skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Amazon's screwed over by the Canadian government's rules, the only reason we even have Amazon here is because of expert manoeuvring by Amazon.

In Canada no bookseller can be majority owned by a foreign company, (they can only own something like 25%, it's seriously screwed up). Amazon doesn't operate foreign subsidiaries and so it can't legally own property in Canada for it's business. Canada Post however essentially gave Amazon a permanent lease of one of their large distribution warehouses in Mississauga right on the Canada Post's own central distribution point for all Ontario post and the central hub for all post travelling through Canada.

Indigo/Chapters/Coles (the same company) cried foul in court and to the government, however the Judge ruled (IIRC) that as Amazon didn't own any property in Canada they were exempt from the ownership laws. Obviously when the laws were originally set in place they didn't realise how easy it would be for a company to operate without its own property.

I doubt Amazon.ca will come to mirror the US site any time soon. They're in a tough situation and until the laws change, they likely can't afford to jeopardise their position.
"Who certifies the certifiers?"
Heirs Of Comic Book Artist Alert Everyone They Want Their Copyrights Back
That Dr. Strangelove quote is in the article as well, page 3.
YouTube Comes To A 5-Star Realization: Its Ratings Are Useless
The cause could be that inside the block there were already the /* */ comments, and editor did not have single keystroke option to add // at the beginning of each selected line.
Consider a few of the benefits not mentioned in the article:

- You have reduced the cyclomatic complexity of each class, which makes the code less fragile and easier to unit test.

- When adding a new operator, you are now forced to implement everything it needs to work. If you don't define a method, it won't compile. This is not the case with a long list of if/else statements.

- "You still need a nest of conditionals when you populate the tree..." This is true, but now all the conditionals are in one place, rather than two (in their example, toString and evaluate). Again, this will make testing easier.
iPhone App Sales and Other Stats for Gaia GPS - Launch Day
Yeah, that part confused me. I thought you meant politically progressive, which is fine, but might turn away customers.
I tried -- and failed -- to produce a online dating startup. I spent a lot of time reading the academic literature on the matter. Here is my summation:

compatibility ~ attraction + age + sex + serendipity

Serendipity is more appropriately called the error term. In my opinion, real-time news feeds will at best add nothing, if not actually degrading the signal by adding excess noise. You can't date (i.e. appraise compatibility) online. You have to date in "real life".

Then again, that was the premise of my startup, and it failed so maybe i should STFU.
Don't agree with his point about not hiring any sales guys early on. If you personally are not good with sales, you definitely should look to hire / partner with someone who is.

Product development and sales should get equal prominence.

As Peter Drucker says "the business enterprise has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs."
Are all users allowed to install browser plugins? That seems like the motivation for this. Otherwise, it seems pretty useless. IE 6 is the main problem, and the problem exists due to a lack of administrator privileges.
Nice idea. Unfortunately it requires running an .exe. In my work environment, running an unapproved executable is strictly forbidden. IE is also locked down pretty tight so I doubt that it would work even if I could run the installer. I can't even upgrade the Flash plugin, how bad is THAT?
Everyone thinks of their password when the "How can I prevent being hacked?" comes up. What everyone forgets is password recovery. 'Hacking' as done by Anonymous and other people today usually involves resetting the email password. It's amazingly easy to find answers to questions such as "Where was my honeymoon?" or "What's my mother's maiden name?". Once the email account at yahoo, gmail, hotmail or elsewhere - all of which have a process to reset passwords - are cracked, all the other accounts linked to the email can be taken over. Remember Palin?
Because of the above, I always set the recovery to a ~32 alphanumeric string, and the question to an insulting statement.
I am not sure will this be useful. But if you are interested in making a hardware hacker space, The FabLab is a good reference point. They have listing of the basic equipments. You probably can find the community of the FabLab(http://fab.cba.mit.edu/).

How to make the community self sustaining is a big question. My opinion is in the long run the hackerspace has to be profitable for its operation. At the other hand, everyone likes to take advantage of low cost/free resources without accountability. So how to design a system to encourage those startups to grow and be profitable, taking accountability and give it back to others, in order to create a positive feedback loop is really important.

I think the system can't not be centrally planning ahead, so you'd better to be keen on community in the long run.
Introducing Google Chrome Frame
English link might be more useful: http://www.travian.com/

Travian is a browser game featuring a world with thousands of other real players. One begins the game acting as a chief of a tiny village. Build up villages, wage wars or trade with your neighbors.
It is easy to see the relationship if you have used CLOS. Consider:

(defgeneric evaluate (op))
(defmethod evaluate ((op add-op)) ...)
(defmethod evaluate ((op mult-op)) ...)
(defmethod evaluate ((op const-op)) ...)

This is the same as

class AddOp { method evaluate { ... }}
...

and so on.

In either case, it eventually compiles down to something like:

(defun evaluate (op)
(typecase op (add-op <add>)
(mult-op <mult>)
(const-op <const>))

which is just an if statement with some sugar on top.

In the end, pattern matching and polymorhism are just syntax sugar on top of "if". But it's syntax sugar that makes the code very easy to read and write correctly. (The advantage is that you write a method for each type, which means one lexical block only knows about the specifics of the operation is is performing; no need for Add to know about Mulitply, for example.)
> running an unapproved executable is strictly forbidden

By technology or words in a policy manual? If it's the latter, most employees can claim they had no idea they were "running a program"
Makes me think of that quote from Spinal Tap. You know, that there's a fine line...
How Scientists Think: Fostering Creativity In Problem Solving
Actually I have used them for business cards. You don't have to get the glossy cards, we didn't. We didn't use any of their templates but created our own and the results were good. The only issue was shipping, it takes a while. Also they don't do weekend shipping.
Google Music China: Unprecedented?
Looks like you can target the user agent:

"Google Chrome Frame reports that it is available by extending the host's User-Agent header to add the string chromeframe. You can use server-side detection to look for this token and determine whether Google Chrome Frame can be used for a page. If Google Chrome Frame is present, you can insert the required meta tag; if not, you can redirect users to a page that explains how to install Google Chrome Frame."

http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/developers_guide.h...
This is actually beautifully ironic to those who understand what is going on here.

AT&T has quietly backed and financed (some might say "astroturfed") the whole push for net neutrality... of wired networks.

Why might they do that? Isn't AT&T an evil carrier? It's pretty simple, actually. AT&T has a massive network built for delivering phone calls. The operation of this network does not depend on packet prioritization, so it is not affected by net neutrality.

Who is affected though? Cable carriers rely on packet prioritization to deliver voice calls with the approximate quality of AT&T's separate network. Net neutrality doesn't affect AT&T much, but it harms their competitors' business plans.

So it's easy to see why AT&T, who backed net neutrality when it was in the interest of harming their upstart competitors, might feel that applying it to wireless networks, where it affects them, is a "bait and switch." They baited a bunch of Congress critters to interfere in the ISP business, and now the scope of that mandate is being switched on them.
can i chaange it to function?
The Forest - Short film for discussion.
As a federal government employee, I think our best hope is to just release as much data as possible and let the private sector come up with innovative solutions to give to the citizens. http://sunlightlabs.com/ have the right idea.

A lot of projects and initiatives we are beginning to see is to make information easier to consume for computer systems to access government data (labor, financial, law) through data formats like XML, JSON, RDF, etc.

These have all been initiatives going on before the Obama administration. With the downturn in the private sector, entrepreneurs are looking to capitalize.

My big point is the best way to do this is outside of the government. Don't go looking for a government contract or get on the GSA Schedule, you will become just another government contractor and won't own the finished product. Get the data and make a product citizens want. Unlike one point the article makes, do not have US Government as a customer.
I found this film to be very thought-provoking when considered in the light of hacking. Thoughts anyone or am I the only one?
The next financial crisis is coming - and the Fed just made it worse.
The approach that is inevitably taken by extremely large systems is to try to make all features optional except a sleek core. This is what OSGi is trying to do for Java. Unfortunately for the current debate, this is often called a "microkernel" approach. I'm not going to touch that one with a ten foot pole, but let's just say that hopefully Linux can be incrementally rearchitected to make more and more features optional without losing the benefits of its very successful "macrokernel" approach.

After all, Linux is already designed to make most of its code optional via the module systems. The only problem is that its core is becoming not-so-sleek, and they're probably already getting as much mileage out of the module system as they can hope for. One interesting possibility is that Linux could avoid the performance hit of run-time dynamism by introducing a new kind of compile-time feature selection. It's obvious to me that C isn't up to the task, but it might not be obvious to someone much smarter than me. Or maybe they could extend C. These days we think of the Linux kernel community as old, conservative, and unlikely to surprise, but who knows? I'll keep my fingers crossed.
How about "what are you working on, in ten words or less?" it sounds mean, but it really is what you want from the other person, isn't it?
Oh boy. Another browser to support. Thanks Google!
Yes, version control does keep it around for you, but often it is not the easiest thing to associate some piece of code with a repo version. I am not advocating keeping chunks of commented-out code around; just saying that I have yet to find an optimal solution to the other side of the problem either.
Having previously been a CCNA, I would say that Cisco has some of the best certificates around. If you have a CCIE cert nearly every door is open to you.
It was a while -- it looks like almost two weeks -- between TechCrunch publishing the article and twitter removing them from the suggested followers list.

I wonder if there are any more examples, or if anyone on the suggested followers list has been critical of twitter.
I don't think that Apple has ever been overly concerned with having other developers program for their platforms. In some ways it seems as if they make it difficult on purpose.
Reading the title, the image of the product I got in my mind seemed to be a great idea, a solution to some of the awkwardness that I personally feel toward OK Cupid. I don't want to send an email pretending to take interest in something particular in someone's profile. Bottom line, who's out there, right now, who seems like they are at least potentially interesting? Who wants to meet? "You seem interesting enough, let's just grab a drink." I envisioned something like Twitter, with a more extensive profile. Maybe a Twitter app could do this.

But reading it, this just seems like stalking people before you even know them. Making online dating all the less natural.
Right now, I'm consulting for a large company that still provisions IE6 because it has a bunch of in-house web apps that don't work right on any other browsers. Since switching thousands of users over to another browser could not happen in a single day, these legacy apps would all have to be modified to work in both IE6 and a modern browser. This can be done, but it requires coordination and resources. Furthermore, the groups responsible for the apps and those responsible for the desktop standards probably meet on the org chart at the CIO level.

Sadly, it would be really useful if Chrome (or Firefox or whatever) could accurately emulate IE6's behaviors for sites of an administrator/user's choosing. We could fairly easily make Apache insert a special "PleaseRenderLikeIE6" headers so those applications could continue to function as-is.

Yes, this is painful to write about, but it's the reality of most large corporate IT shops.
Nicholas Negroponte, in 1984, makes 5 predictions (video)
> It's a weird argument about the scarcity of bandwidth that suggests that it's all a price fixing scam by Cisco

I heartily agree, but that is the thesis tc postulated in his comment, to which I responded.
Create a web page for support requests. Check the User Agent in addition to what the user reports.
> neural simulations

huh? I have no idea what you're talking about.
haha, just the image of telling someone that "i had no idea it was a program" makes me laugh.
"next version of Windows Mobile"

Is there even a plan for this? It seems like Microsoft clearly lost this one and doesn't even care anymore.
Drawing Glossy Button
The single most glossed over topic in C textbooks how to avoid using fixed-sized buffers and arrays, and instead use dynamic allocation of string buffers, arrays, and dynamic list structures. Kenneth Reek's book "Pointers on C" is excellent for understanding this in vivid detail. You can not read that book and then claim to be confused by pointers ever again.
Advertise? Building value for one or two niche markets (on the same platform) first seems like a good strategy. If you have some unique benefit then you can go after known enthusiast markets - games, creatives, etc. or even niches within niches. Obviously, your goal is to offer something sufficiently cool and useful that users will want to invite their friends.
"For the F.C.C. to now place such requirements on that spectrum so soon after the auction creates the impression of a ‘bait and switch,’ and could raise questions about the fairness and integrity of the auction process itself."

I would love to see an analysis of who AT&T paid to ensure its purchase of wireless spectrum did not have a neutrality requirement. Its not a fair auction if you pay off politicians and ensure you have insiders on the FCC to get what you want.

I posted this the link the other day. Its about the FCC being bought by AOL/TimeWarner. Would like to see similar stories on AT&T.

http://books.google.com/books?id=GOvTxS-txFMC&pg=PA214&#...
What's incredible is that a lot of the time, GUI-based applications are only a smidgen more complicated than their command-line counterparts. Sad that your professor didn't seem to know this.
Disagree. I wrote this article because I kept meeting people who were non-technical but they were afraid of technology.

If they learn to code, even if they don't do it well, they will be able to talk the same language and get people on their team to build what they want.

I never said don't build your network. Just get some common ground first.
I presume Google's goal is to reduce the percentage of IE6 users down to levels where consumer-oriented sites don't think it's worth supporting anymore? Today, IE6 is propped up by personal use of corporate machines during the workday. I worked on a consumer site where the percentage of IE6 use was higher during the workday than on nights/weekends. Various negative inputs into the IE6 ecosystem feedback loop could cause a precipitous death spiral.
The first person to actually do this has lots of HN karma coming his way.
* Digg - Kevin Rose promoted it on his TV show.

* Reddit - Early users included other YC startupees.

* HN - YC startupees who were tired of the growing crassness on reddit.
Who am I being biased towards? I'm confused.

See reply earlier -- never said you could do it alone. But if you get closer to being able to do it alone, you will find cofounders with greater ease. Nobody wants to join a team that will fail without them.

This goes for cofounders and investors alike.
Why Google AppEngine sucks
"Wireless service doesn’t need regulation, AT&T argued, as it is a very competitive market....Wireless networks “are facing incredible bandwidth strains,” the company wrote, and “require continued private investment at very high levels, and pro-active network management.”

This statement confused me. I would expect that in a very competitive market, supply would be growing rapidly to keep up with demand.
And doesn't this plugin kind of achieve this? Rather than marking sites which should be rendered in IE6, you mark them to be rendered in Chrome. So all legacy sites work without modification (using the IE6 engine), whilst modern sites can add the chrome meta tag and get rendered by Chrome.
> I think using the Stockholm syndrome is an absurd metaphor in this case. In the Stockholm syndrome, the victim defends the attacker.

fair enough. It was a convoluted enough metaphor that I've since forgotten how I stitched it together. Anyway, I appreciate all your information in this thread.
Don't even bother with this. It's just blather. The real issue is that AT&T feels betrayed. They funded this whole initiative to hurt their competitors, and now the gun might be pointed at them as well.

"All those expensive Congressional fund-raisers, and this is the best we get! There's no honor anymore..."
"Defaults Matter" really is a key part of ack, and I thank you for crystallizing it for me.

I would love to quote this on the betterthangrep.com page. Would you please drop me a line at andy@petdance.com and give me your name and an OK?
Mathematics is a science. Mathematicians form hypotheses (guessed theorems, guessed properties, etc) then perform experiments to test their hypothesis (trying to construct a proof). If they end up with a proof, the hypothesis has been confirmed.

I think most mathematicians would disagree with your assertion that math is about "definitions". (I'm no math geek, just a programmer, so take with an appropriately sized grain of salt.)
PostgreSQL is the best large C codebase I've ever seen.
The Failure to Account For Progress
He's a designer, and that's an essential part of the pie. A technical portion as well.
I'm more interested in the kind of stuff a person reads on the internet. If you read similar topics, we're going to have a lot of stuff to talk about, which is attractive to me. There are tons of people on dating sites who I am attracted to and are around my age. You need a filter, and similar interests are easier to express implicitly than writing a huge block of text about all the things you enjoy. That was the premise for a site I worked on (mostly dead for now), though it isn't targeted at dating.

http://sitesincommon.com

Example profile: http://sitesincommon.com/users/niran
I wholeheartedly disagree. Programmers can learn to be great at what they do by _doing_. How many doctors do you think could learn what they know without going to medical school? None. This is why you must have an MD to practice medicine.

Programming has no barrier to entry. One of the only ways to see how well someone can write code is by actually looking at their code. There's no shortcut, for better or for worse.
“Responsibilization” and user experience
The eSkeletons Project
In my ideal vision of the hackerspace, the decisionmaking would be highly decentralized. This would require a few hundred members, which would undoubtedly take time. As an example, I would like to see a Donor's Choose style approach to ongoing purchasing, where a portion of member dues is pre-allocated to buying common goods.

Thanks for pointing out the FabLab. I'm familiar with the concept, but had never read their complete inventory. Very helpful.
Your second point is actually a feature, and is equivalent to structural pattern matching in languages with algebraic types not allowing you to have unspecified cases.
Don't support browsers, support standards!
If we could tag certain sites as legacy, we could uninstall IE6 and default users to Chrome/Firefox/whatever. Or, we could even install IE8 and use the Chrome plug-in for true IE6 compatibility -- the opposite of what Google proposes.
I wonder if this will work inside IE Tab in Firefox. So far as I can tell, it should (and without the performance hit of running VirtualBox inside VMware, at that).
"I don't want to send an email pretending to take interest in something particular in someone's profile. "

I don't want to have to pretend to be interested in someone's profile. I want to actually be interested in it, but profiles are hard to write. If pulling information about what you do across the internet leads to an interesting profile, then that seems like a huge gain with zero effort.

If you just want to meet as many possibly interesting people as possible, it sounds like you're looking for http://crazyblinddate.com.
Yes, expressing a causal structure is pretty easy (e.g. make a Bayes net). The hard part is inferring a causal structure from a statistical pile of observations. According to Pearl, many statisticians even flatly reject[ed] the notion of causality as just a convenient fiction (iirc; it's been a long time since I read it).
It's the same version of Webkit ued in standard chrom, according to the article. If you're already supporting chrome, it should only take one more line of html to support chromeframe.
There are many things to hate about AppEngine, but this is not one of them.

You're being aggressively rate-limited because your account does not have billing set up. If you only have the free quota to work with, they place continuous limits on resources to keep you from exhausting your daily supply early.
If I was still in Vancouver, I know I’d be there for sure!

While you’re researching, check out Montreal’s Foulab: http://www.foulab.org/ http://makekw.org/montreals-foulab-featured-documentary-shor...
Which makes it no different from any number of past and present Cold War control loops.
You could also solve the problem in the other direction: install two browsers on every employee's computer. When that's done, you can safely migrate to a standards-compliant version of the internal web-apps.
Really? It looks like a site has to opt-in in order to use Chrome Frame, so you could almost look at it like Flash.

Consider the following scenario: YouTube releases a suite of new features, but they require some new functionality from HTML5. This is fine for Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc., but if you're using IE it'll prompt you to install Chrome Frame, just like it prompts you to install Flash. I could see it getting to the point where people instinctively do this just as they do with Flash.

Hell, maybe it could even be used to subvert Flash itself. Suddenly IE users everywhere are viewing <video>-based YouTube videos.