skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Surface pro 3 is exactly what Microsoft and the Windows Ecosystem needs: an innovative productive device which can compete with Apple products. PC makers like Lenovo, Acer and even Samsung seem not to have visions for new devices. Surface pro 3 is the first 2in1 device which is usable as tablet _and_ pc/laptop.

So killing the Surface is the badest thing Microsoft could do!
The Great Failure of Wikipedia (2006)
XBox wasn't just a trojan horse into the 'three screens and a cloud' game.

It was a calculated means to solidify DirectX as 'the' graphics library for games.
I've used cloc a fair bit... cloc is a bit sketchy in recognizing code occasionally. I wouldn't trust the "tail" of its output, it's frequently wrong or misleading down there.
Expa
Suppose my name is "Paul", my username is "paul". Now I've just transitioned and I'm not "Paul" anymore. What then?
You're using the negative connotation of efficiency that should really be discarded. It doesn't only mean "more, faster, because higher profits, work like crazy until you die", that notion is extremely narrow for what efficiency actually means.

Efficiency saves lives right now. It is also what will enable us to save our species from the destruction of the planet. In a world as populated as ours, efficiency is by and large what the very concept of sustainability itself consists of.
I would argue that the graphical breakdown on the original link is more helpful to grok the breakdown of languages than the original reddit post.
This was also my first impression. Clearly this was not a well thought out project from any perspective.

I will double clutch on my rant about government inefficiencies for now, but man alive what a mess.
Something like this might be a great product for camping and backpacking.
>These goals must have been important, because Surface came at a significant cost.
>Contributing in a meaningful way to the bottom line entails selling at much greater numbers than Surface has to date. Remember, volume was always the goal; that’s why Microsoft made so many Surfaces that they had to eventually take that $900 million writedown on unsold inventory. Clearly this goal has failed as well.

They currently have $88 billion in the bank plus assets, so they are better off returning that to shareholders instead of trying to make better hardware? OEMs just make cookie cutter junk, just look at the state of monitors or bundled crapware as an example. Lenovo is making some good stuff and they're reaping rewards in the marketplace even while competing with Surface. Why the call to reduce the competition?

>However, when it comes to PCs, Microsoft needs to focus on fixing Windows 8, and leave the devices up to its partners, especially Lenovo. Lenovo knows how to compete in mature markets,8 makes great hardware, and Microsoft should see them as their best partner, not a competitor

And yet, Lenovo continues to bundle a ton of crapware and junkware that hooks deep into the system.
Google's Nexus 7 was a OK device until after a few month of usage it started to lag like hell. a lot of previous android phones lagged like it was their job. Should Android or Nexus products be killed too?
The Surface Pro 3 is the first device that made me want to buy a Microsoft device. That's not to say that they shouldn't kill it, but it would make me sad (similarly to how they killed Zune just as soon as it became a reasonable competitor).
Yeah, why was the URL changed?
That would be a Joe Job, right?
As an owner of a Surface 2 pro, I've never experienced any of those problems. Perhaps they fixed somethings in revision 2. (Of course, the quote does say every version.)
A really underestimate problem... there should be a bigger awareness on this matter.
The SDK has a very permissive license (including redistribution), since it's obviously designed to be used, and it's convenient to developers to be able to redistribute parts of it to ease development.

Agreed it is always nice to have these things in a thirdparty directory, though, but the larger Chromium project actually does appear to have all of pdfium in third_party, which helps keep that clear.
What Facebook Boston Is Working On: Tech for "Next Few Billion Users"
> Both Surface and One are thus stuck in the middle, appealing to no one.

What? Not everyone needs, wants or can afford (hi EU!) Apple devices, which are loosing more and more ground to competitors every quarter.
The Healthy Onion
For full disclosure I am a founder of the company but many of the mistakes in math / modeling made in the NYT Tool are corrected at SmartAsset. One example is the tax consequence of ownership - which because of the standard deduction is overestimated for lower value homes (<$250,000).
I want to work with you
Meanwhile, Sony is leaving the OEM business, Dell is restructuring, HP can’t
decide whether to sell or not; Acer is barely afloat; only Lenovo seems to be
prospering (and now Surface Pro is aimed directly at their Thinkpad lineup).
When you consider the original goals, none of which have been met, and the
original dangers, all of which have come to pass, the only conclusion is that
Surface is a failure.

Microsoft's OEMs are keenly interested in leaving the low-margin PC business for greener pastures. Of course they are: inventory and market diversity are the horrors of their industry. If they push new hardware too hard, they devalue their inventory. They have to maintain inventory levels because they can't afford to have their competitor's eat their lunch. That is, capitalism works and it was a race to the bottom. I doubt any of the companies mentioned there have a supply chain as efficient as Apple's. To Jobs' credit, his protege was the supply chain guy. Steve knew that living in the margins isn't viable when you're directly selling your own stuff.

Lenovo is privileged as their company was a supply chain company. Until they owned the logos that go on your computer, they owned all the parts underneath or figured out how to put them together. Seems natural they're doing better than most. This supply chain company eating the company that puts the logos on is important for what comes next.

So the curious conclusion: kill the Surface. Kill the Surface because it didn't meet its stated goals - I disagree. Kill the Surface because it didn't save the consumer PC industry - I disagree. Welp. It sounds like the conclusion is to kill one of the only things the consumer PC industry has going for it. If they kill the Surface, it means they're going to rely on Lenovo to make the only handhelds that consumers want a Windows logo on.

This article seems to suggest that Nadella or his strategy team see this all. I don't know if they do. This article also seems to suggest they've seen this and said, "Yes, I like the relationship the operating system company Google has with its OEM, Samsung." Which strikes me as delirious thinking at best. I can't imagine Google is happy to have Samsung eating Android's lunch and subsuming the Google logo, or Nadella thinking that is an enviable model for the future of Microsoft.
I thought that was self-explanatory. Your iPad camera faces forward, the mirror redirects it down to the playing surface. The AI tries to track the location of the letters and colored blocks in the mirrored image.

What does it do? The examples are pretty obvious, what more are you looking for?

Arrange tangible puzzle pieces into matching on‑screen shapes.

Be the first to guess and spell out the on‑screen hidden word by tossing down real‑life letters faster than your friends. A related picture gives the clue.
To Bitcoin or not to Bitcoin? Is this what merchants want?
DDoS attack on Zopim
"Just like sending funds to bank accounts, a transfer to a debit card costs 25¢ and will arrive in the card’s bank account in 1-2 business days. As always, you’ll need to verify your recipient’s identity.

While we can only support U.S. Visa and MasterCard debit cards at the moment, we’re actively working to bring our transfers API to our users in other countries."

.... uhm or just use bitcoin ...
"The Surface's hardware is actually better than a MBA's"

For another week and a half.
> "turned me [off] to the brand forever"

One bad experience with inferior hardware led to a boycott? Rough.
mcutts is pretty much the only thing resembling customer service for google search, so he's going to catch all of it. while mcutts has put himself into this position willingly, it's google's fault for making him a solitary target.
You could phrase it as "Spend more time with your family and out of the hustle of the beltway! Avoid spending a fortune on private schools, private drivers, and a second apartment in DC." There are several lawmakers who come from modest means, actually grew up in their districts, and have family and community ties there that they need to leave behind for Washington.

It'd probably work best after a significant changeover in Congress, when there are a lot of freshman reps all dealing with navigating capitol hill. Such a change would be a big power shift from people who have established relationships to people who have fresh ideas.

And the idea is that they'd be using e-mail, videoconference, Google Moderator, or some other electronic means to communicate with their fellow reps. The idea is to build stronger bonds of trust between reps and their constituents than between reps and lobbyist/other reps, so that they actually act like representatives instead of a separate caste.
Also the SoloWheel: http://inventist.com/soloindex.php .This chinese wheel might be a clone of this.
Show HN: Incredible Eggs
I have seen dealers with this skill many times. And I took advantage of it many times. Read my posts before talking about "sample size". I simply mention __this__ event because it is one of the more skilled dealers I ever encountered.

So... a one in 36 chance. Actually, I'll give you one in 18 as there are two sets of green zeros... 0 and 00.

So what is the chance of this happening 4 times in a row?

1/18 cubed = .000000952 chance of occurring. Probably not confirmation bias. Probably not something one is likely to EVER encounter. (Never mind that I encountered similar many times). If you read the post, I watched her practice doing this. No one was playing at the moment. Then she did it again and I burned her for a lot of money. Read my posts if you care. Or, believe whatever you wish. Roulette is not always random. And if you spent the time I have you would know this.
This absolutely isn't intended to be victim blaming in the slightest but my first thought when the story detailing his troubles in the Guardian came out a few days ago was: if you're going to start a service that challenges law enforcement and the intelligence services, you should really have a competent lawyer on retainer.

Thinking about it today, it occurs to me that in this day and age pretty much anybody with 410,000 users should probably have a competent lawyer who understands their business on retainer. What would be the exceptions to that?
Right now, most of our marketplaces' sellers seem to prefer using their regular bank accounts rather than Bitcoin. But if/when the Bitcoin revolution happens, we'll enthusiastically support that too. (We're running a Bitcoin acceptance beta right now: https://stripe.com/bitcoin)
> 1/184 = .000000952 chance of that occurring. Probably not confirmation bias.

On any one set of four throws. Even if you used the smaller probability of the exact result (rather than grouping the two sets of green zeroes), its exactly the same as the chance of any other result of the four throws.
How Cloud Computing Can Bring The Voice Of The Customer Back Into Manufacturing
CoveredCA is a true government offshore success story.

A $360M mess. Powering that beast?

1,714 cores, 9,394GB of RAM, 392,327GB of storage. Every single piece of software is Oracle with the exception of Adobe LiveCycle.
The Yoga 2 Pro is very usable as a tablet, in my experience. Not as good as a Surface, obviously, but it is very usable, and in return you get a much better laptop experience.
I probably use soap on my body 3 or 4 times a year (still wash hands regularly), and shampoo once a week and notice no difference from how I smell from when I am using both.

In terms of hair-greasiness, when I began my hair was much longer and did feel greasier and appear more out of order, but with shorter hair there is not much of an issue and the shampoo once a week can stave it off.

Anyways, it seems like he is greatly exaggerating how badly he smelled. I smell no different, granted I apply deodorant to my underarms once a day but probably would not have to. Nobody I know comments on any bad smells either.
Everything about this article is geared towards hiring fresh first-jobbers and hoping at least 25% of them won't be shit[1]. The best salespeople would run a mile rather than work for him.

That said, the best salespeople would probably be happy with their commission being paid quarterly provided it was high enough.

[1]For some markets this volume-based approach actually works; for others it'll make you a laughing stock.
I wish Osmo all the best, and hope it breaks the mold.

But I have to agree about schools and tech, and generally about tech and education. Spend more time with your kids, and don't expect an iPad to teach your kids anything, and you'll be in a better place. I say this being a huge lover of technology, having developed ipad apps and video games professionally.

The school my kids are in is continually blowing large sums of money buying technology that they don't leverage in the classroom. They can't leverage tech in the classroom, the teachers aren't developers, and they're not even trained in basic tech, and they don't have the money for the training because they're spending the money on e-whiteboards. The money would go so much further paying for art teachers, or supplies, or school activities, or almost anything.

Our art classes are no longer funded by the state or school district, the school hires a part time art teacher to teach a class once a week, or maybe every other week. And yet they're buying ipads and interactive white boards. Its insane, and really, really sad. The interactive whiteboards are a complete joke and costs thousands a pop.

Our entire state (UT) is using automated essay scoring, which does not, and will never, work. Not even a little. I know the school district, and the state, has been having discussions with the essay scoring software company, and they're being told it will improve. The school system has no idea that this fundamentally will not work, and the software company is fully incapable of improving automated essay scoring. One night I came home from work to find my child in tears and my wife on the verge of tears trying to help, because my kid couldn't figure out how to get the goal score on his automated essay the teacher had set. A couple of quick tests, and I discovered the software largely grades on length alone. We pasted the text of a proposal to ban automated essay scoring from all US schools, and his essay suddenly had a perfect score. What a joke, and the state is spending tax money on a statewide contract for this ridiculous and worthless software.
Lots of soap has small amounts of antibacterial agents added not so that the soap gains antibacterial properties (I'm talking about regular soap, not the "Kills 99% of bacteria" varieties that have become so popular now), but to prevent bacteria growing in the soap itself. Apparently lots of public bathroom soap is absolutely filled with e. coli and other nasties otherwise, which does seem quite counter-productive.
The text is essentially the same as covered by the Guardian here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774158

And tptacek's first comment on that post does a good job of highlighting where Ladar's narrative cuts across the timeline of what actually happened.
I couldn't agree more: Microsoft is trying to target a demographic that doesn't exist. I was the target, and I wanted one, but it never made sense once I looked into it. The high-end model's price was way too high for a tablet alone, but it was similar in price to my higher-performing laptop, and nowhere close to replacing my 3-year-old gaming desktop.

It can't be the "do anything" device - if I still need 2 devices to get my stuff done, I might as well buy one that's less expensive and will give me the same function I need.

I do think Ben built a bit of a straw man out of Nadella's comment, though.

> "Nadella is basically saying Microsoft needs to make Surface because Microsoft makes Surface."

That's a very selective interpretation of what Nadella said. He said he wanted to integrate the company's products into a single experience. He didn't say that's why the Surface exists, nor did he say the reason behind building hardware and products is for the sake of integration. He's just saying the vision is to integrate the experience. Ben makes it sound like there's no other reason behind it, but Nadella may very well see reasons for integration that he didn't go into (there).
Naveen Selvadurai: Expa NYC
My boyfriend had some issues with the Pro 1 keyboard along the lines of the grandparent comment, but MS was quick to replace his Type Cover and followup that the replacement worked properly.

I'm quite happy with my Pro 2 as well, but I have no plans to purchase any of the covers when a Bluetooth keyboard can be had for 30 bucks.
If I leave off or change the last few characters I can't log in. They don't truncate the password.
As a new fellow new dad, I saw this and thought "that is very impressive technology", but as a learning instrument and toy, why is the iPad required?

The iPad seems like a replacement for the parent. Instead of an iPad I can sit sown with a kid and say, what letters do we need to spell fruit, and I can sit and help her find them. Or what shapes can we make with these blocks, or can you help dad make a cat?

The technology in here seems to be an attempt at automating the parenting, so instead of me sitting down with my daughter I leave her in a room alone with the iPad (as seen in the video) and go do something else.
Bitcoin startup runs your miner for less than you might pay for electricity
Conflict resolution 101 for startups
I do not really see any lenovo device that matches up with any of the Surface Pro line. I had a Thinkpad Tablet 2 and it was a piece of junk compared to my surface pro 2.
If I had to speculate as wildly as the author did, I'd have to say that Microsoft is building their own hardware simply because their hardware partners are failing so hard. The author touched very briefly upon that line of thinking but didn't linger upon it as long as I would have liked.

My speculation? Microsoft saw the death of Sony, Acer, Dell, and HP and knew they needed hardware to sell their product. If every hardware company went out of business, so would Microsoft. You could make the argument that by getting their own hardware line Microsoft hastened the death of the PC makers, but it's akin to splashing some water on the Titanic as you jump overboard. It's going to make it sink a little quicker, but it's not going to change the final outcome. The only difference is, you survive when all is said and done.

If we end up with Surface v Thinkpad v Macbook, we will have won. Even better if someone like System76 can get in on it too. The last few years have proven that there are a lot of people out there who don't really want to see Microsoft go out of business (and kill Apple's only PC competition), but rather see them get their shit together. That's a good thing.
It's primarily an issue with the RT, which is an ARM device.
Uses the MGC3130:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eclJ1mOFZZg

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/40001667C.pd...
I have to take your story with a big ol' bucket of salt, because you ignored medical professionals, and then tried to self-medicate with un-prescribed drugs of unknown dosage.
> I smell no different

> Nobody I know comments on any bad smells either

I'm not claiming you are wrong, but I don't believe these are strong arguments in your favour. I can recall many instances of "the smelly kid" throughout my life - people who appeared to be totally oblivious to the fact that they stank, and very rarely did people around them ever mention it - to their face.
Have short meetings with your team every day.
Make jokes and share fun things.
Implement a Social Network for your company/team.
Join a shared office space or go to a cafe where people are working like you.
Exercise every day.
Meet with face to face with friends in the evenings.
Looks like it was November 17th according to this:
http://searchengineland.com/metafilter-penalized-google-1921...

Any additional insight based on that date?

Full disclosure: MetaFilter member reading about this stuff everywhere with interest who joined here to comment. HN seems right up my alley with the simple design though I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be a threaded comments kind of guy.
That's the crux of the argument, though: Google search results are ranked according to a value system. What does that system prioritize? Not Metafilter; not Harriet Tubman. "Beautiful Women." This is neither right nor wrong, it just is, but Google has to live with what that says about them, and that's entirely fair.
> Right now, most of our marketplaces' sellers seem to prefer using their regular bank accounts rather than Bitcoin.

Understatement of the year.
The Russian Prime Minister's Office
Edward Snowden Gives Wide-Ranging Interview to Brian Williams
We spent 2 years trying to solve this very problem at Addy.

While there are a few dozen products in the space (the pretty, the hacky, the I'm-hopeless-let-me-cease-and-desist-you-on-no-grounds-whatsoever), none so far has managed to create enough of an incentive for consumers to switch. This is absolutely key to any success in the "personal addressing" market, I really cannot stress this enough.

We decided to switch gears months ago.

We created beautiful, easy to use tools for "addies" to be shared just about anywhere, and spent many months in back and forth with government, e-commerce and logistics companies. We knew our assumptions had to be right. Hell, we even built our own maps and collected on-the-ground data that nobody else had, to further enrich these addies with human-readable descriptions in different languages (and built an API around this). All of our efforts, however, did not make enough of an incentive for consumers to adopt our product, even with extreme geofocus and localization.

I am excited to see how things go for OkHi.

Ultimately, though, I think this problem is best solved by someone like Facebook. Why they haven't done so yet is beyond me.
Ignore age – define generations by the tech they use
For those not good at math, that’s $400 more than an AppleTV, and completely unapproachable for anyone who does not care about gaming. In short, it is not enough to consider how the Xbox is doing relative to consoles; the Xbox must be evaluated based on how it is aligning with and contributing to Microsoft’s overall strategy, and in that light, it is an unmitigated disaster.

But the XBox 360 has a nice price point. Sure, it's more expensive than an Apple TV, but well-fit as a media center plus you can play games. The current generations of Apple TV are far to underpowered to play any serious games.

The fact that the XBox 360 is still on the market clearly states Microsoft's (and Sony's) strategy: the XBox 360 is a nice console that competes with media centers, the XBox One is for hard core gamers who want the latest and greatest.

I am not worried about the XBox One, the price will go down eventually and when it's in the 200-250 range, it'll replace the XBox 360.

We did by an XBox One, even though we are only casual gamers. The console will probably stay relevant for five or six years. So, it's a good investment.