dskhatri

Just confirming.. built with Microsoft technology :)

http://builtwith.com/?http%3A//www.thegatesnotes.com/

Could you please elaborate? I'm sure a lot of hackers who give to the RedCross would be interested to understand your reasons so that they can make better decisions about donating to relief funds in the future.

I actually like the animated links on Google.cn's page. How well would that type of search page fly in the US? I know Japanese media (news, weather, adverts) tend to use a lot of bright colors and cartoon like characters.

Thanks

".. in other markets maybe even a gain"

Google may lose out in other markets as well. Authoritarian governments will become weary of Google even more now.

Google handles 29% of searches in China (vs. Baidu's 62%) [1] Thanks to javed for the reference.

[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100112/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_googl...

This is a huge development. I was just discussing this with friends by email (we should be using Wave) and realized the move, although incredibly noble, could be even more detrimental economically to Google's growth outside the US. Totalitarian governments (of which there are quite a few) will become weary of Google's power and possibly inhibit the company's growth in those countries.

On the other hand, this move will probably placate European countries like France which was recently calling for a tax on Google (and other US companies)[1]

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1041242

It is a controversial statement but it would make sense if he elaborated further. One of my first memorable experiences starting out at college was walking into a computer cluster and finding that every machine ran a variant of Red Hat's Linux. I was taken aback by the freedom the OS provide (the ability to customize every bit of your experience using the workstation). I was also positively taken aback by the community that had adopted this system. Right next door to the main cluster was a room occupied by a group of hackers. Their attitude was like nothing I had seen before. Their doors were always open to anyone who had questions about Linux. They wrote software to make using Linux easier at school. You get that same sense of community from Linux users on the web.

The statement doesn't just apply to software. Think about the Arduino. The project has gained a massive following and created a whole new legion of hardware hackers because it is easy to obtain (designs are open source and collaborative in nature) and there is a strong community behind it (probably as a result of it being open source).

Unfortunately, I have seen these status-hacking methods work outside the improv/acting world. In a large company, the smarter but quiet and submissive employee will lose out to the obnoxious, high-sounding more social one. In social circles, the loud person A who pokes fun at B gains the attention and admiration of the crowd. Pick up artists often use the technique of lowering their target's self-esteem as a method of gaining alpha-status, respect and ultimately winning over their target.

I find it disturbing and often battle with the fact that these superficial methods actually work and can affect a person's ability to get ahead. At one of the previous startup schools, I think I remember that the theme around PG's talk was "be good". It's disturbing because using some of these methods to raise one's status feels "anti-good" and counter-intuitive.

I have been a light Emacs user for a few years now. I was so thrilled about discovering Org-Mode through an HN post [1], I went out looking for other cool Emacs hacks and found this Stackoveflow thread that has a number of them. Generally, I wouldn't link to a Stackoverflow question but this one has a number of great tips.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=651459

The descriptions are on the right..

Thank you for this detailed writeup. It's one of those gems that you find on HN every now and then that makes you appreciate this community all the more.

Where are you getting the $300 figure from? Also, elsewhere in this discussion you say "Yet the iPhone costs more than twice that" (ie >$400, [1]). iSuppli estimates the cost to be $180 including manufacturing and "other" parts[2]. This is very much in line with Apple's typical margins. Apple doesn't sell commodity products so it's no surprise that they could be netting 50% margins (see [3] for iPod cost information). I work in the electronic components industry. The component costs quoted by iSuppli are credible. Companies like Samsung and Apple are able to negotiate very low prices for components from their suppliers. The suppliers are willing to offer components at lower prices and hence sacrifice their profit margins for a couple of reasons: (a) Apple and Samsung buy in large volume (b) Apple and Samsung will always be around. Offering the best prices now is a foot in the door for future business with them

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=996710

[2] http://gigaom.com/2009/12/09/who-is-getting-rich-off-the-iph...

[3] http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2005/tc200...

Something like ladyada's Tweet-a-Watt? (http://www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt/). Device level monitoring makes so much more sense! Especially when a utility provides variable pricing for the electricity. For example, an monitoring unit built into the dishwasher would be able to turn on the appliance when the electricity demand is low and hence the kWh cost is low. But yes, it's a good starting point for Wattvision. Their future releases will probably be smarter and richer in features.

Okay, I can see Wattvision being a useful tool for educating the consumer. I like that they also allow you to look at other households power consumption data. Someday it could lead to a conversation like:

John: Hey neighbor!

Jill: Hey John. What's up with the super-hot weather these days? Good thing I installed that AC unit a few months ago.

John: Oh, you have AC? I do too, but I looked you up on Wattvision and your power consumption is way lower than mine.

Jill: Oh, that's because my unit has a variable speed motor. And it has power factor correction built into it so it draws much less current from the grid.

John: You're so cool Jill!

Yes, but that's not suprising, and not something you need Wattvision to tell you. An iron, a toaster, an electric kettle all consume a lot of power, but you only use these items for a short period of time. A smarter device would be more localized and attach itself and optimize the usage of individual systems like your boiler, house heating unit and HVAC.

I'm honestly really surprised (and a little appalled) at the number of upvotes your comment has received. There's a mob-like response whenever a story comes up about MA or TechCrunch. As far as I can tell, Fusion Garage's response (from this Engadget article) is hearsay as well.

One of the first pages I navigate to when evaluating a product is the About Us page. If I didn't know that Wakemate was a YC funded company I would not take the product very seriously. Luckily the 'How it works' page (http://www.wakemate.com/about/), and the references cited there make up for the absence of an About Us page (that would hint at your credibility - at least say you are YC funded!). I think it's worth a try! Pre-ordered one

You and the responders to your comment have a notable point about the students' crying over spilled milk, but a 32% increase in fees is quite drastic and shocking! The average cost increase for a public 4-year college is 6.2%[1]

[1]http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/208962.html

Clutter-free link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125798004542744219.html?mod=...

Came across this site which might interest other hackers. Entities (companies, individuals, non-profits) list a particular problem they would like solved and offer an award for the solution. Some examples:

"The Seeker is looking for a low cost outdoor localization system that can guide a robot with high accuracy in a residential property that includes obstacles, defined or not defined" http://gw.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/8507361

The opportunity cost would likely be much more than $750 million. Google isn't a nimble, agile startup. AdMob is already a key player in this market[1] serving display ads in apps as well as sites.

[1] Given analysts use AdMob metrics to figure out market shares of various mobile phones

I assume this is what chasingsparks is referring to: http://graphjam.com/

Also related, Google's Data Liberation Front: http://www.dataliberation.org/

"The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products."

They provide information on how to "escape" from a particular service ie. download/migrate data from that service. However, I can't find any indication of whether there is a way to permanently delete all your data from their servers.

Google used goats not too long ago as well: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=588740

Actors sometimes do work for free on small projects. They get an opportunity to add to their acting portfolio/resume. A friend in film school received over 600 responses to an ad looking for actors who would work gratis on his short film. Typically they would get a copy of the film for their portfolio.

Yes, I agree. It would be tough to keep going to a customer with screenshots but without an actual demo app.

Bloomberg presents the research finding in a different light: the article focuses on the fact that 1 compound out of 16000 researched was identified as the most effective at targeting cancer stem cells. However, the main outcome of the research, as NYTimes[1] points out, is that a new screening method has been developed to be able to quickly identify drugs that effectively target only the cancer stem cells. In fact, 32 chemicals were identifed as effective at killing stem cells. Only 1 of these is an approved drug.

The NYT article is more interesting because they mention two schools of thought among cancer researchers: on the one hand, there are researchers who think that only the stem cells must be targeted in order to completely kill off the cancer. They believe chemotherapy is ineffective because it kills all types of cells but fails to completely kill all the cancer stem cells. Even if 99% of the cells are targeted, the presence of remnant stem cells may result in the cancer returning. The other camp takes the view that it is not sufficient to kill stem cells only.

This is just my understanding of the articles. I'm not a biologist in any way & I'd love to read the views about the significance of these findings by hackers more versed with the topic

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/health/research/14cancer.h...

There's a $10 million prize for sequencing 100 genomes in 10 days: http://genomics.xprize.org/archon-x-prize-for-genomics/prize...