Hacker News Reader

awazon Show HN: Charts for Hacker News Polls

That's a good idea for frontpage and best polls.

awazon Show HN: Like Button for Hacker News

That would work if I were to submit from a single account but not to submit on your behalf.

awazon Google blames a Human for its Robot Car Accident

This is interesting. So Google can claim that 160K mile of automated driving with the driver on-board and a single accident is blamed on the human.

awazon Google blames a Human for its Robot Car Accident

I am not disturbed. Why would a human driver be driving an automated car? What is the security mechanisms that allow such cars to be in the streets? Isn't there a need for independent monitoring for such experiments?

awazon How I explained MapReduce to my Wife?

Me second

awazon Researchers find avenues for fraud in Square

Since Square adapter interfaces with mobile devices using the audio input, the swipe basically produces a sound (corresponding to the credit card) that is fed to the mobile device. By recording and replaying the sound, the credit card transaction can be completed without swiping the card.

But that does not mean frauds exploit it easily.

Any one who has access to the credit card already has the credit card numbers and the security code. One could always use that information and order items online. But there are security mechanisms that protect such usage. The audio recording is identical to storing the credit card number. Square uses other mechanisms (like capturing location of each transaction) to deter fraud behavior.

awazon Federal Circuit Slams Patent Troll

Should we consider this a ray of hope or an exception? Also, as per the article, the case concluded last week. I am surprised that other tech media did not cover this given the buzz around patent trolls these days.

awazon Show HN: My weekend project - Chessboard picture recognition

I suggested 2D if he wanted to build a system for himself. May be multi-angle snap-shots or a video capture could be processed for capturing conventional chess boards. But even that would not work for all chess-boards. I have come across some pieces that are different to distinguish.

awazon Show HN: My weekend project - Chessboard picture recognition

I have worked in machine vision projects in past. It's not going to be easy to recognize the pieces as is; I suggest that you use 2D pieces for chess. Even better, use some unique design like this one: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/experimental-chess-s...

awazon Microsoft: We offered Google a joint bid; they said no.

This detail fires back on Google. Google too had a partner for bidding; just that they didn't want to partner with their competitors. They were trying to portray their defeat as a conspiracy which this post proves it was not.

awazon Myths about entrepreneurs

I read few weeks back in Y Combinator FAQ page that the average age of Y Combinator funded entrepreneurs is 26. Vivek's survey found the average age of founders to be 40. It would be interesting to know the average age of Y Combinator applicants.

awazon How an argument with Hawking suggested the Universe is a hologram

I was surprised that the article did not mention entropy even once. It rather used the term 'information content'.

awazon Google’s Schmidt hails the ‘real mobile revolution’ in Asia

Mobile phone is the second technology that has reached the grassroots in Asia, the first being the radio.

Given the wide adoption of mobile phones, people are trying to solve every day problems sans computers.

awazon Zappedy has been acquired by Groupon.

Innovation Endeavors provides some details about what Zappedy does: http://innovationendeavors.com/portfolio/zappedy-3/

awazon Google Says "Let a Trillion Subdomains Bloom"

Yeah, let the trillion sub-domains bloom for this season. The next animal that will come around (panda?) will then decide their fate.

awazon Google's Patent Problems

The original article doesn't mention mathematical constant at all, just mentions dismissive behavior. Do you think Google was following something like what I proposed in another comment in this thread?

awazon Google's Patent Problems

May be this was Google's algorithm during the auction:

while(bid < lobbying_cost) { bid = getMathematicalConstant(current_bid); }

awazon Awesome White Pages for Google+

I mean the initial user distribution was different and then there wasn't a strong competitor. The initial user base was the appeal for the masses.

awazon Awesome White Pages for Google+

I am fully aware of it. The question is what would create the appeal for the common masses.

awazon Awesome White Pages for Google+

The statistics link on the page has the following stats:

Male 698,703 (73.70%) Female 234,504 (24.74%)

and top occupations:

Engineer , Developer , Designer , Software Engineer, Writer , Web Developer , Software Developer, Programmer

Exactly what kind of Social Network is it?

awazon Zoobotics

Here is a link to another specimen that I didn't see in the Zoobotics artice : http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/20/us-robotfish-idUST...

awazon Justin.TV: The Movie

Peter Riche tells us in an exclusive interview that compared to some of the previous movies that have profiled tech startups (i.e. The Social Network), he wanted to find a story where success in the entrepreneurial tech world has helped bring founder friendships closer (as opposed to spurring lawsuits).

After watching Social Network, I was kind of worried about starting a business with friends (or relatives) as co-founders. Is Facebook an outlier in this regard or is it the norm?

awazon How Engineers Create Artificial Sounds to Fool Us

I used the fool word in my reply to show that the story makes a wrong point. Engineers are being smart in Including the sound aspect, customers are being smart in paying attention to the sound as a cue. That means the author of the story is a fool :)

awazon How Engineers Create Artificial Sounds to Fool Us

The engineers are NOT creating artificial sounds to fool customers. As the article describes, customers would not buy a good product just because it does not sound good (which means customers are fools). Engineers are designing the products knowing that their customers are fools.

awazon Cobra Effect: Lionfish-style

I checked your HN karma after reading your comment. It's no surprise that you are a newbie. Ability to reason well is the only credential needed around here.

awazon The 100 Percent Solution: For Innovation in News

A piece of information becomes "news" when it brings a level of surprise (or other emotions) to the recipient. Sun rising from the east is never a news but it would be in the headlines if it ever decided to not do so.

So far, with the traditional media, only limited amount of news could be served within the fixed number of pages or fixed hours of operation. With the wide adoption of digital media, there is no such limitation any more.

So the idea presented in this article is what I would call the long tail of news. Rather than covering just the most surprising news for specific audience, you cover all the news that might be surprising to at-least someone. Compilation of long tail news and the presentation of it to the recipients in an efficient manner is the needed innovation.

awazon Ask HN: Is anyone using IfByPhone or Grasshopper?

I've used IfByPhone and Twilio for a little more than a year for building telephony apps that integrate with software products to improve workflows. You are looking for feedback on their virtual phone system offering which I haven't used first hand.

If your team is tech savvy, OpenVBX from Twilio (http://www.twilio.com/api/openvbx) might be a good option.

You might want to check www.phonebooth.com as well.

Good luck!

awazon 20 minutes with my Chromebook

You missed the point. You can of course choose the Search Engine but not the browser. Chrome calls home frequently. As Matt Cutts outlined in one of his posts(http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-chrome-communication/)

"If you are typing a search or url in the address bar, Google Chrome will talk to the current search service to try to offer useful query/url suggestions."

And since its "only cloud" device, most of the applications you will end-up using are Google products. Mostly because other players aren't yet convinced that all applications should exist in the cloud.

As far as trusting Apple and Microsoft is concerned, I think it is about the business model. Apple and Microsoft make money by selling Products and Software. Google on the other hand makes money by collecting your data. I do not understand why people fail to understand the difference.

awazon House Keys copyable from 200 ft away via camera

Government agencies can open doors in few seconds without taking a picture and creating a duplicate. It takes trained locksmiths few seconds to open doors without breaking it. Its only about will to get in.

awazon Keynesian beauty contest

That explains the recent LinkedIn IPO prices, people trying to guess how much the 'average' people value LinkedIn rather than how much you value it (or the value based on certain indicators)