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qFon Nodejs and MongoDB, A Beginner's Approach

This guide really shows what I think is a big problem with a lot of Node guides, they don't go beyond the first 5 minutes.

There are a ton of guides on how to set up a webserver in 20 lines, but hardly any on how to (properly) handle a lot of async callbacks and requests etc.

qFon Ask HN: Why don't more UK graduates want to join start-ups?

I'm currently a student (in Holland), and I've been to a few recruitment fairs and if I were to get an email or see a flyer about another one I would probably not even read it. Most recruitment fairs are just terrible. Companies will send the prettiest girls they can find in their HR and PR departments with the sole goal of getting your contact info plus some buzzwords so they can add those to their database. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pretty girls, but they're not actually interested in me as a person nor do they have a lot of knowledge about the company which usually makes recruitment fairs a big waste of time.

On campus presentations on the other hand are a fantastic way of putting yourself on the radar. I don't mean the recruitment fairs that some Uni's will have on campus, but rather smaller events. I recently went to the final presentation of a phd project and there were 4-5 companies giving a short talk what they did in that field and afterwards they had stands with demos and the actual people who get their hands dirty were there to talk to you (extensively). To me the latter (where it's directly related to a topic I might be interested in) is much more interesting and inspiring than some impersonal recruitment fair.

qFon Steve Jobs to Obama: “You’re headed for a one-term presidency”

"the European system"? The systems in individual European countries are about as different from each other as any of them are different from the US system.

One attempt to somewhat align the different European systems for higher education was the ECTS [1], but even that isn't quite perfect..

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Credit_Transfer_and_Ac...

qFon Google confirms Android 4.0 ICS is open source

According to this[1] data Honeycomb is <2% of used Android versions. With the versions that 98% of the devices run being open I'd say it's a bit more than just touting about it..

[1] http://developer.android.com/resources/dashboard/platform-ve...

qFon Mojang win right to use the name "Scrolls" for their upcoming game

"Trademark offensive" is a somewhat coloured representation of the situation. See; http://notch.tumblr.com/post/8519901309/bethesda-are-suing-u... and http://notch.tumblr.com/post/10990169550/a-short-response

qFon Mojang win right to use the name "Scrolls" for their upcoming game

Scan of the verdict: http://i.imgur.com/q33mW.jpg (in Swedish)

Edit: and a summary of it in English; http://i.imgur.com/t8s3p.png

qFon Carnegie Mellon face recognition study has unsettling results

Remember that this is done using clear full-frontal pictures, FRT drop significantly in accuracy with even the smallest change in angle. Not to mention sunglasses, (facial) hair obscuring parts of the face and different lighting conditions.

Current techniques that try to deal with such variation need several (clear) pictures from different angles to build a model of a face to be able to recognize a face.

I'd go with decades rather than years before the limitations mentioned are resolved.

qFon Carnegie Mellon face recognition study has unsettling results

"Unsettling" might be a overstating it a bit. The first slideshow[1] explains (on slide 38, Limitations) that face recognition techniques still have a long way to go. More clearly stated on slide 39:

"Face recognition of everyone/everywhere/all the time is not yet feasible. However: Current technological trends suggest that most current limitations will keep fading over time"

[1] http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/face-recognition-study-FA...

qFon YC Office Hours at TC Disrupt [Live]

I would've loved to hear some more from Harj, he got some good questions in but it seemed to me he had a hard time actually hearing the interviewees (and vica versa). Plus Paul's enthusiasm probably didn't make it easier to get a question in (not meant as critique towards Paul). -- It's really interesting and it has to potential to transfer a lot of startup/business related knowledge in a short amount of time. But it could definitely be optimized (better seating arrangement/better sound). Perhaps it takes away some of the spontaneity, but picking more suitable startups beforehand and perhaps a 5min briefing for the interviewers so you can get to the point more quickly would go a long way.

I've done a bit of research on how to transfer expertise and I feel that this (public office hours) really is an effective way to do just that, you can learn a lot from this, even if you're not the interviewee.

qFon British Discuss Limiting Social Media to Fight Crime

In this paper they make a pretty compelling case as to why limiting/censoring media would actually be counter-productive and make the riots worse. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1909467

I have yet to find any research that shows that censoring would have the desired effect, which to me shows how dangerous politicians can be. Proposing such extreme measures based on gut feelings rather than sound research could seriously blow up in their face.

qFon Data Without Borders logo contest

Seeing that the project in question is mostly aiming at NGO's and non-profits I'm assuming that 'data without borders' is not a commercial enterprise. In which case it's not uncommon to have these sorts of contests where the 'reward' is meant as a 'thank you' rather than a full compensation.

From a purely economical/business perspective you're (kinda) right, but from a human/charity perspective it seems rather harsh to consider this an 'insult'..

qFon 8,000,000 patents and nothing has changed

http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Giant_cheesecake_fallacy

qFon Ask HN: Why is it so easy for Anonymous to hack websites like that of Sony?

Neither, making a 100% sure that every security hole is plugged takes time, and as such money. Corporations simply do not want to pay extra for this (in most cases).

The Anonymous guys on the other hand do it in their free time and as such have a far greater amount of time available to find bugs than the developers had to find&fix them.

On top of that most "hacks" by Anonymous are done using automated tools that find and exploit SQL Injection vulnerabilities. Combine that with that Anon doesn't publicize about the times they don't get in, it's easy to make it look like you know what you're doing. But if they find a SQLi vulnerability in 1 in every 10.000 websites they 'test' it's suddenly not that impressive any more.

qFon Ask HN: How can I do something meaningful?

This one; http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2668346

There are actually a few startups mentioned there which fall in the category that the poster is looking for.

qFon A note to Google recruiters (and on Google hiring practices)

The key element that you're missing is 'and brushed up on the fundamentals.', nobody is saying that Skiena is the only source you should be learning and that you only need to know what is in that book.

How I read recommendations like that is that it is probably a book that gives a good overview of the different topics that might be relevant. Of course for every separate subject there is probably a better resource, but that's not the point.

Preparing isn't the same as going about and learning complete new things, preparing is making sure that all the stuff you've learned in the past is fresh in your memory and ready to be used. In which case a book that gives you a quick overview does the job perfectly.

qFon Nearly Half of All College Grades Are A's

I have no data to back this up but anecdotally I once had a professor explain how some, if not most, professors would adjust their grading to get to a specific average for exams and essays.

However we use numbers (1 till 10, 10 being best) here and from my understanding they would try to average it around 7.5. Having all your grades an 8 (or higher) translates to graduating cum laude, basically turning cum laude into 'just above average'.

I assume this is due to management tactics that involve investigating classes that deviate from grade averages rather than trying to judge based on course quality.

qFon Spotify launches in the US

Interesting that the price is 4,99 USD, while in Eurozone it's 4,99 EUR. So it's actually cheaper for Americans.

I know it's common for products originating in the USA (games, electronics, etc.) to make the USD -> EUR conversion 1:1 but it's interesting to see it's also done the other way around.

I am not complaining though, Spotify is an awesome service and well worth the money!

edit: Seems there's more people who noticed the same, it's even the same with GBP, which has an even bigger difference than the Euro.

qFon A git implementation in pure JavaScript

Because you can. I've made far more useless stuff simply because I felt it would be interesting or a challenge to make. Which in turn are usually the projects I learn the most from.

qFon Interview with key LulzSec hacker

Personally I feel that you're being a bit too optimistic. LulzSec was much louder about the fact they did it for the 'lulz' rather than for any noble agenda. Encouraging people to log in to random people's FB account and ruin their relationships serves no purpose. Interestingly enough @Anon_central recently tweeted a qualification about their supporters (which has a great overlap with LulzSec), which to me shows that you're being too optimistic [1]. Especially considering that Anon is supposed to be more ethical compared to LulzSec..

[1] https://twitter.com/#!/Anon_Central/status/87402917006557184

qFon Ask HN: What's this new black bar at the top of the page?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2712469

There's also a search function at the bottom ;)

qFon Ask HN: what's the black bar on top of HN?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2712469

qFon Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?

I wouldn't call it rudeness, it's more a habit, you might find it rude, but that is your interpretation. Holland is a really small country that survives by trading with other countries. The countries around it are all much bigger and tend to want to speak their own language (German, French, English) so it has become common that the Dutch person adapts instead of forcing the other person to speak Dutch.

Though funnily enough I will (during the summer) quite often get addressed in German when I enter a shop, at which point I haven't even said anything yet nor do I speak German.

qFon Ask HN: What documentaries are worth watching?

Any documentary by Louis Theroux, true gems when it comes to documentaries; http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0857621/

He will surprise you every time with the kind of stuff he asks and that people will give him actual answers, really great stuff.

qFon Telstra Fears LulzSec Attacks, Hesitates On Internet Filter

Anon has somewhat of a cause they're fighting for, they are pretty consistent when it comes about picking targets and their motives. But despite the amount of media attention it still feels like a drop on a hotplate to me.

LulzSec on the other hand just wants 'lulz', they'll try to hack anyone and anything, and probably fail a lot, but when they succeed they get a lot of media coverage. They pretend to be doing it to make people aware of security, but either it's a front or they're just that naive.

Anon has a goal, and what they do is an attempt to achieve it, LulzSec's goal is to do damage. I for one fear that LulzSec will push governments into cracking down on w/e is left of the 'free' internet.

qFon Ask HN: who won the HNSearch API Contest?

Andres just emailed the contestants apparently! Here's the important bit:

here are the top three results from the contest voting:

1. HN Trends by sant0sk1 (88 points)

2. HN Visual Search (41 points)

3. HN Trends by qF (35 points)

qFon Please, make yourself uncomfortable

When thinking of a sustainable system I like the analogy made in Cradle To Cradle[1]: the cherry tree. A cherry tree produces food for animals and any blossoms and fruit that falls on the ground nourishes the soil. It produces more than it takes in, and nourishes it's environment.

When applying this to human civilization you can end up with sustainable factories for example [2].

[1] http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

[2] http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mosa-worlds-first-cr...

qFon LulzSec supposedly claims its biggest coup yet: The entire UK 2011 Census

During the 'hunt' for Wikileaks the U.S. has subpoenaed Twitter for info about supposed supporters.[1] In the case of Lulzsec this will have very little use though, as they use VPN's to hide their IP [2].

[1] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/twitter/

[2] http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/2011/06/scared-puppies.ht...

qFon Show HN: HN Trends - like Google Trends, but for Hacker News

This is actually pretty easy to do! You can apply weights to fields, so just apply 0.0 to the username field - or that's how I did it anyway.

Your entry looks very nice, cool to see others had a similar idea. :)

qFon Ask HN: Does Your Startup Improve Lives?

I agree, and that is actually a similar stance to the one I took in the thread this is a response to. But the idea wasn't to judge whether someone is actually improving lives but rather to see if they feel like they do.

There are a lot of different takes on the idea of improving lives here, none of which are wrong. I was just curious to see how others looked at this.