Hacker News Reader

danielhon An urgent appeal from git-scm.com maintainer Scott Chacon

In case you wonder what the fuzz is about: the page has been changed in the meantime.

This is how it looked: http://i.min.us/idDeBk.png

Meta: I'm reposting the link originally posted by recoil [1] because I just spent 5 minutes skimming the comments.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2018992

danielhon What's missing from this list of Y Combinator-like accelerators/incubators?

HackFwd, based in Hamburg, Germany, active in Europe http://hackfwd.com/

danielhon The Benefits of Exercising Before Breakfast

Some people can eat something immediately after exercising, some can't.

When I run in the morning I usually rest for a few minutes to cool down, take a shower and then have breakfast. But you can eat immediately after you finished exercising if you feel like it.

danielhon My first tiny "weekend project": readable text hosting. Useful?

I definitely do, but just for record, it's the browser not rendering the white space. It is there if you look in the page source.

danielhon My first tiny "weekend project": readable text hosting. Useful?

    $ ./tidypub -t "How about this?" < tidypub
    http://tidypub.org/doHLm

This is a python script I just wrote. Unfortunately, the white space gets lost. Try https://gist.github.com/721676

danielhon Clever bike lock scales light posts

I can confirm that the part of the video starting at 1:20 is actually airing as advertising on German TV.

It's nice to see that this is a real device and not just CGI.

danielhon Good blog discussing algorithms and data structures

One thing that strikes me as odd is that this blog is completely focused on sharing "technical interview questions and tips." I just skimmed a few of the posts and there seems to be little to no mention of a practical application of the algorithms, only "asked in interview at X, Y and Z."

When interviewing candidates for PHP web development position, I used to ask simple questions about simple data structures. They were adapted from an assigment about stacks and linked lists from the 1st year of my CS studies. I was totally surprised that most candidates were absolutely clueless.

Without doubt, there are practical applications of knowledge about data structures and algorithms. I just wonder how relevant this knowledge is for an (entry-level) developer position and wether this kind of question is a good fit for interviews. Any opinions?

danielhon SSH Commands / Tricks

25a) Copy stdin to clipboard on Mac

ssh user@host cat /path/to/some/file | pbcopy

danielhon Most coders have sleep problems, need 'hygiene and care'

The test subjects were 91 software engineers [...].

[...] no fewer than 20.9 per cent [...] and a further 35.2 per cent [...]

Sorry, but I can't take a study serious that has less than 100 participants and presents results with a place after the decimal point.

danielhon Dropbox (YC S07): Simple Tasks for Extra Space (768MB total)

There is a new feature called selective sync, which is available in the pre-release (>0.8) version of Dropbox [1].

https://www.dropbox.com/help/175

danielhon For 18 minutes, China hijacked 15 percent of the world’s Internet traffic

You are right, this explanation of public key encryption is wrong. Maybe this stems from misunderstanding by the author, or is just the result of oversimplification.

However, that threat of Chinese authorities sniffing on SSL traffic is real. Just remember the root certificate issued by the China Internet Network Information Center that ended up in Firefox, see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1244444

danielhon The 3 Programming Languages you need to Know

IMHO it is more important that you can reason why you chose a language as your Happiness/Hacking/Bread-n-Butter languange, than which language you chose. I think it's perfectly valid to have a language in more than one category.

danielhon Python Patterns - An Optimization Anecdote

It's a whole different story if the input gets longer and the quadratic complexity kicks in. Just change the testdata like this:

  testdata = range(256)*100

Result:

danielhon Ask HN: Show me your Half Baked project

http://analytics4i.appspot.com Access your Google Analytics account from the iPhone. More prototype than half baked

danielhon Why Germans have higher productivity and longer vacations

You are right. Although your healtcare is paid by the employment agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit), if you are unemployed.

danielhon Why Germans have higher productivity and longer vacations

Actually, it's only 24 days if you have six work days in a week. For a 5-day-week, it's 20 days per year minimum.

danielhon Ask HN: Pivot Or Kill it?

Even if you don't want to pursue the idea any further, I would not let the app die, unless it costs you a significant amount of money to run the site. Why not keep it as showcase for WebStartupper?

Two comments on the page itself: $10 seems steep, how did you find that price point? Your layout does not use the available screen space and requires unnecessary scrolling. It also looks broken on the contact page.

danielhon Ask HN: Cleaning a MacBook by submerging it in distilled water?

Even if you use distilled water, make sure to also remove the on-board battery. (I'm not sure if the current MB still have one).

danielhon A computer virus with an entirely new purpose

RAM doesn't hold memory very long after it's been powered down, but be aware that it doesn't forget everything immediately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_boot_attack

danielhon Fun with Fingerprint Readers

In a more recent article from 2007, the problem still exists.

http://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2007/umsonst-im-supermarkt

danielhon Fun with Fingerprint Readers

A fingerprint is actually worse than a password. You can't change your fingerprints and you leave them everywhere. You don't go around sticking post-its with your unchangeable password everywhere.

danielhon Ask HN: What Vim Plugins do you use?

* NERD_tree : Tree navigation

* gnupg : Plugin for transparent editing of gpg encrypted files.

Not a plugin, but related: my .vim directory/.vimrc is a symlink to a directory/file in my Dropbox folder, to keep my plugins and settings in sync on multiple PCs.

danielhon Thoughts on the Posterous hack

You can install a bookmarklet to view source

http://fettig.net/weblog/2007/07/02/view-source-for-safari-o...

danielhon 'First to Do It' vs. 'First to Do It Right'

The existence of a front-facing camera may fairly be considered a “catch up” feature on iPhone 4. But the ability to use the front-facing camera to actually make video calls is first on the iPhone.

I once saw a guy standing in the subway, looking on the floor, gesticulating like crazy. I though the guy was either drunk or mentally ill.

As I left the subway, I realized that the guy was holding a phone in his hand. I could glimpse on the display and saw another person gesticulating.

Apparently the guy was deaf and was talking in sign language in a video chat. On a subway, which probably had no Wifi. That was in 2007.

I was amazed by technology (and felt like an idiot for the snap judgement).

danielhon Freeing Europe's top tech talent to build pioneering companies

I think all they wanted to imply is that they 'free' you from worrying about paying the bills and allowing you focus on your startup idea by matching your current salary. But I agree that the wording is unlucky and can be easily be misinterpreted.

danielhon Ask HN: Taking my project to it's full potential

I assume your project is the site you talked about in an earlier submission. If that is the case, here are a couple of observations:

The site looks very clean and I think another one or two ads would be ok, as long as they are relevant and of high quality. The current ad for screen protection is a good example.

I find the search to be a bit confusing. I would putting "type" at the top would help. I thought I had to choose a brand first, as it was not immediately clear to me that the categories are independent. I would rather search for a black leather case than for a case made by i-nique.

Use A/B-testing to evaluate changes to the site.

Random ideas: become an affiliate of a company that makes customized cases. Enter the itunes affiliate program, add a badge with the iPad app of the day or something similair. Make a dedicated site if one the non-case products gets a lot of traffic, e.g. an ad for screen protection.

I'm intentionally a bit vague because you didn't name the site. You might want to post the URL to get more answers.

Edit: added some more concrete examples.

danielhon The RIAA? Amateurs. Here's how you sue 14,000+ P2P users

My ticket gets checked less then monthly and I commute to work daily. The monthly ticket costs at least 50€, the penalty is 40€. From a mathematical point of view, it makes no sense to buy a ticket.

There are a couple of caveats. When I don't have a ticket, e.g. because I forgot my wallet, I'm on a constant lookout and the train ride becomes really stressful. If you get caught several times they might press charges against you, so it is not feasible to go without ticket on a regular basis anyway. And last but not least, I'm using a service, so I pay for it.

danielhon How I became Ryuichi Sakamoto's guitarist

Even if you have no clue who Ryuichi Sakamoto is, the lessons learned listed at the end are really universal:

  - being in the middle of things increases your chances for opportunities 
  - everything great that happens in your career starts with someone you know
  - when you hear of an opportunity you want, you have to go for it completely, over-the-top, not casual, and work your ass of to get it
  - the tiniest detail can derail everything

danielhon Attn: Startup Founders, You Need a Hobby

I'm a runner too, but I found out that it is not the best activity to stop thinking about a topic. My mind keeps wandering around, unless I run so fast that I'm totally exhausted for the rest of the day.

As I recently discovered that activities which require your undivided attention work better for me. My meditation is motorcycling and downhill biking :)

danielhon Thoughts on Flash

I'm afraid quite the opposite is the case:

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.

IMHO, this sentences leaves no doubt that Apple does not only target Adobe, but any kind of layer they consider harmful for their platform.