Hacker News Reader

Slashedon Why read books if we can’t remember what’s in them?

I'd say it depends on what and how one is reading.

It's not the same case when I read a programming book with examples, in contrast to novels. I tend to remember the former better because I'll usually try out most examples from the book.

Slashedon GwtQuake: Taking the Web to the Next Level (HTML5+WebGL Quake)

When I launched it, it was drawing fps already.

The command to show FPS is "/fps 1".

Slashedon GwtQuake: Taking the Web to the Next Level (HTML5+WebGL Quake)

I thought this was another April Fools', and I was wrong. I've installed and it magically works.

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9234/screenshot20100401at23...

Can't believe it.

Slashedon No Really: Microsoft giving away Windows Image with redistribution allowed

First time I stumbled upon this version of Windows about half a year ago. I actually installed it on one of my laptops. When it's BOOTed, the "GUI" is pretty much like in Safe-Mode, only in full display resolution, i.e. a blue background and a console window. I don't remember exactly, but it was missing a lot of libraries.. so I couldn't actually install much software. Though, I'm sure it's possible to install all the missing libraries via Microsoft's website.

Slashedon Tell HN: U.S. gov't blacklisted all DNS entries pointing to Linode machines

Heard that the top level domain linode.com was black holed due to its association with malicious activity [...]

Reading this sentence, reminded me of Google using Linode when that incident happened with Chinese hackers.

Slashedon YCRFS 6: iPad Applications

OK, if Apple will release such an app... let's not start this topic. Instead, consider this example:

I've built a software that allows publishers to distribute their books on many devices at once: Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Sony Reader, etc. Do you think Apple and Amazon will allow me to release such apps for their devices? I doubt it. The only way left for me is to write it as a webapp. Such control is bad for free market in general.

Slashedon Achievement Porn

I have always thought that achievement is when one accomplishes his/her goal, be it $1B worth startup or a level-up in a game.

Though, I think the author is talking about useful achievements. This gets a bit tricky: it's all about how you see the world. In my opinion, I would make a useful achievement when I influence people to take some action. This could be: subscribing to my webapp or even making people follow me on twitter, if that was my goal. The key word here for me is - influence. Nevertheless, achievement is all about reaching your goal. At least that's how I see it.

Slashedon Use open source? Then you're a pirate

How open-source can be seen as a threatening factor for capitalism? In my opinion, thanks to open-source, entry barrier for startups is much lower. Even though, 99% of startups fail - 1% will create new workplaces or will be acquired by another big capitalistic company.

Slashedon Nginx, the little Russian web server taking on the giants

Coming up next are [...] probably new embedded languages: Javascript or Lua.

This is interesting. On Sysoev's personal website, there is an article "Why Google V8 is not suitable for embedding into a server yet"(Russian) http://sysoev.ru/prog/v8.html

Basically, he's saying that V8 was developed with Google Chrome in mind, so it's not an easy task to embed it with any other software. The main point is, V8 can't handle memory allocation errors - it just crashes the process, which is suitable for Google Chrome but not for a server.

Slashedon Ask HN: help alpha test our new dating site (it's based on books)

it's based on books means one lists book titles to describe his/her character? Interesting to see how some people would abuse this to become popular.

Slashedon An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash

Exactly. When I was reading this, the first thing that came to my mind was that my MacBook has a multi-touch trackpad. Probably the solution would be to enable a mouse pointer over flash content.

Slashedon I need to find out how to finish anything I start. Help me. Please.

I agree with you. Nevertheless, I do understand your point based on my own experience. It would be nice, if you would provide examples, though.

Slashedon Russian Pres. Medvedev is looking to build "Silicon Valley" near Moscow

Is this really true? I may be wrong, but from what I've heard - India is perfectly safe in a few cities.

Perhaps, I didn't get into any trouble in Russia(and I was not only in Moscow, but in small 200km away from Moscow cities) because I'm white and speak fluent Russian. Anyway, as the saying goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Once, everything was built from just an idea.

Slashedon Russian Pres. Medvedev is looking to build "Silicon Valley" near Moscow

Yesterday, I came back from Russia. Though this wasn't my first time there. The first thing you notice there, is that there's plenty of illegal competition. In one of the biggest shopping centers in Moscow, there is a shop just a side of an authorized Apple reseller that tries to sell you an iPhone (which is actually a chinese TVPhone).

Apart from this, I really do think that Russia needs its own Silicon Valley with VCs and Incubators from U.S. There are many talented people with innovative ideas and products.

Speaking of corruption level and unsafe environment, I don't think that India is better, but nevertheless they have their own SV with well-established VCs from the States.

Slashedon Let’s not communicate. Let’s live.

Seriously, if a user has only an email and Skype account(it's true for me, and in my experience, it's true for many other people) and doesn't have FB, Twitter, etc., does it mean he/she won't be able to use this feature?

I know there was always a lot of potential in technology that incorporates the "don't make them think". But honestly, do you really want a software to choose a gift for your girl friend? I want my personal stuff to be private and personal.

P.S. I'm not criticizing or anything - actually, I always admire software that changes to fit to a user's needs, not the opposite. But managing relationships.. No, thank you. :)

Slashedon A new kind of freemium: Give away the whole, sell the pieces

I don't see anything new here.

Actually, it reminded me of an example from an audiobook I listened to a few months ago about the Freemium model.

There was an example of one of the first Gillette's marketing campaigns. Basically, they gave away blades for free but to use them you had to buy a razor.

Slashedon Subscriptions are the New Black

What about 'pay for what you use' model?

Isn't this somewhere in between of subscription and one-time payment? Users still get the sense of 'ownership' and based on a product, businesses can get payments almost as if it was a subscription service.

Though I absolutely understand that this model can't fit all, but I find it to be a good option to consider.

Slashedon Ask HN: What's your problem?

Instead of writing code in Objective C, you can try to use something like PhoneGap( http://phonegap.com/ ). Though I'm not sure if it's suitable for making games and other graphic intensive stuff.

Slashedon YC applications open for summer 2010; note earlier deadline

When I applied about a year ago at TechStars, I was a single founder. I had a meet-up with David Cohen from the TechStars and asked him on this. He told me: "It's very difficult to run the business being a single founder. You should probably keep on searching and then just email me if anything has changed".

While I do believe that successful business can be created by a single founder, I don't think that this is an issue when you're searching for someone to invest in your business. Anyway, I wish you good luck.

Slashedon Realism in UI Design

I use home button to open the Google homepage whenever I need to close all tabs in browser without closing the browser itself. So the Google homepage in that opened tab is like a placeholder. Anyway, I have no specific reason for doing this - it's just a habit.

Slashedon Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter

Well, here's the link to translation on Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddg3849f_19kq9rz6gv

I've posted it on my LiveJournal blog with pointing to your article and my translation on Google Docs, here: http://vslashed.livejournal.com/9110.html

Slashedon Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter

May I ask you for permission to translate this article to Russian? I'll drop you a link.

Slashedon VCs that use checklists are more effective

But finding a good idea is apparently not all that hard, Smart learnt.

Can someone share this know-how with us, please?

If you were to invest in Google in its early days, would consider a yet another search engine a good idea?

So basically, a good idea means that you're better than your competitors?

Or if you created something unique, how do you know it's going to work on the market?

Slashedon Need to refresh your math skills? From basic algebra to calculus and beyond.

My math skills were always bad. I mean, even though I had one of the best scores in school, I could never explain why it works, e.g. why 9^1/2 is the same as sqr(9).

Since I want to self-study the Quant Finance, I decided to refresh and develop my math skills up to the Calculus. This website is amazing! Not only it's a good refresher, it's the best source of knowledge created by one man.

Slashedon Google Hack Attack Was Ultra Sophisticated, New Details Show

I don't really get the part with Russian nested dolls.

Was it like this?:

For example, there is a code which is encrypted three times. And that crypt-code by itself is executable which decrypts itself into another executable, and so on.

If this is true - I'm really impressed.

Slashedon Ask PG: What have I done wrong?

The same here. I had started a topic on this before and some people assured me that it will probably get back working, as they had this issue before as well.

Personally, I don't care much about this. Though when I start a topic here asking for help, I feel that I should thank those who helped me by upvoting their comments.