skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just for the record, I'm black and I have used the sharecropping analogy for what happens when you decide to write applications for a proprietary platform like OS X, Windows, or iPhone.

Actually, I haven't made that direct comparison to iPhone, but anybody with a text editor can take my old, old article about Konfabulator and Panic and do a little search and replace for themselves.

http://weblog.raganwald.com/2004/11/sharecropping-in-orchard...
There is truth in the notion that all of us have to decide we want something and then we have to go after it.

The way the author makes this point really comes off poorly. There are always going to be people that say they would buy something if it were only $5 cheaper, or if it included X or Y features. These people aren't your customers, so why waste time bullying them into buying?
Texas Judge rules Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore
Each report on an event has always been this divergent, either because of the normal differences between two people describing the same thing, or for political motivations. The only thing new now is that we can easily compare them all in an instant.
Reminds me of the 5th element.
According to Joel, over the lifetime of the Aeron chair, it costs less than toilet paper. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDeveloper...

When I moved to different office last year, we were all given Mirra chair (another model by Herman Miller) and I can attest that they are EXTREMELY comfortable. Earlier, I used to get off the chair to catch a break but these days, I get off from my desk when I want to not because I am tired of seating in the chair. The chair's build quality is excellent and I can see that this chair can easily last 5+ years.

I have decided to buy Mirra for myself at home, the basic model costs around 600$, which is a small cost if it helps avoid problems with back injuries/fatigue.
Summary: your most visited sites are displayed by Safari to chose from - these can be manipulated by an attacker using javascript - replaced sites can be used to phish your account details (eg bank details) and the URL can be hidden due to another Safari bug.

Result: all your $$$ are belong to teh crakzorz if you use Saf4's "top sites" feature (I'd be wary of the equivalents in other browsers too).
I think it is because nobody believes it will actually force MSFT to stop shipping word. And with a market cap of 200+ billion, a payout to i4i wouldn't hurt MSFT too much.
When I was implementing this feature in my app I decided against both of these approaches and instead piggybacked on less icon-friendly terminology that everyone understands: Remember this.

I felt that favoriting and starring implied that you liked an item, and flagging seemed to have a slightly negative connotation (think soccer). I wanted a term that didn't imply that you liked or disliked an item, just that you wanted to remember it for later.
My mind is my Timeline. I follow every brain cell.
Some people post Facebook, Twitter messages, etc. about how miserable they are about being laid off and needing a job - other people post messages about how they're using time off to read a new book about design patterns or Erlang or whatever. I'm thinking the second group are more likely to be hired.

Although projectileboy's comment about paying $2k for a class on TDD is spot-on.
Which works wonderfully well if the moderators have a balanced mix of opinions. If they start having the same opinion, perhaps that there are certain viewpoints (not topics) the community finds interesting are not interesting to them, then the system fails by way of groupthink.

It works much better when material is categorized instead of flagged. Then readers can selectively choose which categories they like (instead of having a few choose for them). Moderators would then be free to re-categorize material for which they found improperly labeled.
Get good at time management. College undergrads have an enormous amount of free time, few responsibilities, and a lot of flexibility. The main cause (for me, at least) for not doing most anything you want is poor time management. Start here: http://www.alice.org/Randy/timetalk.htm
'Flag' on the web is usually used as a synonym to mean 'report to admin'. For example, Hacker News or MetaFilter both use a flag with this meaning.

'Star' is frequently used for bookmarks - Chrome, Firefox and IE all use a star icon to denote their bookmarks functionality. If you're using text rather than an icon, I think an explicit 'Save' or 'Favourites' text is preferable, however.
We've been over this before and it's not going to happen (at least IMHO).
I don't think the analogy to sharecropping itself is offensive, I think including the picture that makes it clear we're talking about the post-Civil-War, legalized slavery version of sharecropping is what crosses the line. Without that, I think it's merely stupid, because web 2.0 participation is completely voluntary and usually done for fun or reciprocity.

I also agree with your point, that the sharecropper analogy holds better for earning your living by developing on someone else's platform.
> Well my dear friend this was not in India. But America.

It was definitely global: and the material reference India and Rome specifically.

I suspect your thinking to the Heavens Gate cult (which is a different incident) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_%28cult%29

> Well don't you think there's a difference between 1910 and now?

Yes. I never implied there wasnt! The effect of fear is still the same - and though the response has changed it is intriguing.

> The only difference is that there are still a lot of people in Eastern countries who are backward.

You've brought "backward" into this: im uncomfortable with that. Quite where I have suggested any form of backwardness (???) is a bit of a mystery - you've made an assumption I think (my fault: I was too objective in the original statement). I also call bull shit. There are lots of "backwards" people in the world irrespective of culture. No more or no less in Eastern countries. I cant believe you would suggest as much!

There actually is an important difference: but not the one you identified. It is to do with Stigma. In Europe especially there is a HUGE stigma about suicide. In 1910 it was even more so. There was almost certainly terror but the suicide rate was lower (if not almost non-existant) because doing so was bad.

I've noticed that stigma is less apparent (but not, note, non-existent) in some parts of Asia. This I would suggest identifes

> A lot of people live in slums, and these are more likely to catch the virus once it has spread.

You make a superb point and I agree. I havent seen "on the ground" but it would be interesting to see the reactions of those living in slums compared to, say, middle class business men. From previous observations I would suspect that a more "hysterical" reaction would be in the business persons with the others taking a more liberal view.

And note we are talking about panic: which is a bad thing in these circumstances. If it is, as you say, confined to those coming from abroad then mass panic seems overkill. Concern, planning and education is the better approach (but everywhere has fallen foul of that).

But here were on a discussion of panic and hysteria: where I was sort of talking more about how reactions to that manifest.

Here in the UK there has been NO reaction even in the slightest bit similar to that in India, China and lots of other regions (Italy again strikes me as one to join that group from what I have read). A lot of the media hype has met with cynicism. There was some hoarding of Tammiflu but that died off very quickly when people weren't really dying of it. Every few weeks now the media try and whip it all up again but it's not sticking.

I find these to polar reactions interesting: and it really does appear to me that culture is the overriding factor in all of it.
Here check this video my friend : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6Q79FkBoQ

see after 3:25. Please do.

People in India would not commit suicide due to knowing there is cyanide in comet's tail. But because maybe the gods are angry. ;-)
So I do think your comment was ignorant at face value.

Hysteria is common to all cultures. Certain hysteria would be more likely in western cultures and some more likely in eastern cultures. A bomb blast in LA would lead to hysteria in CA. A bomb blast in Peshawar would be normal. Life would be okay in another two days.

I don't think it's wise to say it's a culture thing.
I can just see myself now...

"It's a pretty nice day. Hasn't been too humid lately."

"Yeah. Hey so what are you passionate about?"
i know indians are so crazy with their comet-suicides and curry and bollywood and and and and and and and and and
She has bipartite sesamoids, which happens when they don't fuse together correctly. That unfortunately means that it's highly likely to happen again. On the positive side, it's something that proper orthotics or padding should let her fix.

I started to get a little plantar fasciitis from too much mileage in my racing flats and excessive downhill running, but was able to fix that by rotating my shoes more and sticking to the flats.
I have only five words and a link: The Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel http://www.idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda-weehawken_burri...
also check out printfection.com
It sounds like they're only on the hook because they paid for a license to the "DVD Copy Control Association" and that the license excludes the option to allow users to copy the DVDs.

It is pretty silly to allow copying for backup but not allow any means to perform that copying.

Note in the UK there is no backup provision in so-called fair use clauses.
Just for the record, YC-like programs mentioned: TechStars, SeedCamp, LaunchBox, DreamIT, SeedRocket, AlphaLab, BootupLabs, Shotput Ventures, Capital Factory, NextStart
10 Year Old Wants N Word Removed From English Language.
> do we really _want_ this sort of thing

Replacing labor intensive delivery that involves lots of big brown trucks illegally parking in traffic with an underground, computerized, electrically powered system?

Yeah, that sounds horrible.
Then, I bet you missed "Brazil".

Edit: I've watched The Fift Element three of four times, Brazil only once. But I can't help thinking in "Brazil" when I read about tubes.
One key point though is that like copyright, patents are for a limited time.

Moreso for patents than copyrights. Number of patents that expired last week: thousands. Number of copyrights that expired in the last decade: zero.
The focus of HN is - according to the guidelines - is "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity", pictures of kittens do not make the cut and that is not what I had in mind.

The flag option does not work in the way you describe, there is a limit to the number of 'flags' that a topic can receive before it will be killed automatically without moderator intervention.

This means that currently even if 50 people are discussing a topic 7 can shut it down for whatever reason they think they might have.

This works fine for spam, but for subjects that satisfy the above criterium but not the personal interests of only 7 people the limit seems arbitrary, and imho just plain wrong.
If you think you've talked me into buying you "kiss under mistletoe" you're wrong.
Sometimes less, is more. Keep it simple, and perfect it.
Are there any security issues with this?
I mean, if I used this, I would be adopting a signature that has been perfected by someone else...

I also agree with working the gallery into the front page somehow. The gallery is what explains it best i think.
Some of the old card designs are so great ....

http://www.oldcardboard.com/r/r406-6/r406-6.jpg

As I outgrew paying attention to them I also noticed that progressively modern cards tended to focus on technology gimmicks versus vintage iconography.

None of these really stand out from the eighties:
http://bapple2286.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/cast-your-vote-be...
I guess technically I am, but I tend to be more of the hired-help role. ;)

Things I've founded alone:

http://fragtweet.com
A simple Twitter & OAuth app in rails. Proof of concept and left dormant for now. It appears a competitor has been born that does everything I planned on doing, and does it well. Who am I to argue with progress? ;)

Things I helped build, but did not found:

http://ordercounter.com
I helped these guys bootstrap when I was in college. Both founders are friends of mine, and I was asked to join in as a 30% stock holder but turned it down. I built the web based back-office interface and the online ordering system which allowed restaurants to specify a polygonal delivery area. Most of this was in PHP with some PERL for the Geocoder::US interface.

http://theamericancritic.com
I took this project as a contract in college. Everything was built from scratch sans libraries in PHP. Another dev stepped in to help but that didn't work out for my client. I still have a backlog of O&M updates to do for this one.

http://mybloglog.com
Little known fact, I did actually sort of work on MyBlogLog before its acquisition by Yahoo. I helped test the app internally at Cloudspace and designed the VC diagrams for the negotiations. I left the company before the sale, but it felt pretty good to be a part of that in any capacity.
jd, you do not get these privacy settings control when you select 'Settings' by right clicking on Flash. Those 'Settings' let you control microphone/web cam usage. You have to again click on 'Advanced' link on one of the tab, which will lead you to this page. My question is, why do I have to go to a Macromedia hosted page to change privacy settings of Flash player installed on my computer?
Anecodotally, I've experienced this too. I fast from food from time to time, and whenever I do, I'm ready to sleep earlier at night and ready to get up earlier the next morning.
Flying cars first, please.
My nose says Scala is headed in a good direction. They seem to get some important things right, it's a fast language, it's based on a widely used platform, and while there are some new things in the syntax, I don't think it's something so completely alien that it will put less adventurous programmers off.

I haven't used it for anything yet, though... if you have, what do you think of it?
i found this photo from of OpenOffice's afternoon meeting yesterday: http://bit.ly/G82b4
Fear and Impatience are Killing the Nabaztag Bunnies
Pirates seize ship near Europe
pg posted about this awhile back. that's not the way it works anymore. if a submission has at least ten points, then it can't be auto-killed by people flagging it.

of course he makes changes all the time, so it may be different by now.
You mean like ubiquitous fiber communications?

This is entirely plausible. The building of the infrastructure could be highly automated and done in parallel.
I’ve had a problem getting up early for as long as I can remember.

Physical work does not work for me. What finally did the trick was sunlight. I moved (a year ago) to a new place which has panorama windows in all the rooms and facing ocean/sky — since then my sleeping schedule has been normal except December/January (I’m in Scandinavia, so we have dark winters).

For scientific explanation see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin
I've been having success doing this for a few years. The next thing I should try is experimenting with different fluids before sleeping. A glass of water would be a good start ... maybe an Emergen-C packet to vary.
There was a note about someone alleging the drugs were counterfeit. There could have been more details around that - who alleged it and why? Note that I am not siding with big pharma here - far from it. I am siding with balanced reporting.
fantastic idea! you gotta do the shirts. some of these lines are hilarious and most importantly original.

p.s. y combinator should have a "forgot my password" button...or if they already do, make it a little more prominent
>>It was definitely global: and the material reference India and Rome specifically.

Sure it had to be. But it can not be in India due to news that the comet tail had cyanide AT ALL.
In India it would have to do more with religious and cultural implications of a comet than what it had (just like it would have had an impact in Europe a century earlier).

>> You've brought "backward" into this: im uncomfortable with that.

Well I should I have been clearer. What I meant was not related to your point. I meant that a lot of people would still think that eclipse has to do with gods than being a physical phenomenon. I think that ignorance. And this is more prevalent in people in India who are educationally backward.

>> I've noticed that stigma is less apparent

I found your paragraph interesting. And I do not agree. There could be a whole new thread on that.

>> And note we are talking about panic: which is a bad thing in these circumstances. If it is, as you say, confined to those coming from abroad then mass panic seems overkill. Concern, planning and education is the better approach (but everywhere has fallen foul of that)...

I agree with the rest of your comment after this point. And I think this is more studied.
When you eat near bedtime you get much less restfull sleep during the first part of the night (i.e. the most important part of the night for sleep) because your metabolism is still active digesting the food.

Simple as that.
"I see this way too often about eastern cultures on the internet. And it sure is upsetting and extremely irritating."

I am Indian too, but I don't find anything "offensive" about it.

If anyone misconstrues our culture, and we think it deserves correcting, let us correct them with facts, data and explanations and not necessarily assume ill will. God knows many Indians look on Americans as uncultured barbarians with a lot of money but no culture. They are wrong too, but being offended may not be a productive response.

At least on HN let us assume goodwill and argue based on facts vs perceived intention and "offensiveness". I am not disputing your right to be offended, just trying to propose an alternative. All cultures have ridiculous and glorious aspects. All people have incomplete perceptions.

As I said, I am Indian and live in India these days, but have lived in the USA. I maybe limited in my experience, but I've found most people in both countries to be decent people with no real notions of cultural superiority. This might be a good assumption to work off unless proved otherwise.

Just my 2 cents. Ok I am done. Thanks for listening. carry on :-)
And No I was referring specifically to the 1910 halley's comet. Not the incidence you mentioned.
like someone said, "flag" is associated with "report to admin" so its a bad idea as many users already have this association.

I, too, think that star is more of a 'I read this and liked it' than a 'I want to mark this to read later' like you imply. Its associated with 'favorite', not with 'pending'

I think in this case a 'pending' term is the best.
Definitely. I usually up the volume of short intervals (tabata) when doing this type of work - less time training than usual and more metabolic effect.
Mollen
When it comes to Google Reader I use "share" for things I like, would like to share with others and find again. I use "star" only for items that are not processed yet (eg. unread essays, unwatched videos) and I remove the star after processing.
Having seen combat and being exposed to some of these bots as a soldier in the recent past, I can confidently say that the mobility and situational awareness provided by some of these bots superlatively increases the operating effectiveness of a platoon. There was an instance when we were handed "maps" of an AO before an operation and to my surprise the maps were nothing more than hand drawn topo details, with rather miniscule details of the area itself. All this when the bad guys were using google maps to coordinate their own operations!

Months later, we inducted a mobile UAV into the platoon and I still, to this day think about the number of times it saved us from certain trouble.

Today, as I work on autonomous military bots as an engineer I can only appreciate the effort that goes into building these things. Occupancy grid mapping in a noisy environment of a battlefield being one the most challenging aspects of making these bots.
Feathers are made by a Japanese surgical tool company. They are considered by many to be the sharpest blade you can purchase.

That said, practice with Merkur or Derby's before you graduate to feathers.

I bought the Derbys on Amazon as well (100 pack for 15 bucks! Two year supply, basically, instead of a stretched 2 month supply for 30 dollar Gillettes) but I have to say I prefer the feeling of the Merkurs. Still, the price is right for the Derbys, though I do want to try feathers in the future.
When you’re not expecting failure, use methods that raise exceptions
Automating our point to point transportation system would be a huge value. Seems like this would compete in some ways with self-driving vehicles (though a controlled rail system seems more energy efficient).
{a slightly tweaked quote from the article}

So if you spend a lot of time creating content on someone else's company [..] I think you should be asking yourself some tough questions:

What do you get out of the time and effort you've invested in this company? Personally? Professionally? Tangibly? Intangibly?

Is your content attributed to you, or is it part of a corporate pool?

What rights do you have for the content you've contributed?

Can your contributions be revoked, deleted, or permanently taken offline without your consent?

Can you download or archive your contributions?

Are you comfortable with the business model and goals of the company you're contributing to, and thus directly furthering?

Ultimately, you have to decide which is more important -- building your own brand, or building the brand of the company you're contributing to?
Good comment plinkplonk. My first comment was made "at the spur". Not the guys fault. but reading too many articles on "Indian Culture" today. But I definitely thought it was a ridiculous comment. I agree with the edited versions.
Tips For Managing and Alleviating Stress Urinary Incontinence
What does that phrase mean? I couldn't find anything using a google search.
The explanation I have heard for this is that your metabolism (which break down molecules into smaller units and release energy) slows down some hours before you go to bed.
I think this is their final attempt to make their corporate users ditch Windows 2000...
Protecting yourself against the Wordpress login page exploit
Ah ok. I just lifted that bit of info from the arc 3 sources, which was iirc the latest version.
Good point. But I hope in the near future out ability to develop new antibiotics speeds up. So far we've mostly borrowed pre-existing compounds from fungi and soil bacteria.
Problems waking you up isn't a good solution to having a problem waking up.
@chromophore.
Sure. I wasn't really disputing your comment vs suggesting a different frame.

I have met my share of obnoxious people, both in the USA and in India, It is just that it is (in my opinion) very very hard to read the correct tone into written communication, specifically casual email/internet posts and a modicum of caution in this respect pays rich dividends.
In case anyone is curious, there are proposals for systems that respect the individual, are libertarian and are passive in the sense that the individual is the active part, choosing when, how, and what he will learn.

Take a look at this article of mine for instance http://cnxs.com.br/posts/an-emergent-participatory-design-fr... .
This is just the lower district court order. Microsoft will almost inevitably appeal the case. In patent cases, the appeals court often takes an active role in scrutinizing the patent and the case, and it often disagrees with the lower courts.

So I would hold off on worrying about the verdict too much at this point. What happens on appeal is most likely more important.
He also takes a staggering amount of pills despite the latest science: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/297/8/842