skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Blatantly copying is a bad idea. Understanding why they're different, and figuring out the motivations behind their (different) choices and then reflecting on the choices you've made for your product is a good idea.

Jason F at 37Signals wrote about this a while back: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1561-why-you-shouldnt-copy-us...
Either way, we've done exactly the same thing throughout the whole period.
Arrington contributed "blueprints" of the device? Does he mean schematics and a bill of materials? Or does he mean pictures that he drew himself?

If he means pictures then I've got some rockin' time machine blueprints for sale. Hit me up...
I have been looking closely for years ever since someone wrote on Wikipedia that I was an "advocate" of the waterfall method. There has NEVER been an "advocate" of the method. Nobody has ever said that strict phase-by-phase progression, with no possibility of iteration, is the right thing to do. Never.

Waterfall has ALWAYS been an anti-pattern.

It has NEVER been a practice that ANYBODY advocated.

Yes, people started with design, then they implemented the design, and then they realized there were mistakes in the design, and sometimes, stupid people refused to admit this and change the design, and then they were called out, and told that that "the waterfall method is discredited" or something like this.

University instructors who "taught" the waterfall method were either grossly misinformed (as if this was considered an accepted practice in the real world), or, more likely, trying to make a point about the anti-pattern.
I have no idea where you got the idea that reflects a company's physical or organizational structure. Not in any company I can think of. The most old-school company I can think of, say, Ford building cars, knows that the very process of building the factory will cause change in the design of the car, and they know that they're going to iterate the design, at least annually, which is something they've done since the 1930s.
Ask HN: Have you ever had a founder quit or had to fire one?
What advice would you have for someone who's in this position?

News delivered Tuesday. Haven't heard from him since then.

He wrote a critical piece of code that is difficult to understand. Losing him is a major setback.

There were 5 of us; now 4.
Apple Countersues Nokia For Copying iPhone
They also have a pretty impressive team: http://cloudant.com/#about
chances it's made with the Google Chart API:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=t:99,01...
How to fail... gloriously
You make a very good point but, in my experience, it is never wise to underestimate the resourcefulness and tenacity of parties that specialize in shark-like tactics (assuming that is indeed the case with Fusion Garage). Yes, parties can and do fold when they run out of resources but the expectation that they will do so, without more, is usually a gossamer-like basis upon which to pursue a lawsuit - this type of strategy can all too easily backfire on a party (and I have seen this happen all too often in the real world of litigation).

By the way, I am not saying that TC's case may not have winnable elements - only that its core case may be relatively weak.
If you just use it for that, you're missing out on a lot.

Yes, technically speaking, it's a glorified RSS feed. But due to the presentation and the way people use it, it's more than that.

Check out, for example, the Dell Outlet. http://twitter.com/DellOutlet Dell made $6.5 million from this Twitter account. Why? Because they actually engage in discussions with their customers. It's an incredibly powerful way to reach people that are buying your stuff. Part of the reason I'm still a Verizon customer is because I got frustrated with their service, complained on Twitter, and within 15 minutes, I got an @reply and then a dm from a rep, who got actual real CSRs to call me, and my stuff got fixed.
You’re forgetting the IM half.
Yes, but it's possible that people got bored and unsubscribed. I have no real idea, just throwing some ideas out there.
Also consider that doctors get kickbacks from the pharmas for prescribing certain medicines, in addition to lots of perks like swag, vacations, etc piled on them by marketing reps.
Fair: Answer with a noun, "I am a computer programmer."

Good: Answer with a verb, "I program computers."

Better: Answer with a verb for myself and a noun for the result, "I program web applications."

Even Better: Answer with a verb for myself, a noun for the result, and another noun for my customer, "I program web applications for doctors."

Best: Answer with a verb for myself, a noun for the result, another noun for my customer, and another noun to describe my customers' benefits, "I program web applications that help doctors give better care to their patients."
My title is "User Interface Engineer". I tell people "I'm a Professional Nerd for (X)".

It shows that I have a sense of humor about my job (a job that to many people is inscrutable).

Many people in our own field don't know the difference between a web designer/developer/programmer/UI/UX/DBA, and I figure that I'll take a crack at whatever needs to get done, so why be limited to a label?

I feel like hacker has too many negative connotations outside our tiny community that 'gets it', especially since I live in DC, which is more traditional about this stuff.
Why do these numbers seem low..? I checked FB only to find that their monthly uniques were 130 million.. Weren't they recently claiming 350 million active users?
Since Pegatron is an Asus subsidiary, the most reasonable interpretation is that they've started out with motherboard designs or other IP licensed from Pegatron/Asus and modified that to suit the device.

Few people would start out with a blank slate when most large potential manufacturing partners can offer decent starting points that are well suited for their manufacturing process (using components they have large volume discounts on; designs that fit their tooling perfectly etc.)

But presumably that is only a small part of the IP for the device, and TC are arguing they own the rights to some or all of the remaining IP.
As mentioned in the TC comments, Bing's cashback program has had some excellent rebates recently (20% cashback from Wal-mart for example) which needs to be taken into consideration.
Since when were buttons obsolete? They're cheap and they give some nice haptic feedback if they're well-designed. I'm typing this comment with buttons on a keyboard, and I'm not too keen to trade it in for a touch-screen keyboard anytime soon.
How does one find dates in the new decade?
BuildAfrica.org
Nobody told me it’s impossible, so I did it
I don't get it. I just read both privacy policies, and they seem pretty much identical.

Asa says in the comments that "Microsoft doesn't connect it to my name, my addressbook, my friends, my email address, my physical location, etc. Microsoft scrubs things like IP address immediately and stores the data for less time."

But the Bing privacy policy specifically says that it does store IP addresses. The only reference to scrubbing IP addresses is that they do so when they hand off their search data to 3rd parties (um, thanks), or after 18 months (just as long as Google). The bit about not linking those searches to the rest of your account info is also specious - the privacy policy only says it stores search terms separate from information that 'directly identifies' a user, but it doesn't say or imply that IP addresses are considered direct identification, and it specifically says that it stores the cookie id associated with the search terms.
Mac and Linux users tend to be more tech savvy, although a (likely significant) chunk of Mac users lie at the opposite end of the spectrum.

We're also at an advantage because it's very clear that the ads that fake the Windows UI are not real system messages telling us to upgrade our antivirus.

Also, "dupe" is entirely correct in this context. Ads on the web are often trying to trick someone into something, outside our world of geeky blogs w/ unobtrusive adsense.
That's the only thing he could be expected to say - regardless of whether the exchange was misrepresented.
didn't russia already cop to this being a failed test?

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/10/world/internationa...
IMO it also shows that people shouldn't worry about adblock (any more than they worry about lynx anyway). The people blocking ads are not clicking on them anyway.
Two things. First, if Arrington can produce the physical prototype that TC developed on its own, that would be a big deal to me. But he'd still have to establish that the device Fusion Garage is producing used IP from their prototype.

Second, I can see this happening. Arrington has an idea for a tablet. He comes up with the basic idea and rough specs. Fusion Garage goes and implements it. In Arrington's view, the device is partly his because he had the original idea. In Fusion Garage's view, the device is all theirs because they did all of the work to create it. Both think the device is "theirs" because they underestimate the contribution of the other.

Arrginton really needs to establish what exactly they did, and demonstrate that it made it into the final device. I'm not sure what his actual contributions are from the claim; coming up with the specs isn't a big deal to me. (Note I'm talking morally and ethically, not legally - as always, I am not a lawyer.)
Not only ads -- we always joke that Firefox users are cheap bastards (although now Chrome is taking over that distinction) -- here are the conversion rates for a small online apparel retailer for the last month:

IE	3.68%

Safari	2.87%

Firefox	2.73%

Chrome	1.96%
H+ Winter 2009 issue: Kurzweil interview, the Chinese singularity, etc.
Now that this subject is open, let me say it: I don't think the term hacker really reflects the concept of Hacker News. Startups are focused on entrepreneurship and revenue, there is a hacker side to it but the hacker aspect is not the central point. If there would be a real hacker news, building exceptional or interesting technology would be more of a central point than entrepreneurship. E.g. Grand Challenge, or some new technology that would change the way internet works.
I custom coded. When I built my latest project I always intended to have comments (but they are not a key feature) and for the most part assumed I would drop disqus in.

Ultimately I couldnt figure out a nice way to integrate disqus tightly into the site - so the custom code added more value. It took about 100 lines. :)

http://bitbucket.org/errant/startupwiki/changeset/e36c46169c...

http://bitbucket.org/errant/startupwiki/changeset/287adfec70...
"Ideas are a dime a dozen and worth what they cost."
This is a really strange press release from Apple... to me it makes Apple sound bad.

First they make the Nokia quote stand out as the most, over their other points. Then Apple uses the word 'reinvent' in the first line of the third paragraph. This is exactly what Nokia are claiming they've done. Let us look at all the things they've reinvented:

* osx, unix clone.

* ipod, mp3 player clone.

* itunes, winamp clone.

* iphone, smart phone clone.

* ilife programs, each are a clone of many existing programs (movie editor, photo editor, sound editor, web page maker etc).

They do a lot of credit claiming for things they didn't invent. If you just listened to Apple PR, you'd expect they invented all of those things. It is really strange that they are proving what Nokia has said about them in their own press release!
You can see the full talk here:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=3...
MS didn't just bundle the browser with the OS, they tied the OS to the browser and claimed that it couldn't be removed. They also routinely set IE as the default browser even when users had chosen otherwise.

Netscape certainly dropped the ball, but MS didn't with the browser wars on merit alone.

Edit: s/with/win
On the one hand, I don't think Twitter numbers can be considered stable at all, because it's not something that people get right away. They also haven't really defined themselves as a company, and the product has so many directions it could go in, any of which could change the growth profile.

But on the other hand, Twitter is something that many people will always find vapid and narcissistic. Facebook has been trying to push people in this direction as well, but they have a compelling feature set that draws people in even if that have to block half of their loud-mouthed friends. Twitter has lots of potential (via their API if nothing else), but even if they can build up their third-party ecosystem to rival Facebook, I don't think you can't capture a mass market with a hodgepodge of tools that user's have to discover and set up for themselves.

Frankly I think Evan and Biz should have sold in the spring.
I used to spend a lot of time figuring out which way I would describe what I did to people who weren't in the industry.

Now I just say that I'm in software, and it turns out that's enough 95% of the time.
It seems obvious to me that this is so. Not because more tech-savvy users (who tend to favor Firefox, Chrome, etc.) are cheapskates but rather precisely because they know what they're doing. Less savvy users are simply paying (via clicking on ads) for more direct help, whereas more savvy users are helping themselves.

Think about it, a less experienced user is more likely to click an ad because they may not have the skills (or the confidence) to track down where to buy the advertised item on their own. Whereas a more experienced user is more likely to be able to go to their favorite online store to find an item, search several sites to find the best deal, look at competing products to compare features, etc.

It's no different than any brick and mortar store. The level of help the sales clerks tend to provide is very disproportionate, some people know exactly what they want and need no help, others need a lot of hand holding. The difference online is that we have a lot more metrics about these sorts of things.
This blog posts seems to prove the opposite: Safari users are most likely to spend:
http://axod.blogspot.com/2009/06/revenue-browser.html
compete.com gives us 50,000 uniques even though we have 600,000 in Google Analytics. Their numbers are just universally low as far as I know.
If I remember right, Compete is only reporting user in the U.S. which explain the low numbers.
The doctor writes the prescription because if he/she doesn't you go to another doctor who will. They don't want to lose your business and are willing to write a prescription to make you happy.

If all the doctors agreed to not write unnecessary prescriptions you wouldn't have this problem but that's unlikely to happen since only a few doctors will deviate to get the extra patients.
Grit: Git in Ruby applications [video]
The assertions (granted, unsubstantiated) were that the gurus aren't putting their CV on web sites for HR departments to find. They are targeting companies they want to work for.

Ward Cunningham is a good name. Lets look at some legendary software engineers...

From Ward Cunninghams's linkedin page, you will see he has held two jobs for a long time: Tektronix for 10 years and his own company for 18 years. Tek was his initial hire and he had two short stints at Microsoft and the Eclipse Foundation. He probably applied traditionally to Tek (first job). His titles at Microsoft and Eclipse Foundation make me wonder if he went through the HR department for those jobs. Ditto for AboutUs. Obviously, he did not interview for Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc.

Linus Torvalds worked at Transmeta for 6 years, OSDL for 3 1/2 years, and Linux Foundation for 6 1/2 years. I'm sure he never had a traditional job application/interview encounter.

Wikipedia lists Ken Thompson as working for Bell Labs, Entrisphere, Inc, and Google. I'm willing to bet he didn't have to run the standard Google gauntlet to get hired there.

Wikipedia lists Dennis Ritchie working for Lucent Technologies (currently) and Bell Labs. Not much resume shoveling going on there.

The Wikipedia page on Brian Kernighan is somewhat vague, but lists Bell Labs and the Computer Science Department of Princeton University.

Guido van Rossum went through more companies than the other gurus listed here. Again, I'm sure the Google interviewers were more nervous than he.

Yukihiro Matsumoto has only worked for NaCl according to LinkedIn and Wikipedia.

David Heinemeier Hansson is another example: he founded and built a Danish online gaming news website, which he ran until 2001. I believe he went from there to 37Signals. He did some contract work for them and was hired on the basis of his obvious talent. Again, non-traditional.
Scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children
Canada has a new wireless carrier
I tell people I program robot submarines.

And wait for the awesome to hit them.
We're getting 9.4% on our sci-fi game. Geeks do love Chrome.
DC3 Music Group Launched Creed’s Live Concert On The Cloud
Creately Blog - Making the Creately Experience Better
I don't think you'd have grounds for suit for just exploring an idea - but TC and Fusion Garage did a whole lot more than just exploring.

There's no obvious line to draw, but certainly there's a real difference between talk and a whole lot of work, and outright fraudulent behavior, which (from TC's account) is what happened in this case.
Business Insider seemed to notice some time back that two things are great for bumping up page views: manufactured controversy and slideshows.

Shame too. It was a decent-enough rag before they started optimizing for hits.
Mcarter's js.io at master - GitHub
The Story of Cap & Trade and why it does not work
Apple countersues Nokia for patent infringement
That is interesting. But to determine whether a certain set of users is cheaper than another a better metric would be to determine the per visit value of a user. This would take into account that Safari or Chrome users might purchase larger quantities or higher value items, even though overall they might purchase less frequently.
Unless the code is difficult to understand because of what it actually -does-, rewrite it and move on. You'll be better for it in the long run with people who write understandable code.

At least you didn't have one founder quit, then wind up having to fire the other (woo, Apple).
"It was great! I could put GOTO on an empty line and write additional code on a separate piece of paper. I know all programmers are laughing reading this, but I was happy that I didn't have to squeeze several lines of code into one line in the notepad anymore!"

That reminds me of line numbers, counting by 10s, and then using line 15 if you needed to put something in between 10 and 20. I am just glad I discovered gosub before goto.
We've gained followers over same period.
Actual links instead of <censored> redirection:

http://www.danvk.org/dygraphs/

http://www.highcharts.com/

http://cartographer.visualmotive.com/
Perhaps you are unacquainted with the long, steady stream of failed enterprise projects. Many of these were build with the waterfall as the primary model. Should the project be successful, any "iterations" are called maintenance, often staffed with deliberatly junior people, with little or no access to the overall intent of the project. Maintenance is thought to be hideously expensive in this context, and rightly so.

So you have worked for (MS) and built organizations that have a far better idea of how to build software than the waterfall method, but believe that there are advocates who believe in the waterfall way of doing things. Fortunately it is becoming less frequent.
This whole discussion just looks to me as IT everywhere, not just only on the financial "industry".
"All of Apps probably takes up less than 1% of Google's data centers, which have a million-plus servers."

a million servers - anyone know if this is accurate or hype/guesswork? I've heard from a couple of facebook guys that they have 50k+ servers, so 20 times that for google is conceivable I guess, but it seems like an awfully large number.
Good points, but SQL is 'only' a language, not a protocol. Servers still need to agree how to expose an HTTP API that could take SQL. Ideally such API would be RESTful.
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Was ExxonMobil wrong 'before'? "ExxonMobil is not a climate change denier"
Good question. A mix of online dating and activities (cooking classes, hiking groups). Also, lucky breaks with friends of friends.
another fossil discovery... still no hole in evolution theory... go figure
Here's a demotivational post :) No one says it's not possible to learn programming this way. In fact, I'm sure almost everyone here has a similar story (mine even includes the paper programming). What I wish I found out earlier than I did is that no one finds this impressive.
The performance of Haskell's Data.Text unicode library
Not true in any country. All countries recognize oral agreements as legally binding contracts.
I don't want to sound cynical, but what doesn't work is the producction of oil via using tar sands and polluting most of Canada's MidWest.
I am a bit disappointed by this abstraction, especially given what power Clojure gives for creating DSLs. This "SQL DSL" seems to resemble a lot on how database handling works in Java.

The people behind ClojureQL should take a look at Python's SQLAlchemy or Ruby's Sequel for inspiration on how to create kick ass SQL abstractions.
it does seem a lot more verbose than it should be.
This was a very poorly written article. Nowhere in the article does it mention that these stats were adjusted for market share of each browser. Of course IE generates more clicks -- it has more users.

And what kind of math is being used in the 2nd paragraph that states that 1.05% is 80% greater than 0.21%? Or that 1.05% is 50% greater than 0.50%? No... that's double, or, in other words, 100% more likely. Or, in other words, IE users generate 200% of what Safari users do.
I would say, when other hackers (or computer programmers) call you hackers, because normal people don't even know what an hacker is.
He's supposed to be a journalist. It's a massive conflict of interest and in traditional media would be a breach of professional ethics.
Challenged (by Stuart McMillen)
How many regular HN readers think of themselves foremost as computer programmers (by whatever name)?

The responses posted here so far make it sound like the solid majority. Yet there must be more people on here who, like me, just happen to do a lot of programming in the course of pursuing other goals.

In short, I tend to tell people "I do xxx, which involves writing a lot of code" (rather than saying "I'm a programmer"). For this reason, I often find the self-representation here a bit strange. I tend to think of programming as just a tool to get work done, rather than the work in of itself. A lot of HN comments read to me as if a carpenter described his job as "swinging a hammer."
"Drop In" to the Zone
I wholeheartedly agree with the first part of this statement. I've been called a "hacker" plenty of times, and once that happens, I say it's fair to call yourself one, but not before.

No one would have ever called me a software developer. There are many kinds of hackers, and not all of them are coders or developers.
I disagree. I would only even consider using a schemaless DB in a case where I need high performance logging of unstructured data. We use it at work as a hot cache and as first line click & impression tracking.

I wouldn't be remotely impressed that it could serve a blog. It would be meaningless to me.
Well I think Arrington is actually profiting from increased traffic. Drama and gossip is good for a blogger's bottomline.

He also has a lot of pride invested here.

So yes, Arrington is out to destroy them, and he wants to send a message saying more or less, "Don't fuck with me."

And he's smart enough to know that there's no such thing as bad publicity.