skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
We created Shake (http://shakelaw.com) to strike a balance between simple, short, plain-English language, and legal validity (marrying those two is harder than you might think). Like them or not, NDAs are signed all the time (we surveyed nearly 100 startups and found that the average CEO/Founder signs 3/month). I was surprised by that number, but that's what the respondents said. I don't advocate signing NDAs for everything, but we were aiming for a middle ground between a pinky swear and a traditional NDA full of legal jargon. Simplifying and standardizing the language and making them easy to create and sign (we started on iOS) takes some of the formality and awkwardness out of NDAs (and other agreements) without giving up protections or professionalism. Disclosure: I'm the CEO of Shake, which is free if you want to check it out.
Don't pay so much attention to app store reviews. There are plenty of agencies out there offering fake reviews for pretty much anything.

I don't see how bad games full of microtransactions and fake reviews would be able to destroy the industry. They will not prevent the next Minecraft.
I find it ironic that this blog post is filled with ads from top to bottom. Talk about destroying industries.
This is probably related to a known bug with Firefox 26 on Ubuntu 13.10 (and apparently other, similar Linux setups). Track progress here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=750011
People that started using Facebook as teenagers are now adults - and teenagers generally don't want to use the same service as their parents. So they probably aren't losing users, just not gaining them in one demographic anymore. However, consider Instagram. It's probably mostly used by teenagers and Facebook owns it.
I read a lot of complaints like this "OMG , all games are becoming F2P IAP" but I don't really see it outside of a niche of mobile games which seem to be modern day one armed bandit machine.

If you at the current crop of Steam games or console games there are a ton of popular games that have no IAP or IAP which are for only for cosmetic items or expanding game content.
I agree we need fewer, better patents. But triviality is orthogonal to obviousness. As I said above (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7162049) the iPhone UI patents are downright trivial to implement, but were they obvious before Jobs asked "How do we make smartphone touchscreens not suck"? Another related issue in the same comment is, identifying the problem itself is often the hard part, but the solution may be trivial.

We certainly need to fix things, but these are complex issues.
Is it really training the gamers? I would say it is taking advantage of the similarity between a difficulty progression and time/spend ladders. Other than some amount of real world benefit from improved hand eye coordination they are just different ways of providing a reward stimulus that is relatively empty of extended value.

(I don't mean that as an invective against fun, I just mean that the rewards from fun are mostly fleeting)
Can you keep a secret? Trade Secrets in Global Business Transactions
Microsoft management must be very intelligent but they seem like utter morons - I want to replace all their keyboards, monitors and mice with 15 different broken ones and say "see lots of really crap ones is far better than one good one".

Seriously it's not hard to market quality over quantity successfully is it? All app users are frustrated by low quality apps it would really make me notice if MS had a properly curated app store and said "we have less apps in our store because we value you and your time; excellence is our goal and we want our app developers to strive for that too; better quality, better performance, better life" [that sounds suitably hyperbolic].
There are still plenty of games that don't use in app purchase at all or at least in a conservative way (like expansion packs) on consoles and PC, so I wouldn't draw such conclusions.

I think the reason for this push of freemium games (in particular mobile games) is that people (who aren't usually gamers) tend to play them for very short periods as a way of passing the time. (while waiting, or while they are sitting on the toilet)

And since most game companies were unable to sell full priced games to this demographic they adopted this business model to make money.

Would you pay $30 for a game on a mobile phone with all its limitations? (touchscreen controls, small screen, crappy audio, battery drain)

If I'm paying that kind of money (or more) for a game I expect at least solid 15 hours of immersive gameplay. (which is impossible for me on a phone - I have my consoles&PC for that)
Enchantment – Kawasaki’s method to Influence People
Rentify, London
We're changing rentals for the better. Venture-backed and growing our team of 22 to 40 in 2014. We're looking for rails hackers of all levels. Email jobs@rentify.com and tell us why you'd like to help kill letting agents.
The Information Technology Act and Internet Censorship in India
Bitcoins the hard way: Using the raw Bitcoin protocol
Isn't that against the separation of church and state? Unless it was carefully crafted not to mention anything religious?
And the Facebook app is written by Facebook. And it is the first one. So even on the basic search page, it is easy to figure out which one is the official one.

That's not to say the Play store doesn't drive me to distraction sometimes... I recently had to look at over a dozen flashlight apps to find one or two that weren't spamming me with ads and looking at my personal information.
Ruby Multiplies Like a Fourth Grader
I thought Blink primarily showed how first impressions can be more correct than considered and careful reasoning.
Jonathan Blow -creator of Braid and working on The Witness- also has a very nice critique on the problems with games that are designed around micro-payments. The whole talk is interesting, but he starts discussing the issues around the 20 minute mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxFzf6yIfcc#t=1214
Yes sort of. I would previously be able to shut everything out and just code for hours. But now I just keep taking longer breaks from coding: an hour turns into two hours ...etc and then a day is gone.
You misread my example, no beginner writes a ton of LOC, but yes. I don't think it's faint praise - some hiring managers would manage to find a reason to not hire the second guy, when the first one had been "employee of the month" already and that's good enough for them.
You might want to re-work your post to include more details. Most people don't care about "killing" letting agents either.
Also: http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2429
The thing is that it is possible to have both, like the Pascal branch of languages proves.

Or if Apple had kept investing into Dylan, for example.
WRT overview I was thinking from the proprietor's perspective.

The "upload your calendar" might work well but people won't want to give up their data so I'm thinking a client side component could transmute all a person's calendar entries to remove the details then upload and do a match with the store.

Glancing across is always going to work better than zooming IMO.
What technology are they using for signaling? From the photos, it looks like a bunch of relays connected with a bunch of red wires, but it must be more advanced than that.
My advice as a research scientist at company that makes face recognition software: big, dark sunglasses.
So why hasn't Facebook taken them to the cleaners for IP and brand damage?
The signatures are racking up. It's good to see people standing up for net neutrality. Just added mine.
The best way to get good apps on a Windows phone is to get an app (developed by Microsoft!) that warns you when new & popular apps are here.

The fact that this app exists tells there's a problem with the Windows store search.

But as the OP says, they're also plenty of good quality apps: from small tools like the Bill reminder, or non-shady flashlights apps which doesn't require an Internet connection and your phonebook address, to an official GTA San Andreas.
Hmm. Maybe I am wrong. I think it's not that obvious though. "People" used in a topic where the "press" is mentioned clearly means !press* to me. Maybe the author could clarify if he sees my comment ?

* not part of the press
Firebird 3.0 Alpha 2 release is available for testing
John Sculley said the same thing in "From Pepsi to Apple".
I asked him what happened.
So if a game is free to download, but you have to buy the last 10 levels after playing 5 already. Would you consider that an in-app purchase? Is this a deal breaker for you?
I love that talk.

I've had some friends complain that he takes too long to get to the point, but I would argue the comparison to TV is pretty important. I wouldn't skip it.
StepTalk is another Smalltalk-ObjectiveC legacy framework, originally meant for Smalltalk-like scripting of ObjectiveC apps/tools. It was built for GNUstep but worked on early versions of Cocoa as well: https://github.com/stiivi/StepTalk. It is no longer maintained, therefore it might need a little bit of refreshment.

It is light-weight SmallTalk interpreter on top of ObjectiveC objects. See the examples for better idea of what it does: https://github.com/Stiivi/StepTalk/tree/master/Examples
I was a little kid growing up in Argentina in the early 80's. I remember my dad explaining the crazy economy down there, showing me a 1,000 peso bill and saying, today you can take these zeros off and that's what this is worth. Soooo glad we left in 85.

Anyway, the point is, the economy down there has been turbulent like this for a verrrry long time.. Makes smart people throw their hands in the air and say eff it, pass me a malbec :)
I suspect many game developers find themselves in an awkward spot:

1) People seem to balk at paying >$5 for a mobile or tablet game. (With some notable exceptions.)

2) The $0.99 or $1.99 price point is not financially viable for most games.

3) People do seem willing to purchase coins or lives or more daily playtime via in-app purchases. Some spend tens or hundreds of dollars on a single game.

If you're building a game for a large company like EA, you're probably forced to take the most lucrative path. EA's not an atelier for starving artists. And if you're a small, struggling game studio, you probably can't afford to leave money on the table.

So what's the solution? If people are unwilling to pay reasonable prices up-front for games, how besides in-app purchases does a game company profit from their work?

This is an honest question, because I also generally hate how IAP is integrated into most games. I'd much rather pay up-front.
The obvious downside would be the typical slacktivism worry that by allowing an easy, ineffectual way for people to voice their opinions you're reducing the likelihood that they'll bother to go for more difficult but more effective ways; sort of a crowding-out effect for effort.
It seems Firefox's implementation of web audio API is not the same as Chrome or Safari.

Our app that plays audio in sync on multiple devices plays the audio but is out of sync with Safari and Chrome devices.

Any plans to follow safari's and chrome's implementation?
While ideologically I am more likely to agree with the study (hence the need for more caution), the results seem possibly (I bet, more) likely due to the Hawthorne effect. That is the kids and teachers felt they were special because of the study and so behaved better. Alternatively, fabricated data.

The article is written like this is a silver bullet with hand waving pseudoscience justification which implies it is total bull.
I'm not that old—27, so, maybe—but I do the same thing. In-App Purchases signal to me that the game is likely to begin ransoming my pleasure as soon as I invest time into it. It's a very frustrating feeling.

There are too many things out there that don't do that to waste time on a computer game that plays mindgames.

EDIT: I should add the caveat that if it's clear about what the IAPs do—i.e. they're clear addons or a shareware model of an otherwise good game, rather than "this game will progress untolerably slowly unless you pay"—I'm not a stickler on principle. Without more information, though, the presence of IAP is a strong negative signal.
>When Argentina's financial system implodes a significant part of the economy could well switch to bitcoin [2]. For many in Argentina this would be a better option than 'rebooting' yet again into fiat.

Yes. It's not gonna happen. What currency to turn your money into is irrelevant if you have the money. There have been alternatives to the official currency for millenia.

Not to mention when it's a matter of life and death to have access to that money, the slowness of Bitcoin exchange, as well as the volatility of the currency, are not benefits at all. What happens when it drops 20% or 80%, as could very well happen? It's neither established enough nor stable enough to give any guarantees. Better turn to the us dollar or other options.

Here's how easy it is, even from TFA:

>[Argentina] is the only place we know where you get better banking services out on the sidewalk than in the bank. Every time we go we take a big wad of green pieces of paper with Ben Franklin's picture on them. Driving directly to the town square in Salta (close to the family ranch), we then simply stop the truck and beckon over one of the many black-market moneychangers standing in front of the bank.

P.S As for the "Cyprus savings confiscations in 2013 provoking a previously unseen rally on bitcoin", that didn't happen by Cypriots. The kind of people who buy gold (light survavivalists) decided to ramp up on it -- still an insignificant amount, not even to the global economy but even to Cyprus' economy.
In the actual video, the principal doesn't say there are no rules, but that they start off with no rules and create them collaboratively is the need arises.
E.g. no high tackles in the game of bullrush
Apple, in its position of strength, made the game all about app counts. Year after year, they updated the total app count no matter how trivial the app, and declared victory over Google, Microsoft, Palm, and BlackBerry. Microsoft has been baited into the game, and can't possibly win.

They need to change the conversation to one of strength. Ray Ozzie (while still at MS) was excoriated in the press for saying, "Apps don't make your phone special ... All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them." But I think he's right. Almost every app that I use every day is available on every platform, or has an excellent equivalent, but there are big gaps in niche categories and games.
...the vast majority of petitions still don't reach the 100,000 threshhold...

That's right, only the important petitions get that many signatures:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/deport-justin-bieb...

[currently at 233,220]
You are unique in this. They would get almost no sales and destroyed in reviews if they charged the real price of the game ($20).

Instead, they use IAP. Some users buy nothing, some buy the $69.99 game, and on average everyone pays $20.
That was my first impression too.
I thought the wikipedia article could explain it better than I, but here are some more references:

http://blogs.kde.org/2006/10/21/ralph-griswold-icon-language...

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=104659

http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/69724/tr-99-64.ps

look at Goal-directed evaluation of icon
You should be able to play the game, and beat the game, without any in-app purchases. It can beg you for add-ons all it wants, but gameplay shouldn't be affected.
I look forward to them publishing, and will be interested to see the long term effects, especially with kids that have been exposed to only this regime from the moment they join the school. On the face of it right now, I'd be wary of the Hawthorne effect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
Maybe Microsoft thought WP owners would give the bad apps bad reviews, so that the best app would rise to the top?

I suppose if I wanted the real Facebook app for Windows Phone, I'd just go to Google and search for:

site:facebook.com app "windows phone"

Most people aren't going to do that though.
That's not bad - that's more like a free trial. My issue with in app payments is that they create game breaking incentives and it's hard to know if that's what they're going to be when you see 'in app purchases' on the main screen.

Most that I've seen seem to require purchases to unbreak the game or make it so that progress isn't artificially restricted by time. I think this effects some people more than others (WoW, farmville, clash of clans players who pour thousands of hours/dollars into the game).
The article doesn't give a lot of information, but neither does your anecdotes.

>There weren't any rules when I was in primary school either and there definitely were bullies and injuries on the playground.

I'm not sure that the article is saying that the removal of rules has lead to zero bullies/injuries--just a reduction.

>Weak argument for the no-rules position. Children get injuries all the time, whether you have rules or not :].

This is an even weaker argument for rules. If children are going to get injuries whether you have rules or not, than why are you wasting time rule-making when nobody wants to follow the rules and nobody wants to enforce the rules? Furthermore, I'd say that the thesis of "less rules means more activity, means less time spent harassing and troublemaking," is very plausible.

It's like getting a husky and crating him up all day, then wondering why he's irritable and destructive.
Sorry, I sort of ignored the article and just had a look at the references instead.
Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2014)
Please lead with the location of the position and include the keywords INTERN, REMOTE, or H1B if the corresponding sort of candidate is welcome. Feel free to post any job that may interest HN readers from executive assistant to machine learning expert to CTO.

Also see: Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (February 2014) http://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=7162201
I mostly agree with the premise here, but I want to play devil's advocate:

* The game isn't actually reviewed. Maybe you can play the game perfectly well without paying for gems. Maybe the game is actually more interesting to play for the fact that you have to manage your resources according to the time cost/gem count. Maybe there's a genuine reason why thousands of people have given five stars.

* There's no reason to believe that we are supposed to pay for the £70 bundle. Maybe the £70 bundle is just for the IAP 'whales' who are paying for everyone else to play. When I go to a coffee shop, I don't have to buy a triple-cream, triple-chocolate mocha latte for £8, but I also don't need to get annoyed that this is on the menu.
I just talked to the FxOS guys, and they hope the support will be out around 1.4 or 1.5, but no promises. I don't know much more than that unfortunately.
I think IAP's to upgrade trails are ok. IE play two levels for free, buy the rest.
Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (February 2014)
Please lead with either SEEKING WORK or SEEKING FREELANCER, your location and whether remote work is a possibility.
I’ve been really disappointed with Apple’s laissez-faire approach to policing this trend in their App Store, especially since their philosophy is founded on making big, sweeping decisions in favour of their users.

Honestly, I don't know why they haven't, because this is one of the biggest dark user patterns that exist outside of outright illegalities.

We - and I - are used to giving companies like Facebook and LinkedIn shit for similar things, so why are Apple tacitly supporting this abomination. They don't even make that much from games anyway.

What would the coverage be like, if the FCC fined either of those two $35.5M, as they recently did Apple[1][2]?

If we believe that the App Store is a Big Deal, we should care that this is the new normal in handheld videogames.

[1]: http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/01/apple-...

[2]: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/technology/government-and-...
I found out that a lot of devs found row_number() when they were looking for way to do pagination, but never come across rank and dense_rank functions. Nice article, it explain difference between these three functions in a much simplier way msdn and technet does.
Might be the whole mass-death thing.
Another interesting video review of the another incarnation of this problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_AgjWkNGew Angry Joe on the iOS app Star Trek: Trexels.

It does not amaze me that this level of depravity was tried; I always considered it a forgone conclusion that the companies would do anything that worked. It does sort of amaze me that this is working. Though I suspect rather than being the long-term future of gaming that this is the equivalent of slash&burn development. Yes, there's a huge bunch of people right now who haven't quite cottened to how nasty this can be, but they're learning fast, and while another one is born every minute, it's never quite the same as the first time the new scam goes raging through an unprepared population.
Empirical evidence is not on your side here considering net immigration from Mexico to the US (or many other poor country / rich country pairs).
Why would you want to be less confrontational in an interview? The point is to see if the candidate is good or not, not "let's see how I can ask this question in the nicest way possible so I can get a nice and safe response that the candidate will just read off his / her resume".

The fact is this question weeds out people who truly havent' done anything difficult or unable to communicate their achievements properly. If you have an impressive set of skill / strength, then it should be easy enough for you to pick one.

In my mind the question forces the candidate to show the interviewer his / her:

1) Communication skills (i.e, is this person going to tell me all their problems, or just the one major problem that he/she needs help with)

2) What they view as an accomplishment or challenge

3) How they handle challenges

4) Their ambition (i.e, did they take a leadership position in their accomplishment or did they sit back and let everyone lead the project)
Pirate3D is a Singapore-based kickstarter-funded startup building a consumer-oriented 3D printer, the Buccaneer. We are building a large suite of software around the printer, and we are looking for multi-hat programmers in diverse fields.

To apply, try implementing some of the following tasks, and email them at career@pirate3d.com. We arrange flight and visa application for you (keyword: H1B, called EP in Singapore).

* 3D processing − write a GLSL fragment shader that renders a sphere, cylinder and cube next to each other with lighting. The vertex shader should not be used and kept minimalistic. Include in the email a discussion about your approach and how it could be extended into an actual application.

* iOS/Android − write a small application allowing to scroll through hundreds of images in the style of Windows Metro UI, but vertically and with circular loading (meaning the last items are followed by the first items, the first items are preceded by the last items, and so on).

* 3D processing − write in your favorite language a program that scales uniformly the object of an STL file to the smallest size so that at least 99% of the points within the object can be contained inside a sphere of radius 1.0 that is entirely within the object itself. Include in the email some explanation of your approach and alternative approaches you could have taken.

* Security − write in your favorite language or pseudo-language a program that encrypts a short message within a single UDP datagram for a destination with known IP, port, and public key. You don't need to write the code of the destination. Include in the email a discussion about the trade-offs between data overhead, processing time and security of your approach.

* More to come at http://www.pirate3d.com/career.
Calling these games "the game industry" does a disservice to all the other games that aren't like this.