skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thats a good point. The switch from Objective-C to Java in WebObjects destroyed it. Maybe it would have died anyways, but it was definitely the final nail in the coffin as all the best WebObjects developers stuck with version 4.5 instead of upgrading to 5.0 (the java one).

Internally, I've heard Apple uses WebObjects 4.5 for their stores, mobileme, and other web projects.
Also an article in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870442930457446...

Here is a link to the NEBR.org digest report of the paper:
http://www.nber.org/digest/oct09/w15347.html
The OP shrewdly asked for two of your favorite books. Had it asked for #1 and #2, I for one couldn't have replied. A sort requires an ordering function, which is a category error here.
Seconding this. Just started using it last week, learned everything I needed to know in a distraction-filled day or two. Any CSS pro could pick up HAML/SASS in a matter of hours, if not less.
Looking For the Best Treatment Options For Prostate Cancer
I have a Jailbroken iPhone with SBSettings and the Rotation switch.
First I find no problems with the rotation, I have a 1g iphone for more than a year now, and the only problem I had with rotation was when I was laying, with that SBsettings switch, it's solved.
Second, I agree that SBsettings is the most useful iPhone App and Apple should really look into its features and make them builtin.
I've seen a lot of enterprise-y programs that do this and it just looks lazy. The poor user enters some invalid input data and the program crashes, and the developer points at the spec and says "there was nothing in here about validating and giving an helpful error message".

The assumption seems to be that "ad-hoc decisions" made by the programmer, are often worse than crashing. I'm not sure that is often true. Who is supposed to be the domain expert, the person writing the spec, or the developer?

Perhaps asking the spec-writer what should happen in the situation would be better than just letting it crash. There is a business cost to crashing, and businesses are normally the ones paying for the software.
Well, Apple doesn't only write Objective-C. I'd bet a majority of the code they write is plain C and C++ for internal OSX stuff. And some of their major projects are still Carbon (C++) (though they are trying to port to Cocoa).
What about pingus, a free software clone of lemmings :
http://pingus.seul.org/welcome.html
Great, first the cloud, now local computers. Paper can suffer water damage or be burned. Moral of the stories: your data is never safe.

Redundant backups/distributions is the true way to go.
This article sure is timely. I've been working on a ruby project for a while now and I'm just about to get it live. The key for me was two things: 1. Forking. Sounds silly, but man oh man did this increase performance. 2. Relying on a unix tool instead of going with a ruby gem.

Now I admit that I'm locking myself into a unix environment, but I really don't have the time or skills to make this project OS agnostic. If it is an eventual success, I may have to pay off some of that technical debt, but that is a problem I wouldn't mind having.
Don't feel like you have to go through channels. Just figure out what you want, and then ask for it. Like if there's a really interesting class, show up to lecture and ask the professor directly if you can sit in the back and listen without enrolling. Or chat with grad students and see if they or their advisors need extra help (programmers, assistants, gofers) for their research. Starting your own club is a great idea too. Like I said, expect rejection. Persistence pays off, and you'll never get what you want if you don't ask for it. (Of course there's an important meta-lesson here that will be even more useful once you get out of school.)
And that would be one of the bullet-points in the page: how hard it is to properly back-up stuff in *BSD as compared to how easy and foolproof it is under Windows 2008 Server.

In fact, I can almost smell a migration directly to Windows 7 Server or whatever the name they decide to use for that.
Using wireless network signals to see through walls
If by lisp you mean CLOS, it's not meant to be a smalltalkesque (i.e. message passing) object system at all - it's a multiple dispatch system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_dispatch
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?MultipleDispatch
Programming the Semantic Web (book review)
It does indeed seem to be just Mr. Eck (presumably working in his garage?) but there's more stuff at http://www.superconductors.org/news.htm, including journal papers that confirm previous work apparently from the same person.

More on Eck: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/view_profile.php?userid=4422 ...sounds like a crank, but also seems to have some affiliation with Wichita State U. in KS.
Is this officially licensed or just a ripoff of the Star Trek brand?
'"Beauty" is an aesthetic concept of the mind that varies between each person, not a property that you can give to an object.'

Not everyone would agree to this. There are people who believe that objective beauty really is "out there" in the world, independent of human judgement.

Your opinion is very fashionable at the moment, particularly among academics and intellectuals, and similar arguments are applied to morality and anything else not subject to empirical investigation. But as I said, this way of thinking is by no means universal.
One thing poker taught me: don't ever sit next to the author of this article. Also, don't ever get caught in an elevator with James Woods. Both were for the same reason.
What is the relation to Twitter, except for the spamming? It looks like ever other browser game on the market.
I wonder how big of news this is?
And those projects are such nice places to live, too.

I sure as hell wouldn't call that generous.
IMO it's more like C# and .NET than that Apple is making it tough to not use Objective-C.

First look at .NET... there are a lot of .NET developers who think of .NET and C# development as the same... but there are also .NET developers using Ruby, VB#, F#, C++ .NET, and a growing number of scripting languages.

What I've seen of the Cocoa environment isn't Apple restricting developers from using languages other than Objective-C, but rather that Apple is putting its own efforts into Objective-C.

I would agree that Apple seems to be making Java hard to choose for programming the mac lately, but I'd call that progress, and therefore a positive, not a negative ;)
This reminds me of a philosophy class I had in college, where we discussed action vs inaction, and the responsibilities of each choice.

I'll skip the lengthy description of all the views, but the short version is that there do exist very compelling arguments that if you choose inaction, you are just as responsible for that outcome as you would be if you chose action.

As applied to the trolly problem, the point is that the "take action" vs "do not take action" is a false dilemma. Choosing not to act does not absolve you of responsibility or remove you from the problem. You may have feelings otherwise, but it is a rational argument.
Microsoft 'not scared of Google'
Geocities is, but not for long! They're scheduling it to disappear on the 26th.
That's a trial and error process of proof reading your writing. Inefficient IMHO. A solid approach would be clarity of writing through lucid and cogent thought; if your thinking is clouded so is your writing.

It never hurts to read aloud your email to be sure it "sounds" right but that is, I assume, something everyone practices before they post, email, or submit.
"The Mezzanine" by Nicholson Baker

and

"White Noise" by Don DeLillo
I recently acquired an iPod Touch, and have not been able to deduce how to activate the rotation feature reliably. I twist it around various which ways trying to make it rotate, and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Reading this article actually gives me a better idea of how to make it happen reliably. Specifically, I didn't realize that the accelerometer detects motion relative to gravity (makes sense, but I didn't know that).
If you turn it so the home button points up, it won't rotate.

Edit: for clarity, hopefully.
A Test for Exotic Propulsion?
In practical terms, what does this mean?
I have often though this in work project emails to a much smaller audience (under 20 people). If I get one person replying back to me asking to clarify something, then I have failed in some way or another in my explanation, so I always read everything more than once.

I have noticed that many of our off-shore contractors, where English isn't their first language are prone to sending unclear emails - it's actually quite frustrating going through several replies to get to the bottom of it, and it often causes things to be delayed unnecessarily. If only everyone thought so carefully before sending the email!
Also, "Fart proudly."
you must have a job in order to get food stamps. one of my house mates tried to get on food stamps (he was on them from seattle when he moved here). he was self employed: he made sweatshirts and sold them on etsy, as well as other odd-jobs assisting seamstresses. he couldn't prove he had a job or something, and so couldn't get food stamps. he had tons of debt, and in the end he took 3 shitty jobs (eg, calling people at night and asking survey questions) with very low pay, while maintaining his sweatshirt business.

i have mixed feelings about all of this. on the one hand, it feels like bad planning to not accrue the skills for a good job. shame on his upbringing for not encouraging him to think about consequences and independence (yeah, down with the man is cool, but freedom is more nuanced than that. money plays a role, for one thing)

on the other hand, he was basically operating his own small business, he sold local, cared about the environment and his craft. he was such a sweet hard working guy, an upstanding coop member, who just couldn't self promote or get together whatever that magic is--networking? self empowerment?--to make a stable business.

most especially, he made a real product to sell, rather than hype, and it was a good product, self-expressive that made people feel special rather than malicious corporations that exploit people or the environment or consumers. part of me thinks it's messed up that our economics and culture supports enron and not someone like this guy. i hope he's teaching kids how to make their own clothes. he was against teaching because culturally that's giving up, not making it as a designer, but teaching kids how to constructively express themselves rather than pay whatever brand for dumb clothes---that's more valuable than the whole billion-dollar clothing industries and their malicious practices.
My first thought is this:

As you are obviously aware, you aren't the first person to create an intranet system. I gather from your home page (the only page that matters; if you don't hook me there, I'm just going to go somewhere else) that your product is some sort of collaboration/intranet tool. What I don't get is how it's any different. In what way isn't this just Basecamp with a different name stuck on it?

In other news, your demo page is possibly the least friendly page on the internet. You know full well that users are clicking on the demo link to try a demo, so why is "Access denied" the first thing they see? That alone almost made me click off the page assuming you botched something on the server. Then I'm asked for a login which I don't have. Another good reason to leave the page. Finally, if I read the fine print, I learn that I can login under some strange user names that, for some reason completely unknown to me, I have to manually type in. You can send a post request without making your users type info into a login form. Just present the user with three large friendly buttons (demo as superuser, demo as employee, demo as client).
The best hack I know for this, is solitude. The more time you spend alone the more the unconscious wants to express itself (you can find many creative ideas this way).

Solitude also gives you no option but to do the thing you are secluding yourself to do. Block distracting websites if your task is computer based.
That looks amazing!

If you don't mind my asking, what visualization library are you using?
Right, sorry, in a rush. It is indeed a DHTML clone of Lemmings.
But your point does stand for websites. Politely asking people to review your site on HN will allow for some great feedback, but you really only get one shot at it.

Anyone know if a service exists (-MTurk) where you can pay people to constantly review your site?

I think that'd be an awesome way to evolve a website. Just apply constant feedback by paying people to launching fast and iterating.
And I dream of more wiki like user feedback/support platform that _doesn't require_ signup.
Best Things We'll Say to Our Grandkids
Yup same here. I found it much easier to read white on red.

In my experience, to write better, you need to write more. Starting a blog about something I love has greatly improved the quality of my written communication.

http://newkiter.com
A computer system to detect blackjack card counters.
I agree with most of what was said above. I don't see how this is any different from the multitude of other online productivity software available.

Also, there is too much text on the main page, and I have to scroll down to see the sign up and demo button. Also, at $8 dollars a user, it should be explicitly clear what benefits you offer and how to access a demo version.
Dune by Frank Herbert and Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Social networking sites can be mine fields for teachers
Huh, I guess you're right--I'm surprised they don't let you specify a length. I guess it's like outsourcing since they're a startup.

I don't know if they still do, but Lands' End used to let you specify a length even down to the 1/4 in. (they also used to have custom pants options).

"Hi, I'd like to speak to a ninja about my pants?"
Interesting metaphor -- whitespace separating the elements of one's day (and life), i.e. don't crowd your schedule.
Web mail scam propagates itself
that's what the non-tech guy on our team is for (among others things). constant user studies.

you have to be hitting the right crowd. asking advice from HN or random people only works if your site is meant to have universal appeal. HN in particular is a heavily skewed audience.
Ask HN: Product sprint/peer group via HN?
Would anybody be interested in doing product sprints or creating a kind of peer review group to increase your productivity?

I searched the archives and found mention of the Bootstrapacitor site and YFratrinator Google group, but they're both gone.

I'm thinking of something like "Review my site," but more than just a one-off, maybe a little more like YC itself.
Why does this site require https?
Personally, I like languages that treat methods as first class objects and allow for the passing of them just like any other variable.

Agreed. Which ObjC doesn't entirely do; SELs and IMPs are primitive types rather than objects, which is annoying.
Disclaimer: I am a web developer, so these criticisms include myself.

I feel like so many folks (me included) in the web development community are constantly re-learning new (old) techniques that we all really should have realized long before now.

Though I don't think I would change a thing as I've learned a lot over the past decade that I probably never would have if it not for this community.

Sometimes I just get a sense of deja vú, like none of this is new...

This whole "Unicorn" business for example. I read about this last week, and thought to myself, "Ok... hasn't Apache been doing this with 2.0 for years?"

So isn't this just re-implementing the wheel... yet again, but in Ruby?
>Been wanting to read "Godel ..." for years...
Me too. I have the book but every time I try to read it I go to sleep. (May be I just get in an infinite loop)
EMemcached: an Erlang implementation of Memcached
More constructive questions:

How would you change Apple's development process to have caught this bug, and bugs like it? Do any of you have processes in place for your companies that would catch bugs of this sort?

Sure, you can always add a test for this specific bug, but catching other bugs like it? Anyone have positive bug catching stories to tell?
I'd like to be able to disable rotation in a web-app. Like a meta-tag or something.
Ruby on OS X Conference Videos
This is great advice. I'm going to take advantage of any/all available resources and opportunities. I know they're out there I guess its just hard to find them. I am going to talk to my academic adviser and see how I would go about taking these more interesting upper division courses. I know I'm not a typical college student; I know what I want to do and I will break this mundane cycle that my peers are in to pursue it. Pushing the limits is in no way going to hurt me, it can only help.

Thanks mbrubeck and HN!
> When the Arcade machine was being written, the CEO of Data East apparently wouldn't start a meeting without challenging the person to a 2 player version of lemmings

Ha!

I remember the first 2 editions so fondly. Maybe the only game I ever played with my parents (and the whole thing too). I would have been 13-14 at the time, so I'm sure I was generally a pain in the butt at that age, but that was good times.

Also reminds me of the pleasure caused by the slow propagation of information back in the olden days. I remember walking into some random PC-clone store, and discovering Lemmings "Xmas", or Wolf3D for the first time, then playing it with other people in the store. Somehow it seems like it wouldn't have been quite as fun to just see screenshots+youtube links pop up on everyone's RSS feed.
There is no need to use bit.ly on HN.

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/posterous.com+friendfeed.co...

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&...;

http://www.quantcast.com/friendfeed.com
Not sure if this is what you're looking for: http://www.feedbackarmy.com/
"but that is, I assume, something everyone practices before they post, email, or submit" I like your optimism, but I'm guessing the majority of people do not in fact read things aloud before submitting. I'm sure it's different when sending an email to thousands of customers, but the quality of comments on any forum site suggests it's nowhere near universal.
Sorry, this cites a previous discovery of a superconductor at -24F (-31C) from May of this year. If that was actually true I guarantee you would have already heard about it from somewhere more prestigious than a self-published website.
Good, the new data is new enough I can actually find my house now.
Cool technology, thought the editorialization is a little lame. Really? SWAT? Because anything that can track movement will be immediately useful to SWAT? Wouldn't the base-station have to be inside the building? The author could have tried just a little bit harder to envision a use.
From that link:

Since outer space is full of superconducting elements and compounds, I think they could help explain the increasing expansion rate of the universe (through strong diamagnetism).

Oooooo-kay! (He said, backing away and suddenly remembering a previous engagement.)

Unfortunately, being affiliated with a university is no guarantee that you are not a crank, nor is it a guarantee that you are immune to the danger of misinterpreting your own data. I've met Ivy-League cranks; it is a condition that can arise at any time. And falling hopelessly in love with an optimistic appraisal of your own data is something that happens to everyone, Nobel laureates and freshmen alike.
Patching Your Personal Suck (2005)
The article would be better if it provided a link to the survey as well as resources about SSL (for users and developers).

I've configured https servers (with a cert from Verisign and self-signed) and thought that communication to-and-from those servers was encrypted, and thus secure. Now I'm wondering what I've misunderstood.
Am I missing something or hasn't this already been done by others like Twittermass?
Man, the more Ballmer publicly rebuff suggestions that Google's a threat to them, the more Google actually looks like a legitimate threat to them.
Because it's run by a cypherpunk. And you can use regular HTTP if your browser complains.
When I implemented pretty much the first idea/feedback communities at salesforce.com (http://ideas.salesforce.com), past basic specs, my top ask was for single sign on. I completely agree that our users are doing us a favor by giving us feedback. It's our job to make that as painless and fruitful for them as possible. Also, we had some great people who made it a program that is very tightly integrated with the roadmap planning process. This was at least as important to our success as all the snazzy web 2.0 features we threw in. No point in asking for feedback if you don't make a commitment to deliver on it.
Ahhh lemmings. Literally my first computer game.

A flash-based multiplayer version that allowed users to submit their own maps would be a blast. I'd probably even pay to play.
Yes, stop partying and socializing and use your free time to do the stuff you want. Next question?
It's only "invalid" according to The Man; if you were running a (hypothetical) crypto-anarchist browser you'd have no problem. :-)
Create crap. Write drivel, draw shitty pictures, code a half-assed one-off script.

Biggest obstacle I often have is getting started, that whole "fear of the blank page" thing. But once I get into something I find I can keep rolling, and editing and revising starts to bring out the better stuff.
I don't see why the base station needs to be inside the building. Radio waves go everywhere.

That is, as long as the building isn't a Faraday cage.
Now I admit that I'm locking myself into a unix environment,

Unless you are making an application for users to install, I don't see how this will be problem. Effectively, the only significant OS you are locking yourself out of is Windows and Unix you can get for free and install anywhere.
Well, if it is true then in practical terms energy distribution and storage will never be the same again.

Which is one reason why I won't be holding my breath. 2F is -16.66 degrees Celsius, the current (confirmed, peer-reviewed, reproduced) record is 138K, -135 degrees Celsius. So for this guy to claim a 100+ degree K improvement is nothing short of earth shattering news.

Personally I don't believe a word of it.

This is such a revolutionary breakthrough that if there is only a hint of it being true that within the week there will be major budgets allocated to verify this finding.

The race will literally be on to see if there is a further improvement to be made to get to the holy grail of 'room temperature' super conductivity.

We won't be talking about BC and AD but about pre-sc and post-sc.

--

edited to reflect the status quo in research.
I apologize in advance for my naivete. But when you would be otherwise eligible for a (let's say) $400 weekly unemployment benefit, and you have a side job making $7 a week, why isn't the law such that you can continue to collect the other $393, as long as you're still searching for a real full-time job?
Uservoice has Single Sign-On http://uservoice.com/faq#sso Unfortunately it's only available on the more expensive plans.

Animoto are using it here: http://feedback.animoto.com/pages/9153-general
Apple might dispute this given their position on iPhone jailbreaking.

(I'm not saying you're incorrect, but being right doesn't make it any cheaper to defend yourself against a dedicated opponent with deep pockets.)
It's even more crazy when something like that is a local policy... Try buying a large bread knife when you look <20 in UK -- maybe that's why noodles are so popular for students. Afaik noone forces that rule on the shops around here.

I remember good old times when we were required to bring large scissors and could use a wallpaper knife on some practical lessons in the primary school. Unfortunately that's almost terrorism lesson by today's standards. At least I know I'll have to teach my kids to use those tools at home, so they can create/fix basic stuff without asking for a specialist...