skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
After pulling an allnighter, I fell asleep during a math class and woke up so many times that I would start dreaming before my eyes closed.

It is extremely annoying not knowing if what you just experienced was true or a dream, so I ended up going home.
CD sales accounted for 80% of the 428 million units sold in 2008 (from all media).

In comparison there were just under a billion units sold in 1999 and the backstreet boys had the biggest album with over 16 million copies. Last year the top seller, Lil Wayne only sold 2.8 million. It took the b-boys just over a week for comparable sales at the peak of the market.

If I'm not mistaken, Norah Jones first album was the last to break the 10 million barrier.

Total units sold started dropping at an annual compounded rate of 6%/year in 1999 through 2004. With the introduction of iTunes in 2003, "album substitution" started to take hold and the decline accelerated. Albums were being replaced by single track downloads on iTunes at a rate of roughly 1.4 downloaded tracks per CD album. With an average of 12 tracks per cd.. that's an 88% drop in per unit sales (1.4 tracks are around $1 on iTunes vs. $16-$20 for the CD album).

The music industry is alive and well but the record industry has basically been obliterated.
Without looking any deeper into it, the zoomed out view on the left ('MiniMap') looks amazing and I'd love my editor (MacVim) to incorporate it.

Is this for Windows only?

I tend to love features that need no explanations, no marketing, just a small screenshot for you to instantly see that it's a) amazing, b) useful, and c) should have been existent for a while now. Mark of a fantastic feature if you ask me.
Maybe it will reduce piracy outside of the UK.
Looking at the API, it looks pretty young/raw.

API offers two types of primary data structures; Files and Tables.

A File is a binary object that can grow and shrink to any size, and data can be written to and read from any position.
Table can store string values, supports indexes on columns.

No mention of real query language.
It's called a dehumidifier. They've been around for years. Looks like this one simply added a water filter.
which is just 1.99% of all deals in the States

Considering there are 50 states, this seems about... average?

Illinois averaged just 20th amongst the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico in startup dollars per capita for the 2001-2007 period

I think that means there are 32 other states/DC/PR doing worse...
But they take you, the user, away from whatever it is you're actually doing. This is another case where the advertiser is going to have to see if their marketing message succeeds without the 'click through' to give them the warm and fuzzies.
Aren't we allowed to redesign things just for the joy of showing people what we think things should look like? I mean, Jesus Christ, when people post Google or Craigslist redesigns here we get so bitchy about it. I've always seen these redesigns as sorts of "covers" of the original site. It's like Hendrix playing All Along The Watchtower. It's a riff on an idea for the sake of being creative.

You know what? I liked this redesign a lot. I like how white it is. I like the smaller logo. I like the effort the author put into making each logo look really crisp, the Wikipedia one in particular. I like that there are only four words on the entire page. I like the blue bar around the search box. So seeing this page made my day a little more enjoyable, and I'm glad it was posted here. No, I don't think it would be a good idea to implement this, but maybe that wasn't the point.
Why I chose Windows 7 over Snow Leopard (and you should, too)
Pity he couldn't get it to work, but nice to see lisp used for something as 'practical' as interfacing to webcams and analyzing the images.

I'm going to do my best to try to understand this piece of code, it is small enough to go through it and tries to solve a reasonably useful problem.
Perhaps the users who are in that 8% are bookmarking this page right now to use for their searches. You don't need to go to google.com to start up a search.
That minimap is a nice piece of innovation. I'll be waiting until someone ports it to EMACS though :-)
I don't have any problem with affiliate codes (not sure if they were affiliate codes or not in the link). If others want a clean link though, here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH
Über-geeks can also clone the Mercurial repository:

you@localhost:~$ hg clone http://hg.diveintopython3.org/ diveintopython3

I know I'm a DBA, but I think this is the first time I've qualified as an Uber-geek.
Aye, *nix port, please.
BeOS delivered no benefits of microkernel design; in fact its userspace network stack was clearly worse than competing kernel network stacks.
I agree. Edward Tufte would approve.
Venture funding is a poor proxy for tech entrepreneurship anywhere but in a few VC hubs; we should just stipulate that the majority of those dollars are going to Palo Alto and Waltham no matter what Pat Quinn does. But no matter where you locate, most tech startups aren't going to get funded.

That said, Chicago does very little (if anything) to support tech startups.

There is a "Chicago style" of startup --- 37signals and Threadless being the most visible examples --- with bootstrap backgrounds and ethics. There are things that Chicago could be doing to foster those kinds of companies, which don't require financier gatekeepers, grow organically, and are less speculative and volatile than valley shoot-the-moon companies --- which work well for San Jose only because there's always another shoot-the-moon company to fall back to when your current one fails.

Illinois could:

* Provide tax and fee incentives to technology startups

* Adopt policies that encourage development of tech-friendly office space outside of the loop

* Make its own internal processes more accessible to tech entrepreneurs, in the same manner as Data.gov, to create opportunities for companies to add value. Chicago's own IT infrastructure is, for instance, a shambles.

* Look for opportunities to work with local companies to showcase products and create calling cards for selling into the huge prospective client base in the Chicago economy.
Bleary Eyed Investors
Unless you know something I don't, there has been zero research into this topic, and anything you read on blogs is a wild guess.

Please prove me wrong by citing some research. I just did a search (terms: "polyphasic", "sleep", "sleep architecture", "REM", "SWS"), that didn't turn up anything.
Right, compare with http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen+square and spot the 7 differences.
Analogies. Don't go for the white shark, don't go for Paedocypris Progenetica, go for the Tuna.

Unless a startup has identified a problem, dreamed up a solution and talked to potential customers prior to writing the first line of code, then it is very hard to know which market will respond to your product.

Google was in the Elephant Market (trying to sell enterprise search appliances I believe), I am also sure there was someone calling Deers, ultimately one guy said "Fuck it, let's just put it on the web" then rabbits came through running.

I believe until startups know exactly who is willing to open their waller, they should follow the Ron Conway Way: "Spray and Pray". Most likely you have a product that could easily be tailored to several markets. Your best shot would be to make a few variations of your homepage (landing pages) and product screenshots, and try to pitch to different bloggers/end users per market. Which ever groups responds better (Deer or Rabbit or Turtle), you should focus more time with them.
Printer friendly: http://www.eweek.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view...
A 7,200 RPM disk can do about 120 IO operations/s, max. Each transaction requires at least one IO operation to be properly committed to disk.

So ~100 inserts/updates per second is pretty close to the limit of modest hardware, unless you are either 1) doing more than one insert/update per transaction or 2) leaving write caching enabled on you disk.

#1 is the right thing to do when it works for your app, but it doesn't always work.
#2 is the wrong thing to do if you care about the integrity of your data (but its probably not a bad thing to do in development if you understand that you'll probably need a battery-backed caching disk controller to get that kind of performance in production).

Cassandra avoids some of these issues by allowing the developer to specify the desired level of durability. A transaction may have to arrive on disk to be considered complete, or less stringently, it can arrive in memory on one or more additional machines in the cluster.

I'd also guess that cassandra will buffer and batch writes. Postgres can also do this with the write ahead log (WAL). I don't know if mySQL does the same. This trades some (configurable) latency for throughput. A transaction has to wait for the buffer to fill or a timer to expire before it is completed which increases latency, but multiple transactions end up bundled into a single IO operation, which increases throughput.
Unfortunately, no doubt these numbers do not count non-label/unsigned record sales as "thedark" mentioned. This is due to the fact that according to major labels and the FCC, these numbers don't count, simply because they don't receive a cut of those sales.

Once we develop a legitimate platform for unsigned musicians to use and compete with the major labels, their artists, and the money they make. Then we will begin to see some numbers that include unsigned artists. Because once they begin to make competitive noise, the labels and FCC will certainly try to begin to get involved and want to regulate as they always do. But as long as the independent artist stays technically "unsigned", there's nothing the regulators can do to control the music, or get a piece of the earnings.

Once we see this happen, those downloaded album and singles sales numbers rise dramatically. Force the RIAA to count you. Record and be heard.
As he points out, some of those 50 states simply get no startup activity; if you pre-qualify the states and exclude places like Wyoming, we're below the median.

On the other hand, Maryland is a bad example; Maryland has artificial incentives for VC dollars, because of fedgov contracts.
Distributable SSB?
Let's say I've got a webapp, and I would like users to be able to have it as a desktop app. Chrome users have "Application Shortcuts", Mac users have Fluid, and windows/mac/linux have Mozilla Prism to accomplish this.

However, I don't want the users to depend on external software. Has anyone seen a distributable, pre-configured Site Specific Browser? Let me know.
New 'Drake equation' for alien habitats
Aquamacs for life! But I'll try this out when it comes to a mac near me.
I've been using something similar for a while but you download it and run it locally (hopefully):

http://www.hping.org/phpinteractive/
Every time I see a post like this or a craigslist redesign, etc I think the exact same thing.
You're allowed to do whatever you want. The redesign here is pretty. But the cart is probably dragging the horse, and it's always worth contrasting "what works" with "what designers think is best".

Compare what a competant designer comes up with to Google's home page and start asking "why did Google do it this way", and you might learn something new.
The site states: "Sublime Text requires Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 (with DirectX 9 installed)."

Something this pretty looks like it belongs on a Mac.
Engineering a Better Alarm Clock
Causation, Correlation and Crackpots
Microsoft Previews Google Apps Killer To Beta Testers
Would anyone who uses this care to describe how it compares to other text editors we might be more familiar with (vim, emacs, TextMate, Notepad, ...)? The minimap is obvious (and a very nice idea); what else is in there?
I've seriously been thinking about such issues; there is a definitely a point of diminishing returns. Deciding when to cut your losses on maintaining code that is on the limits of your ability to follow is difficult.
Is the text on the minimap readable? Good application for those subpixel fonts.
Innocently daft question coming up:

As I understand, you can run web.py apps behind lighttpd, and the web server handles the processes. E.g. in lighttpd.cfg you can set {"max-procs" => 4} and I would see 4 instances of my web.py script running. But how is this done for a web-server done 100% in python? Python uses a GIL that only allows one thread to interpret bytecode at a time, so despite the amazing performance of Twisted and Tornado, wouldn't we see this seriously degrade when the server had to anything more than 'hello world'? My worry is having a Twisted/Tornado app and only using 1/4th of my availble processing power: am I wrong to do so?
DrScheme has the zoomed out view sidebar: View › Show Program Contour.

Screenshot: http://imgur.com/6mkPT.png
The first time I hit the page the request for an email address just didn't turn up at all; not sure if you're capturing that possibility. (FF 3.5.3, OSX 10.5.8)
Kid Cannabis
I don't think these tests are much more meaningful than the first.

They still use virtual machines, which give you all kinds of invisible overhead.

Even if that were not the case you should definitely split the machine that does the tests off from the machine that is being tested otherwise you get contention between the test program and the programs being tested (and java being quite cpu intensive running both tests on the same physical box is not a good idea).
Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5)
I think the key quote in this article is:
"In the end, Nate was not undone by his own greed but by overlooking one of the basic tenets of capitalism: Never underestimate the competition."
My Software Business Bonus
http://mysoftwarebusinesss.wordpress.com Want to buy My Software Business and Looking for best bonus package to compliment your software business in box purchase? Read my Exclusive Bonus that I have created just for you.
Side-by-side editing. Textmate still doesn't support this without opening a new window and fuddling with resizing (heinous).
The Dirty Little Secret About the "Wisdom of the Crowds" - There is No Crowd
In doing research for another comment I posted here, I came across an article that does a very good job of summarizing the current state of research into the role of sleep in memory consolidation.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7063/abs/nature04...
How to completely test a website?
Thomas, I disagree with your proxy statement, but we can do that over IM. Also, why stipulate? We can look at the data to see if that's true (and I will).

Again, I do believe the per-capita data is the correct metric, as that accounts for differences in population. While no one would be surprised that California gets the most money, the per-capita figures might be of interest.

I'd love it if you wouldn't mind copy/pasting your comment to the post (even with the first graf). It is being passed around political circles in Springfield, and it'd be good for them to see it. The post is only looking at the data (which proves that the leadership has failed); it is deliberately silent on "why" and "how to fix". I want others to suggest those things before I take a swing.
heck I do that sometimes when I just get lazy and hit the wrong bar or I'm not exactly sure of the domain.
Here's the article in print version (all pages one page)
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robi...
I tried it for six weeks, but never got it to settle down into a reasonable schedule. I'd have a few days of pretty good sleep, followed by a hard crash, then a struggle to get back onto the schedule etc. Especially falling asleep quickly was very difficult for me (whereas I fall asleep very easily on a normal schedule).
Yes, what are the "bullet point" features of this editor.

I downloaded it and tried it out on some python code. It has run your project and there is a console for running python apps. Anything else I missed?

It is very pretty.
It's not a bubble, the product just became obsolete with newer technology and demand for industry slacked with internet marketing. CDs were (and still are to some extent) a fantastic media for storing music, but mp3 has huge advantages.

The late 90s was also the end of the pre-internet era, where the dominant way to market music was radio, TV, and print. In 1995 you had to try hard to discover music outside the mainstream. In 2005 you could go to MySpace and listen to an hour of music without ever hearing a top 40 song.
If you look up in the top right of your browser, you'll see no search button. No matter what browser you use, you'd see a search box with no button. Billions of people see this interface everyday.

Even if the user doesn't know what a browser is, they know to press enter in that box.

I agree that this isn't a good redo, but your comments are off target.
Summary:

* Mean response time -- Twisted.Web better than Tornado

Average performances for Concurrent request:

* @100 -- TW:Tor::0.50s:0.70s . TW better than Tor
* @500 -- TW:TOr:: 3s:3.5s . TW slightly better than Tor
* @1000 -- TW:Tor:: 5s:6.5s . TW better than Tor
Problem with lot of these disposable emails is the domain names used by them get blacklisted by services very fast.

I'd suggest just get a domain name and set up a catch-all account that forwards all your mail to a gmail account.
I did split the machines. The driver (the one running the test) machine is completely different than the webserver running twisted.web or tornado.
While there is definitely censorship around these events, outside expectations for what the [Tiananmen Square] query should return aren't the right standard.

To the outside world, the 1989 clashes are synonymous with the Square -- indeed, saying "Tiananmen Square" means the clashes as much as the place. But for China, it's a national plaza with a much longer history.

One might compare the [national mall] in Washington DC. There have been many large assemblies there, though the first page of Google image results doesn't show any of the mall filled with people -- an image many of us have seen, many times. (There's at least one such image on the second page.)

If there were at some point some focal "national mall incident", we would expect images of such incident to rise in [national mall] results -- but not necessarily dominate it completely.
Probably a Mac user. Cmd + 1, 2 etc switches tabs there.
For those used to Haskell-like languages, Option is the "Maybe" monad and the "for" comprehension is the equivalent of Haskell's "do" syntax.
I do C-x 3 and load a homebrew "tiny-mode" that shrinks the font size in the second window. Maybe I'll package it up and post it later.
"Traffic Calming" strikes me as a bug, not a feature.

I can do "phone calming" but disconnecting a phone for a few hours each day.

I can do "mail calming" by threatening the postal delivery guy.

I can do "mall calming" by super glueing the locks in the doors.

Roads are engineered to get people from point A to point B while minimizing wasted time.

Traffic calming is aimed at undoing that engineering.

Boo.
I think the problem with solutions like these it usually comes down throwing down money at more development (Erlang is hard) or throwing down money on more servers (delayed_job, Amazon SQS, etc.).

I usually prefer money on servers since it's faster to develop for my team. But I guess for the functionally gifted, this is a great solution.
I built 10MinuteMail as an exercise to learn the JBoss Seam framework. I'm very glad people like it and find it useful.

There are a number of great temporarily mail services out there, each with different features, strengths, and weaknesses, so definitely use which ever one fits your needs best.

10MinuteMail is supposed to be easy to use: zero clicks to get your e-mail address and to see incoming e-mail. Everything is on the front page and refreshed via ajax. You don't have to sign up, or provide any information at all.

It's secure: there's no way for other people to read your e-mail by guessing your username/address.

It's available in 36 languages (so far!). Over 50% of the traffic comes from non-US sources.
It's an excellent point that many businesses are not really technology businesses at all. However, one could make the argument that it is still in the company's best interest to promote IT quality because that is the best way to keep the IT department from bloating into something that consumes far more resources than necessary. Good technology should be reliable, cheap, and invisible, but those things take a certain amount of quality.

I would argue that most non-technology companies would be best served by employing a single very good software engineer, maybe two or three if the company is very large. If the company is small then the one engineer doesn't even have to be all that brilliant. You can't do this if you have to administrate a typical IT ecosystem, but if your company is not a technology company, why do you need a typical IT ecosystem in the first place? (Because no one knows how to do anything outside of one, and even if you can find someone you can't find a replacement. Therefore every company must support a relatively large and complex ecosystem whether they want to or not.)
not really... the game play experience on a tv is very different from a few hundred pixel wide square in a browser
You will be impressed by the amount of spam with a catch-all account.
There is exactly 1 'tank man' photo. It is in the first position. And its source host?

tieba.baidu.com

Baidu! The incumbent who's supposedly enjoying an advantage from their more enthusiastic implementation of censorship!

I suspect that is not an 'organic' image placement, but a hand-tuned shot at Baidu.
The states don't all have the same population; Illinois' "fair share" would be 4% of dollars.

Illinois is the 5th largest state in the Union: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territo... Based on the simplest ranking, Illinois should be fifth on the list. Being 20th is shameful. I'm not calling for mass resignations, but...
But of course. Google's raised controversy among its designers for focusing on hits over aesthetic. We've had that talk before.

I've actually always been against that mindset myself, and I've argued against it before here. I don't necessarily think it's a good thing to sacrifice everything just to boost numbers. If we had an Internet where there were half a dozen really good search engines where each one handled search a little bit differently, I'd much prefer that to the current situation. But I'm in the minority there.
Dear Coda - please look long and hard at that minimap codebrowser!
Rabbits != Consumers, he says rabbit hunters are 37signals and outright.com which seem to be aimed at micro and small business. To an extent small business fall into deer, but I'd guess only the 30+, hence the 'deer can change your t&c' which isn't worth it for a really small business.

Unfortunately he says absolutely nothing about deer apart from waxing lyrical about how they're great. Given that he only gives examples of elephants and rabbits, one wonders if he's yet to find the pain of working with deer?

Having worked in a company that targeted the 'deer' it's not as easy as he makes it sound, generally you start having to customise your product per customer and also implementation is non-trivial meaning consultants & some sort of training, which is a major hinderence to scalability and you still need to get past the board which means a face-to-face sales force. They'll also be at the size where they might have their own IT guys and man a lot of them are incompetent & usually a barrier to sale ('mmm, I'm not sure whether that's compatible with our special gerzambi-thingy' - i.e. more work for me? no thanks).
Been using it quite a bit and i must say that i love:
- column selection/editing
- side by side editing
- speed
- function browser
- project browser
- regexp search

I'd encourage anyone in giving it a try.