skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I guess intergrating this with LOLCode feeds will be a breeze

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=36...
+1

As a self-professed generalist I just didn't want to sound too self-serving. ;) OTOH, I believe that striving to develop particular excellence in a few things IS a hallmark of good self-discipline...
I never claimed that his example was representative of a useful, short domain name, I simply pointed out that you came to a conclusion that was wrong after doing far too little research. If you have a problem with the length of his domain name, I'd suggest commenting to him, not me.

The downmods are ridiculous, did I honestly distract from the conversation or did everyone disagree that putting www in front fixes it? This place is dying.
That's not true. You can create an iTunes account without any payment information (or with a gift card), and you can also use Paypal, which itself doesn't need a credit card (and of course, they try every trick in the book to avoid using your credit card and use your bank account instead, where you have no recourse).
I think he means lower barrier to entry, he can do that without needing to sign up with any 3rd party.
Ebay does this bidding for you. Anytime you enter an auction, the price you are willing to pay should be independent of how everyone else in the room values the object. If your willingness to pay is a function of the last bid, then you probably should stick to fixed price sales.
Has managing your own fund affected how you think about the upside of startups?
But are you willing to give them both to some small internet site? I'm sure that there are a few edge cases like this who are comfortable doing that but I'd likely assume 90+% would not.
Give HN: Get a Free GPS Recorder for Your iPhone
Hey everyone,

I have recently been developing a cool GPS Recorder iPhone app. Besides just taking tracks, it also lets you download maps for offline use, has a vast database of waypoints, and has a bunch of other cool features.

My co-founders and I pushed this app to the app store last week, so it's polished and if you are a hiker like me (or runner, driver, or anything else), then I think you'd have a lot of fun with the app.

So, the exclusive HN offer is this: email me your Apple UDID at andrewljohnson@trailbehind.com, and I will send you a free copy of the app.

There are no strings attached, though we would appreciate any ideas, bug reports, or positive reviews when we go on sale in a couple of weeks.

I'm still working on the promotional website, but you can see screenshots of the app at http://www.gaiagps.com. Also, it basically integrates all the functionality, waypoints, and search index from http://www.trailbehind.com (which is our other product).
It's always great to look back at successful/unsuccessful marketing attempts and see where they went right and wrong.
The only way I know of to prevent duplicate accounts is to give people a code to redeem that is tied to a physical address. In other words, mail them a post card with a redemption code on it and only mail one card to one address. I'm sure this can be readily abused too though!
What do we have here? A company that clearly tries to be accessible and friendly, and instead comes across as sleazy and manipulative.

This kind of marketing can backfire -- I don't recommend it.
I don't disagree. The best approach is to always put your maximum bid in. But human nature plays a big part in auctions, and I think ebay should note this.

It seems that most people, given 3 hours to think about and consider the regret they would feel if they didn't get what they are bidding on, would usually convince themselves to skip a coffee and add another five dollars to their bid.

you are totally right, but humans are far from rational.
Are you being ironic? It's fairly amusing hearing (usually Americans) revive some colonialist axiom or piece of logic as if it is new & brilliant.

The relationship between wealth & compliance is complex.
Modesty. When someone who you respect or look up to inadvertantly contradicts what you have been teaching, this can be embarrassing.
Charities find unlikely new champion in private equity
Along the lines of what you're working on, I think what you really want is a form of network browser capable of locating files stored redundantly across a completely decentralized network.

Done correctly, this would make notions like "backups" completely obsolete, and "my files" would exist on any computer that allowed me to log in to the appropriate service.

Fast, decentralized, redundant network systems are a beast to engineer though, but it's do-able.

Bonus points if you figure out how to let users store private data on such a network, and keep it private, while also allowing them to share specific files with specific individuals or groups of individuals.

Pull that off, and you'll have the holy grail of data storage.

I've only got some rough notes on this; I don't think I'd start trying to actually implement it for another two years yet.

Beat me to it! I'd rather take a vacation. :-)
badmouthing anyone is a bad idea. it's mean and shortsighted.
Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.

"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read."

Seems to me that if more kids had a love of reading, they'd pick up the rest themselves, and the government wouldn't have to focus so much on cramming basic phonics down their throats.

I attribute RR as one of the reasons I had such a high reading level as a child. It made me want to read, so I did. And the more I read, the better I became at it.
What about yield? Norman Borlaug has been quoted multiple times saying organic agriculture simply doesn't have the yield necessary to feed the world.
I've been a professional developer for more than five years now, and I've only worked with about THREE female developers. Three out of probably more than 100. It's notable, get over it.
It is very easy to create another temporal email address
http://mailinator.blogspot.com/2008/08/dear-world-email-addr...
While it was interesting to read about the Basecamp transition (hadn't heard of it before), this is simply an advertising piece for their product.
This link is just a commentary on the real action - here's the official 37S announcement: http://basecamphq.com/transition
Concrete slab water cooler loop for overclocking
Also, some initial pictures of the copper pipe loop before the slab was poured:

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=800958...
Actually, if you want to be really stringent, you should charge a small fee without any refund. I take it you don't want to go that far, though.
I hate to rain other people's parades, but that interview was horrible. If show is going to be comedy based, think about hiring a funny writer.
Out of curiosity, why is it so important to prevent users from signing up multiple times? Is it a scaling issue, or...? I ask, because there may be an alternative (and less invasive) way of reaching the same goal.
7 - People refuse to believe that the asset class could have the possibility of a bubble

I'm not so sure that people refuse to believe. The clip from Barney Frank is interesting as it shows how the blow hards on the hill put a "its for the people" spin on their policies. Now maybe Barney Frank is actually in it for the people and simply does not understand anything about economics and credit markets. But of this I am certain: if you look at the very long list of interests that lobbied for extending more credit to homeowners, the list does not include "The lobby for irresponsible middle-class that want to buy jet skis". The bubble was created by a multitude of interests that all profited from extending credit. Its not that they didn't believe they were creating a bubble. They simply did not care. This is the same with the dot com bubble. The people committing fraud knew very well they were lying, but it was making them rich or possibly so, and this sort of fraud is hard to pin down and prosecute.

The net effect of item 7 is the same without regard to my perspective. The ability to keep something like this from happening again may matter whether it was a matter of "belief" or "greed". The greed part can be solved by separating the politicians from the money.

As for education. There are probably a lot who refuse to believe that some aspects of education are unnecessary.
SMS isn't a very good solution. Only slightly better than a simple e-mail verification. There are a number of services that would allow someone to receive texts on unique phone numbers. I'm assuming you have a good reason to limit accounts which means inevitably someone thinks they have a good reason to get around your limit.

This might be a silly suggestion but I would prefer, as a user, to be asked to submit a photograph of myself holding up a sign with some unique keyword you generate when the user attempts to signup. I honestly think this is less off putting than exchanging CC information. Depending what type of site you're doing it could actually be a fun mysterious way to promote it.
In the USA it's really easy to get a business bank account. Just go into the bank and tell them you want a business bank account and they will set you up with a free business account. Is it harder in the UK?
Link gives only "Database Error". Is this intentionally ironic, or is it unexpected?
Oh I wasn't talking about like a @gmail, @yahoo, especially not @mailinator address but one that would be unique to your employer or school. Most schools only allow it's students (and only it's students) to have one address. Most employers are the same way. It would take some doing but it wouldn't be impossible to compile a list of all the .edu's and large companies.
For me the blog displays as dark text on dark background (I have a pretty bad laptop screen, perhaps it's ok on desktop lcds). And he is complaining about the exact same thing done by someone else ;-)

It's a good summary though.
Probably the most practical hands off approach to it. Their verification system is annoyingly hard to get around. (although I think they have eased up on it lately)
Why is this article on Hacker News? Why is this type of comment on Hacker News?

The mind, it is boggling.
New Zealand's eBay clone - trademe.co.nz - has auto-extend for auctions where a bid was just received.. The auto-extend is only 5 minutes though.

This doesn't eliminate last minute bidders though - rather it just extends the period of the 'last minute bidding war' till someone gives up.

So. Its good idea, but you don't want a 3 hour auto-extend - 3 minutes would be better. 3 hours, as suggested, would probably mean many auctions would not end for weeks and weeks and would likely frustrate the heck out of bidders and sellers alike.
I think the thing is that a lot of entrepreneurial minded folks tend to have a working set of people they wouldn't mind founding a company with. Where, exactly, you find those people or what you should look for in them is a lot more vague before you've started your first company.

But ideally you've got some smart friends that aren't completely risk averse before you decide to start a company, and those are probably a good set of folks to bounce it off of. I'm always dubious of people "finding" co-founders through systematic searches. I'd known my co-founder for 3 years before we started our company, and it's amazing how much more you learn when the pressure is turned up. I can only imagine that a lot of startups fly apart at the hinges when there isn't some basic level of getting along that's preexisting.
... or there might be two family members who live at the same address.
As just one of the 2%, I prefer to think of other women as more than "pussy."
Donate $10 for diabetes to get a chance to win a bundle of Mac apps.
This is almost certainly overkill, but you can do what Google does for services like adsense. They deposit a small amount of money in your bank account, like $0.02 and then you have to tell them what the amount was for verification.
Thanks Andrew, I have emailed you. This looks like a useful app. Good luck and keep us posted about it.

Also, how can I post a review about this app on the appstore, if I dont buy it and use the adhoc?
Amazing Search Experience using Bing's AJAX API
"I mean, look at immigration reform, you know? It is, I think, analytically easy, but politically very, very complex and very difficult."

I'm surprised that this wasn't expanded on. Is there really an easy analytical solution to immigration reform?
Shit. Thats cool. Ok, five minutes is more than fine.
Tech Crunch interview with Jordan Rudess
You mean the money we raised this spring? No, that hasn't changed anything. We still operate as if we were investing our own money-- which is what I'd want if I were an LP, actually.
I find the cost a bit prohibitive for CloudWatch - 0.015$ per instance per hour. If you monitor 24/24 7/7 (and why wouldnt you?) it adds up to ~120$ per year per instance.

Wouldn't it be smarter to run something like Cacti instead?
It's a shame they didn't have the budget to continue the show and produce more directly educational programming. The sad part is I think they're spot on with the assumptions about childhood literacy. I am not at all convinced it's simply an issue of access to education. There are bigger social issues at play. Access to education is only as good as your motivation to learn and that's what we're missing. Even at <10 years old so kids are already developing a horrible sense of self-entitlement and a backwards culture worship of ignorance.
I completely disagree (with the article) when it comes to startup staffing. There are a few cases where having a domain expert is necessary (e.g. if you're writing, say, a new database system or doing realtime software, or if you're selling into a specific market where connections are necessary) but for most startups you're way better off having someone who's a decent programmer but also a competent sysadmin, pretty good with customers, or decent contract negotiator. An early stage startup probably won't even know what to specialize _in_.

Better yet is having someone who's a fast learner and can pick any/all of the above up as needed.
Difficulty understanding fractions can add up to a whole lot of trouble
'Modeless' IDE - Hopscotch
Interesting take on IDE design

Paper
http://bracha.org/hopscotch-wasdett.pdf

Presentation (also covers NewSpeak)
http://langnetsymposium.com/2009/talks/08-GiladBracha-Hopscotch.html
The definition of organic is fairly stringent. The USDA standards are well formed. There are other certification bodies, of course, such as Oregon Tilith, which have more stringent requirements yet.

I make no such assumption about organic producers not wanting to keep prices high, because this is not really a problem. The market will set the price of organics to be appropriate and sustainable regardless of any nefarious plot by organic producers to keep prices high.

Also, you make in incorrect correlation between organic farming and low yield. That is a myth (http://www.foodfirst.org/node/1778). Organic farming does not equal low yield. The high yield of today's crops does not come from chemical fertilizer, but from producing high-yield varietals via selective breeding, something that is completely in keeping with organic farming methods.
I seem to remember that they used to have that feature (or was it some other auction site)?

While I hate the issue, too, there might be disadvantages for the buyer, too. For example if the auction gets extended for 3 hours with each bid, it might mean that you have to sit around forever monitoring the auction if you really want the item.

A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second).

The reason for last second bidding is to avoid the pitfalls of human psychology, I think. If you start earlier and outbid other people, they might get into a bidding frenzy and prices will be driven higher than what makes sense.

I suppose ebay outlaws sniping because they actually want that effect: the higher the bid, the more money ebay gets. Personally I would prefer to decide on one price and stick to it, so sniping would be perfect for me.

All in all I suspect that ebay tested the "prolong the auction" feature and found that not prolonging it somehow works better - or at least it used to work better.
You can't post a review if you only have an ad hoc build. You either need to buy the app or get a promo copy to do a review.

Hopefully, some of the folks who take an ad hoc copy from us will like the app enough that they download it to get future updates, and then they can review it :)
They will have different names then? I mean if you think hard enough on these I'm sure theres ways these checks fail. I could see a billing address being a company or communal living at which there are two people with the same given name.
I could have a card sent to my house, my work, my parent's house, my brother's house, a PO box, my neighbor's house, etc.
At 40, Internet facing mid-life crisis
It should be back up now. Too much traffic I guess. :)
I think your description was fine - I wasn't going to bother reading it if it had been too long :) Such is the nature of internet discourse!

Best of luck to you
Wired’s Favorite Sci-Fi Flicks of All Time
Apple Is Expected to Update iPods to boost slowing demand for the music players.
Ask HN: How to kill the Trojan horse PSW.Agent.ABTK
This little gem has installed itself as a dll called msbixnl.dll (It's apparently random in each installation) and linked to every executable on my XP box.

If I remove it with AVG I get an avalanche of complaints.

My XP box is unusable. I need to kill this thing without nuking my system.

Any ideas?
> A better fix might be to allow sniping (automatic bidding in the last second).

In a sense they have that already, since eBay is a (quasi) second-price auction.
Man, these comments are depressing
Until it's squashed out of them, children are born learning machines. They'll quickly gravitate to whatever input stuffs them fastest.

If that's not authors any more, then it's up to the authors. Not to the TV.
They don't even claim to believe that killing innocent schoolgirls is objective good, so that's a total straw man. Obviously, the ones who believe (and I'm not saying all of them do, of course), believe that protecting innocent people is good, and killing evil people is good, and so on. In some cases, they and we would disagree on what "innocent" entails.

I would say that at least some of the Taliban are evil, sure. Does that mean they can't change, or that they can't be reasoned with, or at least intimidated into not harming people? No, though that might be the case with some. I dunno.

How does it benefit us to assume that about our enemies?

Seeing your enemies as they are can only help, as far as I can see. Assuming that they really believe what you do, but for some reason have acted as though they don't -- well, I don't think that's going to be very helpful in predicting their future actions.
The most surprising thing to me is that go.com still exists...
If you're really that concerned about multiple users, I think doing the CC check would be the way to go.

The larger question I think you should be asking, however, is why this guarantee is so important. You're setting up a huge barrier to new sign-ups - if I came upon a site asking for my CC details, even if it was through PayPal, it would take a hell of a lot for me to move forwards and not lose interest in the service. So you had better make sure that your product is so compelling that it will cause your users to get up from their computers, go get their wallet, and give you their CC number; be warned, this is one hell of a threshold. If you've gone that far, however, I wouldn't bother refunding the money - almost all users who you've engaged enough to get their credit card number won't mind giving you a nickel or so for your services, which you'll probably need to cover the costs of your CC fees anyways. If you do this, I'd 100% go with PayPal - it's easy, and it provides me (the user) with some degree of reassurance that you're not just going to steal my CC number.

Even if you do this, however, you still need other checks. I have three different credit cards, all hooked to different addresses and with using different variations of my name. Many banks allow users to generate one-time credit card numbers for online purchases. Multiple people could live at the same address and have cards, and they could even have the same names (like when sons are named after their fathers). Don't forget to analyze how important it is not to have duplicated, or conversely, how much of a problem it would be to have them - as this gets higher, you're going to have to make some tradeoffs (for example you could make a rule that says only one registration per household, and accept that you'll be losing out on users where there is more than one party in the household who wants to use your service).

As a point of comparison, the last service that I signed up for that needed this severe of a uniqueness guarantee - the old ICANN@large, anyone? - did a web-based signup, which led to a code getting mailed to you. Additionally, they restricted it to one-signup-per-household, and didn't accept PO boxes.

Bottom line is that this is a difficult problem, which generates a very high barrier to entry. So if you've done the analysis and concluded that it's 100% necessary to do this, you may as well embrace it and charge a bit.
The Paradox of Empty Storefronts
> "I don't know what their reason is"

I want to know.
Coincidentally, the Ludum Dare contest just finished (I didn't enter this time.) Here's a crapton of games, all written in less than 48 hours, and all themed around caverns! :

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-15/?action=preview
Sometimes in mathematical research, once you have the basic idea, the proof and publication are easy.
You can also change your billing address easily with most credit cards - if nothing is being mailed to me (and I'm determined to get past this check), what makes me enter a real address I have access to for it?

As for names, it's somewhat common - two of my credit cards are firstinitial lastname (as opposed to firstname lastname), and I happen to share firstinitial with my father. I've got a friend who was named after his father (firstname lastname III), but who doesn't use the generation suffix for anything aside from his passport.
This would make eBay more complicated. I suspect that eBay will be slowly overtaken by less complicated rivals.

And dude, just bid your max price and then calmly await the verdict. I sure as hell don't want to have to watch nervously over a continuously extending date of purchase.
My guess is, they have tried it and it does not work. People don't want to wait around 3 hours to see if they successfully bought something, they want to get confirmation asap.
The Australian clone (GraysOnline) adds 15 minutes and emails you if you're outbid at the last moment.
Good lordy. Well, hopefully it isn't blamed on users' relationship issues.
Aren't they the same line?
No you don't.

You can use an American Express gift card bought at Duane Reed. It is indistinguishable from an Amex credit card.
I learned yesterday that Edward Fredkin had a high-school diploma (and one year at Caltech) when he became a full professor at MIT in 1968.

The value of a sheepskin is less now than it was then. It ain't what you know.