skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
>Whether open (Google) or closed (Microsoft), platforms that run on multiple OEM devices are the right way forward. I don't know about others, but I don't want to live in a world where my only option to control my house, car, and life is to go to an Apple store. At least Google and Microsoft give us some choices.

Platforms that run on multiple OEMs might be good, but you haven't proven that. Those choices would be good if they actually delivered a better experience than Apple's vertical integration. It doesn't matter to me (or any other end user) that its harder for Google or Microsoft to deliver a good experience with their strategy. That's their problem and something of their own choosing, so they don't get any points for that.
All the email at the IRS appears to live only on people's workstations in any permanent sense.

For those downvoting, see here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7891622
In less sensational terms: The biggest pool got too big. Members (BitFury) react by shrinking it back. Community is aware of the problem, solution will probably be coming soon.

Anyway, stay tuned and don't miss the next iteration of 'We are all doomed!!1' by the two muppet academics. To be published shortly after a solution gets deployed. Or earlier.
I don't think that's a fair response to the article - it's arguing something more nuanced. Right in the 4th paragraph is this:

> This view does not claim that fighting wars improves economies, as of course the actual conflict brings death and destruction. The claim is also distinct from the Keynesian argument that preparing for war lifts government spending and puts people to work. Rather, the very possibility of war focuses the attention of governments on getting some basic decisions right — whether investing in science or simply liberalizing the economy. Such focus ends up improving a nation’s longer-run prospects.
"the most important company currently in existence" ... "misplaced nerd allegiance"

Having the most liquid assets does not mean that the company is the most important company. If Apple disappeared tomorrow, the world would go on without a hiccough. They are glitzy and glamourous and yes, influential, but there are more important companies out there - particularly in transport or essential services.

Edit: Updated for the benefit of eridius. The point does not change at all.
And nobody in the world wants Bitcoin to break down?
Very well formulated and insightful comment. Thanks for taking the time to write this. A lot of ambitious people seem to struggle with this question of external vs. internal motivation - although I think the most successful entrepeneurs don't, because for some of us this motivation is in fact internal. Some can actually say "do what you love/love what you do" and not lie through their teeth. And others are able to treat it in a purely businesslike manner, i.e. "this is a job and it's only temporary".

Many others, though, are as you say: Ambitious because external pressures have always told you it is a good idea, and because teachers, parents, professors and peers have always given you recognition for good work - it's a central part of your identity.
Sadly, this marks the end of an era for me with Netflix. After an initial 'meh' experience with the DVD rental service when they first debuted, one of the things that really got my attention with them was their developer contest to create a better suggestion service. But it seems that working with the developer community now is a thing of the past for them. Sadly, I foresee more companies going that way.
Solar Accounts - UK specific, suitable for both sole traders and Ltds, with or without VAT registration. Does invoicing and accounting in one nice package.

http://www.solaraccounts.co.uk/

I didn't want to entrust my accounting to some web SaaS thing.
Last time I tried to download a television show on iTunes it took 40 minutes before the iPad thought it was sufficiently buffered to begin playback. That was on my local 5GHz 802.11n backhauled over 100mbps cable. Every time I want to watch something on Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, or Google Play they all start more or less instantly.

I would argue that Google also has a superior app store buying experience, in at least one aspect, that I can use any web browser to install apps onto any of my phones, the usual example being I can install an app on my phone by selecting it in Chrome on my iMac.

As for the rest of their cloud, the "frequently unavailable" thing I am referring to is APNS, which seems to suffer from complete unreachability at least quarterly. This seems to have something to do with their flailover from their east coast to their west coast datacenter.
> what would be called a modern statically typed system?

Now we are splitting hairs and looking for the one true scotsman. You asked for quantitative evidence, but the problem is that you have already made up your mind (perhaps only subconciously) and you will find a way to lookaway from the evidence or logic (which you term just an appeal). Lookup birthers for instance.

I for one have'nt heard of any flight control or life support software written in a dynamically typed language, whereas have heard of plenty written in what would qualify more as a statically typed than dynamically typed language. ADA in particular comes to mind. I dont discount that there might exist some written in a dynamic languages. Lets agree that they are quite hard to find. I wont be surprised with prototypes written in dynamic languages though.

> I wouldn't be surprised to find some lisp in there, [...] I'm open to being proven wrong.

Now that would be the Russel's teapot fallacy. I am not ruling it out, but for such assertions, the burden, I think, lies on the one making the assertion. You handed out an epistemic sucker punch there. The proof that you desire requires presenting the entire set of Lisp programs, or the entire set of flight control programs, both are quite ridiculous. BTW I do love lisp a whole freaking lot.

Curious about this: Say you have to be (god forbid) irradiated. There are two pieces of software written by two groups, one that uses statically typed, another that uses dynamically typed and this is all the information you have. Which one would you pick ? There is no right or wrong answer.

I will pick the one written by the group that uses statically typed language because of their cultural obsession with correctness. That is just a Bayesian prior, there are exceptions of course. Sqlite is indeed afflicted by the same obsession.

EDIT: @taeric

> If they are in a static language, then this should be an easy debate for you. Merely give me some evidence and we are done.

Ah! then lookup ADA's resume

> I'd pick the one that has the better track record and has been proven with more tests.

You are dodging the (silly) question sir :) I said thats the only thing you know. Anyways wasnt an important question and here's wishing that you never need to get irradiated with any such thing, seriously.
>Like Google, they have your cash at heart. Not a thing more.

For one, they could get the same or even more cash with far more crappier products (marketed more, altered to satisfy pundits, relax design and build requirements to cash-in on the Apple brand, etc). Nobody would have taken offense if they built a heavier, bulkier, plastic MacBook Air, with a DVD drive even and VGA ports and visible seams -- but they wanted to do things their was.

Second, wanting my cash is good. Because I get to be the judge when to give my cash, and I give it when I see things I want and like ("shut up and take my money"). Google, on the other hand, wants the advertisers' cash, which means they could not care less about me in lots of areas (except the area of seeing their ads).

So Apple might not have "my interests" at heart, but they are allowed by their management to take more pride in what they build than other companies, where the bottom line dictates more decisions.
We've managed as a society to turn all the potential warlords into football coaches and let them orchestrate their little armies on the football field instead of the battle field.
What op said:

> the most important company

What you said:

> the most fundamentally necessary company

You just changed the entire argument right there, and yet blithely went on as if your counterpoint had any relevance to the original assertion. "The most important company" could be taken a lot of ways, and I highly doubt op was intending that to mean "fundamentally necessary".
Is it only done the instant they make the call or is it repeated after the fat like in american football/hockey? I'll have to take your word for it because from where I've sat I could see nothing :)
Congressman asks NSA for Lois Lerner metadata
> Whether open (Google) or closed (Microsoft), platforms that run on multiple OEM devices are the right way forward.

After a six-month experiment with Android on a Nexus 5, I couldn't disagree more. Separating the folks who make the OS from the folks who make the device just leads to compromises.

Apple has the right model. Just look at what they've managed to do, for example, with battery life. Nobody can match the hours of use per watt-hour of their tightly-integrated stack. This is the way forward. I'm extremely excited to see what Microsoft can do with Surface and Lumia brought under one roof.
While I don't think it will EVER replace curl, it does seem like a fun piece of software to play around with. Great job!
"Pyramid-building, earthquakes, even wars may serve to increase wealth" wrote John Maynard Keynes in "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money " (1936, chapter 10).
There's only 3 production deployments of Rust that I know about. It's not recommended to use Rust in production atm.
Oh, I wasn't kidding myself, I was expecting down votes. I just noticed that some my less "hurting" comments were down voted too, so I guess someone was just letting steam go ofg on all my comments here, including the one you replied to :)

And I don't think these down votes had something to do with comment not belonging here, rather it hit people too close and they let their feelings go. And fun fact - first 5 or so minutes this comment was up voted, so some people here actually share thoughts. Don't just assume something not belong here if it is just you and few other people think so.

I did not really intend to say that counseling by itself is something to be ashamed of (what many assumed is,) but rather that it is wrong to expect that organization like YC should provide counseling, and attracting less business capable people. I don't believe there is lack of people who are ready to challenges.
> a syncing/backup service used by half a billion people

Someone unwilling though, yeah? Lots of people I know don't turn on iCloud, and are annoyed with the iTunes implementation.

> and the #1 music store in the world (per profit / people). Oh, and a huge music storage service.

But Apple has done nothing to stop/retain the market of those flocking to music streaming sites (Spotify, which has record growth; rdio, Google Music, among others) except BUY a streaming service with poor adoption.

I think the Open/Close part is part of the reason why Apple's services pale in comparison.

As for speed, I would be very surprised if Apple had better service than Google or Amazon, as these companies are much more invested in the Web than Apple.
It does seem weird that the compiler didn't catch that one.
70% of Enterprise servers are Windows.
> It makes it easy to feel like everyone is being successful except you.

I'd say this is hardly a case only when you're a founder. Throughout life, if you keep high expectations of yourself (which is IMHO a good thing in the long run), you will constantly feel like people around you are succeeding, and you're struggling. I've sometimes felt that way, but the key, for me at least, was to learn to take it easy on myself from time to time and not to be sickly critical of my own work.

Sometimes people feel like everyone else is succeeding and they are failing because, well, it is true to some extent observable by them. (It sounds grim, but in reality you can mostly turn the tables if you invest enough effort.) However, sometimes you can get that feel if you constantly observe the people who simply set the bar lower. Psychological processes that drive us are curious; sometimes they may make us redefine success so that we can appear more successful to other people. But this is not a real, healthy gain: it's a pathological one. A giant, impressive pile of counterfeit, useless money, if you will.

Just my two cents. I'm most likely talking out of my ass :)

By the way, kudos to you and everyone else for being a founder. It sounds like both a great struggle and a fun journey, and everyone with the courage (or the madness!) to go down that path has my deepest respect.
NYC Port Authority employee goes crazy on passenger
I think your point was that cool kids and nerds are heterogenous groups, i.e. kids could end up in the same category for vastly different reasons. I agree. Practically all social science research suffers from the problem that it can't define the thing it's trying to study. They don't even try to solve problems like defining happiness or coolness. They hope that the numbers the experiments generate will look persuasive and make the exercise look like it was worth doing.

However, they isolated two groups according to some criteria, and they found that it correlated with something objective later in life. So you can speculate on other explanations, and my opinion is that the kids they called cool were troubled and rebelled because the adults in their lives were not dependable. The kids they called nerds were nerds because they followed rules and didn't rebel. They followed rules because the adults in their lives came through on promises and made it seem worth it to work and have faith that you'll get rewarded eventually.
I can almost hear the cringing of so many programmers at Apple right now as they read "finally doing interesting things in the developer area with Swift", considering the last 5 years saw tons of excellent improvements to Objective-C.
Both of those things you cited are services you pay for. I was not familiar with Amazon's Mayday button (not being a Kindle Fire HDX owner I guess), but it appears to be a wholly free service you get merely by owning the device. OnStar and the phone system are both subscription services.
There are completely different mechanics in a slap though. With a punch you have different delivery options (looping vs linear vs uppercut etc) all of which affect the way in which the force is generated. With a slap you're pretty limited.

That said, getting slapped has a psychological effect you don't get from a punch, which can be exactly what you want.
I like to think Google gives you a choice of how you're being advertised to, product depending. Lots of times they give you the option to limit the data you send to marketing firms, or outright limit the data they collect (i.e. location history, search history, etc)
Thanks, that's something I'll look into. For me it started happening often with the latest update so that's why I ascribed the issue to software but could be just a coincidence...
Yes, I think that's the subtext.
Again,locally,not globally
That doesn't seem at all relevant. That's like saying in a retail store you can ask the retail employees for assistance. The addition of a button to summon an employee does not make it special.

What interests me about this Amazon Mayday button (which I had never heard of before) and why I think Gruber talked about it, is because it's a completely free service provided to owners of a consumer device. It's basically customer service, but it's extremely fast (average of 9.75 seconds to get a response? Wow!) and apparently rather comprehensive too (e.g. helping a customer beat an Angry Birds level) as opposed to being restricted to actual tech support with the device in question. This is why Gruber is saying it's remarkable and unique, and I think he's right.
But, you see, the attacker isn't mining anything of value under the pool, thus the pool has nothing to apply the fee over.
Diego Maradona Crazy Warm Up "Live is Life"
Do you know which goal was voted best World Cup goal of all time? He also had the craziest warm up routine. Here's my World Cup throw back tribute to one of the all time best!
I will attest that Slava is not only wicked smart, but a great person to just talk with.
Given that Apple tries to lump all its cloud offerings under the iCloud banner, deliberately dismissing iCloud in order to claim that iTunes is the only "cloud" technology Apple has is extremely disingenuous.
It's certainly memorable though, and that must help his personal brand. I don't like it either, but I wouldn't dismiss it as a bad idea from his perspective.
> Last time I tried to download a television show on iTunes it took 40 minutes...

That video was almost certainly coming from a CDN. If you were experiencing connection difficulties to that CDN, I'm not so sure you can claim that's Apple's fault.
Records and retention is a large part of my current project. It permeates even the lowest levels, and it's practically impossible for the narrative to occur. I say practically impossible, because there is always some way some idiot can screw up big enough that this happens, but this narrative didn't happen. I'd stake 3 digits on it.
I dismiss iCould because it's large data storage. It doesn't prove apple is any good with making web services that people want to use, just that they're good at sending data, receiving it, storing it for later retrieval.

I'm not handing out praise for being able to run an smtp server. (alright, that's a bit reductionist, but you get the idea)
Most of the time they claim "Up to X", "not X"
Interesting stats. I'm not sure it completely explains the higher weight divisions though, since if you look at the rate at which the heavier fighters get tired and start lowering their guard, it's much higher than in the lower weight divisions, leaving them more susceptible to the KO/TKO.
Before clicking on the link I thought it would be the Parked Domain Girl.

(I hadn't seen the one linked in this item before, however.)
The margins are not too huge. That statement makes no sense at all.

There are about 75 character per line, that’s pretty much the sweet spot for characters per line. Going for a few more characters would be ok (120 is a usual guideline for the maximum), but 75 is pretty good. It’s actually pretty much the standard. I learned 60 to 90 characters per line.

Margins are your problem. Your browser is too wide. (I agree that the font is much too small. Also, Verdana is seriously ugly. A better font at a larger size would reduce the size of your margins, even if you are one of those strange fullscreen browser people.)
>Someone unwilling though, yeah? Lots of people I know don't turn on iCloud, and are annoyed with the iTunes implementation.

I don't know how many are those that don't "turn it on". Hundreds of millions DO use it. And it's only getting better (e.g see recent WWDC changes).

Those "annoyed" perhaps don't remember how phones were before iCloud, iTunes Backup. I had Sony and Nokia smartphones and it was dreadful. Even now, there's not much to write home about in the way Android handles backup/sync compared to iCloud.

>But Apple has done nothing to stop/retain the market of those flocking to music streaming sites (Spotify, which has record growth; rdio, Google Music, among others) except BUY a streaming service with poor adoption.

Except? I think it's enough of a bold move, and surely is not "nothing". Plus, iTunes Radio (which didn't get much love from Apple) already had more people than Spotify (almost twice as much).

>As for speed, I would be very surprised if Apple had better service than Google or Amazon, as these companies are much more invested in the Web than Apple.

It's not like that it takes anything special to get speed on the web. It's not rocket science. Apple uses Azure for a lot of its services, which is equivalent to AWS/Amazon.
Designer News + Hacker News now on iOS
> I dismiss iCould because it's large data storage.

It's a lot more than that. It's all of Apple's cloud offerings, including email, contacts, calendars, iWork, backup, document synchronization, data-specific synchronization of various things like keychain and mail accounts, photos (storage, syncing, and galleries), it even covers their services like Find My iPhone.

There is a lot of stuff Apple is doing with iCloud, but the vast majority of it just silently works, so you aren't even considering that it exists when you talk about iCloud.

I suspect that what you're really trying to say is that Apple has not done much in the arena of building web apps, but even that's not accurate anymore, they have a decent suite of stuff available on icloud.com (including collaborative document editing).
Scroll to the bottom, and click "Display Preferences", and crank the font size to 16 pt, instead of the default 11. At least that's what I did. You may find 16 too big, season to taste :)
After a first reading I felt that it really resonated.

However, if you think of people that do persue what THEY want from life, they are often quite miserable too. Asking yourself "what would you do if money wasn't a concern and you had all the time in the world" ends up not being particularly meaningful. People born into wealthy families try to figure out what THEY want out of life, and end they are just as depressed and full of self-doubt. Sure you can spend a year surfing in Hawaii, or painting, or gardening, but they end up feeling like ephemeral distractions (unless you go all out and turn into an adrenalin junky - though I don't know honestly how happy they are). Lasting motivation comes from your interactions with the world - and often "doing things that OTHER people wanted" is (if you're honest with yourself) to a degree "what YOU wanted out of life" .
You submitted this earlier today. Deleting then resubmitting on HN is against the guidelines.
I just wish it was the supertext.
They waited until Friday when the President is out of town and didn't mention this problem when the original document requests went out. I will look up the exact rules when I get back to work, but I do believe they have violated the e-mail handling rules.

It's a fine coverup since what is the recourse? It's worked before, so why not now?
Actually, speaking of changing meanings, the OP said "the most important company in existence", which is a different claim to the one you're trimming it down to. Next time you're admonishing someone for changing the argument, don't do it yourself.
> To better focus our efforts and to align them with the needs of our global member base, we will be retiring the public API program

What a sad statement, there is no need for this corporate-drone talk. "We're shutting it down because it doesn't make us money, and we think we will be better off being a closed platform" would have ringed much better, not necessarily in these words. Honesty is always appreciated.
> Just look at what they've managed to do, for example, with battery life. Nobody can match the hours of use per watt-hour of their tightly-integrated stack.

That's not my (anecdotal) experience at all. My friends with similarly-specced phones like the Xperia Z1 Compact have their battery last way longer than my iPhone 5S. The iPhone may have better standby life, but we're heavy users, and as soon as you're using it the iPhone drains it like there's no tomorrow, and Apple arrogantly put a tiny battery in it (1400 mAh vs 2300 mAh for average Android phones).

Androids battery life woes are mainly due to the fact that apps can stay open in the background as much as they want, whereas on iOS Apple have strict limits (which is why stuff like IRC apps can't be done on iOS)
And the only way to break that claim is to give MORE MBps than that. I think the fcc is saying "ok, let's be realistic, your 'up to' is gonna be held to a standard higher than rando48 on hacker news saying I personally guarantee internet downloads of up to 1 billion MBps to ever citizen on earth."