrupted repo before. I have never used Hg but it happened to me enough times in Subversion to convince me to switch to Git. The lines of code metric is silly. How about who /wrote/ those lines? I'm very happy entrusting my version control to the same guy who wrote my operating system, thank you.
Oh hello fellow UW-er :)
WTF. A Kindle/Sony costs too much for what it is, a crippled computer. A netbook is weak on ergonomics for reading. A new tablet costs way too much and eats batteries and has all the attendant issues of a full PC.

I bought a used tablet and not only is it delightful to read on, I can actually do some work.

As far as the Crunchpad goes, if battery life is at least three hours and the price is less than a Kindle I am totally getting one.
What's changed since the last time you posted? I remember looking at it before, but nothing sticks out immediately as a change.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682894
We have people sending us millions a day, we should be fine.
I posted this yesterday with the title 'it turns out people glow in the dark'. Then, as now, I objected to the headline, which should have said that humans glow in the visible light spectrum. One could hardly tell this in a lit environment, could one?

[/pedant]
So all the aura readers were right after all?
http://mancalatime.com where you can play your friends online over the internet.

Good or Evil db - in "private" beta you can use this link if you're really interested.

http://goodorevildb.com/do/register?key=chestermcgester

And then a bizarre jython app that I will probably open source. Yeah, I know I should concentrate on just one thing. Oh well.
It's all custom Django, good guess on that one. I do use my fair share of external Django apps though. Ignoring the built in Django apps, My INSTALLED_APPS list has 10 unmodified external reusable apps, and 11 internal apps, which include ones I built myself and a few reusable apps I had to modify.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments.
Capital efficiency is certainly important whether you are a HW or SW startup. I'm curious about your comment that "the financial types would never accept the business plans". One of the important features of running a project like a startup is staged financing. First you get $10,000 to explore the needs. If everyone says, "Yes, I'd like something like that," you get $50,000 to build a minimum viable product (something just good enough for an enthusiastic customer to get value from). Then you scale from there. There is never a "business plan" per se, not until you have some data. I'd have the finance types write the business plan once you'd sold a few copies of whatever it is you were planning on making. At least, that's what I think I'd do given that I know almost nothing about your situation :-)
I think quite a bit has been written about 3M's innovation approach, which as I mentioned is quite similar to what I'm proposing.
would be interested in talking to you about an upcoming project. nice job!
FF 3.5 with firebug 1.4 here, it works just fine. The whitelist bug (which I don't care for) will be fixed in the next release, no need to freak out about it. Now relax and go back to work :)
Kite surrfing
Power Kites
A power kite is a large kite that is designed to pull along the user attached to it. There are three forms of power kites that are available viz. foils, leading edge inflatable and supporting leading edge. The control system used on these kite also varies with some having 2 lines and others having 5 lines
info at zoodlabs dot com
I'm on FF3.5 and Firebug 1.4 and it works fine too.
Just launched our latest version of SchoolRack a few days ago. It connects teachers with their students and parents. Lets them upload files, create discussion boards, create homework assignments, etc...

http://schoolrack.com
A little gardening website - http://gardenobserver.com

Trying to track late blight on tomatoes. http://gardenobserver.com/report/map. Anyone having pest problems in their gardens? Hook me up!
A lot of the commenters need to read http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html (the section titled 'The Blub Paradox' is particularly relevant, but the entire essay is fantastic). In addition, the concepts of essential complexity and accidental complexity are addressed quite comprehensively in Fred Brooks' essay 'No Silver Bullet' (Google it).
PP is an interesting beast. I wonder when they'll start seeing pressure from the virtual currency platform providers like OfferPal and the dozens of others. Gotta think they'll gobble one up within the next 12 months if they're smart, but will likely wait 2+ years and pay through the nose.
some awesomeness that lets companies make money whenever people go to their competitor's websites. there is no site at all and no user interaction
I think I'll use a row of switches on my next project instead of Glade.
http://www.vivapixel.com - Photo and video hosting/sharing site.

Currently working on simple posting to tumblr and posterous
I suspect it costs a good bit more than that to produce, though if you begin with the idea to sell for $35,000 you can comfortably budget a tenth of that for manufacture. I think when someone buys such a watch it is not because they really think it is so much better (although a few fools do) as to signal the ability to make such a purchase.

Real luxury goods are an entirely separate economy where normal economic considerations are upended in favor of status. Via business, I get copies of a magazine for rich people featuring reviews of such baubles as Versace-styled helicopters.
http://taskulus.com. It's barely working right now and mainly for testing deployment and such
This quote is one of my favorite Linus quotes ever. Bashing on Microsoft is such an 'in' thing to do and honestly it's so pointless. Many IT folk are stuck using their products for any of a number of reasons. Many of their products simply are the best fit for specific applications. It's so irritating to hear the constant Microsoft Sucks(tm) from people that either honestly know little about it or that bash unnecessarily. Every OS sucks, none are perfect.

The biggest gripe I have with that attitude is that it destroys the FOSS, Apple, and Linux movements. People that are new to the IT world don't have years of backgrounds with projects and are going to be picking up on the attitudes of the people already there as well as struggling through technical problems. If they're instantly exposed to a very negative attitude (towards themselves, others, or really anything) it's going to be a huge turnoff to whatever project it is. The negative/hateful attitude that a lot of people have towards Microsoft actively hurts the same cause that they're trying to help.

The other part of that is that with any social interaction someone that is constantly putting something down is perceived (usually rightfully so) as being insecure about their own inadequacies. I don't know about others, but Linux and Apple have both matured to the point that I'm quite comfortable quietly evangelizing and building others up, regardless of the OS choice.

It's time to relax guys, we finally have an atmosphere with the freedom to pick your own OS and to be happy with it. This is a GOOD time to be a nerd, and a fantastic time to share that passion and excitement with people from whatever background.

Besides, if there's someone to demonize, it's the people that don't take the time to secure their boxes. Those come from all distros/OS's and I'll gladly pass the pitchfork around for them!
http://confess2.me/ a personal project i whipped up in a weekend as a learning exercise (and a blatant rip off of similar sites out there)
there is probably no firequery tutorial, I thought screenshots are self-explanatory. You can try FireQuery on this test file: http://github.com/darwin/firequery/blob/master/test/index.ht...
Honestly, I think this numeric sequence of commits is terribly confusing.

In theory, a small happy number is easy to deal with. In practice, a team of two developers doing pushes and pulls with auto-merging will have sequences that don't line up so they can't use them to talk about revisions anyway.

git's "describe" output is the best of all worlds.
I, with my partners, am working on http://www.snapact.com/ in the midst of creating a better API in order to create more clients for more platforms. Fun and exciting (to me) stuff.
It really determines what kind of relationship you wish to nurture. Are you going to continue to work under the sponsor after the sale?

The classic rule of negotiating is never be the first one to write come out with a number. If you come out with a reasonable first number, you could severely limit your gains. If you try to next level think it, you could get laughed out of the room. Sometimes negotiators write down offers at the same time down on a sheet a paper to resolve a situation in which no one will write down a first offer.

Use next level thinking once you start haggling. If the lowest you are willing to sell it for is 6M, and your initial offer was 10M then cutting reducing your second offer to 8M is too much. Choose something more arbitrary like 9.4M which makes the buyer think they are getting to close to your lowest point.

This also means you should know your lowest point. Another great rule of negotiations is to have a strong alternative. This means explore other avenues for a sale or have projections for where you can take your project in a few years and exit then. If you don't care about the relationship, a tactic to use is to simply lie that you have a competitor's offer. Well since you are meeting tomorrow, make a few phone calls in the morning and see if you can set up a meeting with another potential buyer. If you can convey that you are taking other meetings during the negotiation, it'll strengthen your position.

In the end, feel out the other person and trust your gut. Good luck!
HBFS Offers fast house sale
HBFS Offers fast house sale. The most important aspect of a quick house sale using a property buying company like HBFS is that you remain in control.
Only took us a couple of minutes to get things set up too. Congrats on officially launching guys! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
A little calculator tool would be nice to help me ballpark a price. That, or show some canonical numbers. "ABC company has X daily uniques who frob an average of Y widgets each day. That would cost only $123".

Remember: you guys are the experts on analytics, not us. We might have no idea how many data points we have now, or will have when we start using your service. Maybe consider a simplified pricing scheme as well.

Anyways -- this looks awesome. Google Analytics covers a lot of stuff for us without having to think. When we've got a spare moment to think about what else we want to track, we'll definitely give this service a try.
Web Cam Chat Basics
Web cam chats bring unlimited fun and excitement. It is like having a friend across the table spending some quality time with them. Here are some web cam chat basics that will help you enjoy your online chat experience. First of all, if you want to enjoy your web cam chat, make sure you have a reliable internet connection. You should have a fast internet connection for the best quality video
I think the original poster is interested in your service, but wants to be confident he can trust it.

"millions a day" builds confidence but "mostly under control" puts it right back here we started. Maybe a little bit more detail would put him (and others) at ease?
As someone who purchased several 'subnotebooks' years ago, I can confidently say that 'netbook' is not a synonym.

The machines in the 'subnotebook' category cost at least five times as much!
no need to freak out

What are you talking about?

it works just fine

Have you tested it on my code?
Ask HN: Vancouver startup scene?
I'm in silicon valley with an itch to start a software (non-web) company. Being stuck waiting years for residence here, I'm pondering heading north to Vancouver. I've heard good things about the city and enjoyed it while visiting for a few days. But.. can any local hackers give me the heads up on the startup scene? Any web sites you can recommend? thanks!
http://tshirtthis.com/ - rss to headline tshirts on demand - not yet in beta
Its really a great addon, hats off to you. I use the data() method frequently, and FireQuery is invaluable for that. Great to know I can use it with Firebug 1.3 as well.

I'd imagine its tedious to maintain compatibility with each successive version, much less several at once. From an end user, please know that your hard work is appreciated.
I think it stays on if you click the [-] or the status bar icon instead of the Off button.
How to Make The Most of Your Meta Tags
Do you pay attention to your meta tags? Chances are not a whole lot but is that hurting your search engine rankings? While the value of meta tags is debatable learn how to quickly make the most of them.
Allow people to keep their books; pursue the rogue publisher; pay requisite damages to the copyright holder.
Mice made from induced stem cells
From experience, I know that the directors of nonprofits need to be told this stuff!

I've run into a downside he doesn't touch on: On Facebook it's plainly obvious to users when people aren't engaging with you -- there's a reverse network effect.
> The right thing, if there is one, consists of a willingness to learn how stuff works even if it’s unfamiliar or seems complicated

The key point is: how hard is this magic to learn, and how much is there learn? For some types of "magic" there is simply no way to learn how they work. They're just arbitrarily baked in in such a way that even a person skilled would never figure it out. You just have to hope that the documentation is good and put your faith in it. It's true that programming languages ask us to accept things on faith in just such a way, but that is why languages themselves are so minimalist - they have to be so that we can afford to learn them at such expert level that we can use them competently despite their magical nature. Frameworks like Rails, Grails and Django are anything but minimalist. To ask us to learn everything about them without strong links to the foundational languages they are built on is asking too much - it doesn't scale.
I'm working on http://www.getpersonas.com, trying to make it better for the community. Small release tomorrow!

Also working on http://www.mozilla.com/mobile, got some updates for a future release.
Conspicuously absent from this apology is the explicit promise that they won't do it again.
There may be more demand now (I don't about x10,000 more..) but there's a lot more supply too. Many of the "web consultants" Spolsky is referring to were people making 6 figure salaries for barely knowing HTML (not even CSS). The common "15 minute blog" you see in many frameworks' intro could command $n0,000 contracts.

There's no lack of hype in the current web, but that first bubble was really something to see :)
The Myth Of Search - What Search Engines Don't Find
What a fascinating concept. Not only can this potentially revolutionize the lives of millions of people, but the implications past that are staggering. If this was a standard option how many lives would be saved from the moment distractions? How many sleepy drivers would be saved from hurting themselves or others?

The next iteration of highways and freeways requires technology like this to happen. There's no reason that we can't travel much, much more quickly than we do currently and adapting cars to help prevent accidents and avoid the situations that cause them is a necessary catalyst.

How nice would it be to commute to work every day and avoid the traffic jams that plague cities?

I for one can't wait to see this progress.
There's a good chance the company the recruiter was working for would actually hire your friend. Many companies were under pressure to increase their staff and show "growth" to their investors. I was working for a company with a super-talented team of about 20-30 people, which suddenly ballooned to ~100, many of whom simply had nothing to do.
> Zeng says, however, that the mice seem to have a high
> death rate, with some dying after just two days, and
> others displaying physical abnormalities, details of
> which the team would not reveal.

This is a bit troubling. Not that the mice die after a few days, but that the researchers are withholding this information.
After years of writing Manufacturing, Retail and Financial Backend/Middleware, I'm working on the following exclusively (for better or worse).

Maintaining Version 2.x & Building the All New Version (3.0) of http://www.inkedmag.com

Continuing the build of Version 2.x of http://www.surfacemag.com

and soon to be working on a brand new Version 2.x of http://www.tokion.com (currently a simple set of splash pages)

All for publishers in NYC. I do so wish they would acquire a technical journal, or some form of academics research journal(s). Fashion & Sub Cultures are interesting for those in said cultures but it doesn't mean that I wouldn't find more scholarly/research minded content/environments more interesting.