Hacker News Reader

skeron Microsoft and Xamarin partner

Nothing in this press release points towards such an implementation. Mono and Linux aren't even mentioned in the entire article. This is all about C# -> Android/iOS. In fact, it weakens the future of Mono by making Xamarin stronger in MS's ecosystem with the whole VS 2013 integration and MSDN subscriptions.

skeron Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Wikileaks again messing up the world's economy and putting lives at risk. Won't somebody shut them down?

On a more serious note, wasn't there a reward if they got their hands on this leak?

Also, as a mexican, it sucks that we're part of this treaty. So far Mexico has been a lawless wild west with regards to copyright enforcement.

skeron Soylent on the latest Vice piece

It's not a first. It happens all the time. And for the first time I'm glad we have editorializing mods. The original article was blatant blogspam. It even said so in the title: Oh look, let's focus only on the negative aspects of the original source.

skeron Empty-Stomach Intelligence

> I find that being hungry is very distracting --hunger constantly nagging you out of your task with the urge of getting up and grabbing a snack

That only applies if you are actually experiencing hunger. I've been doing intermittent fasting for a couple of years and I haven't been hungry one single day - I don't even remember what it feels like. I eat once a day, usually at the end of the day.

It's well known that natural level of catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline) are raised during the fast. As a result, most intermittent fasters report increased focus and alertness during this period. This article about ghrelin is yet another piece of the puzzle of why IF works so well for some people.

skeron Hey developers, stop forcing me to login to unsubscribe

Companies like LinkedIn are training users (at least me) to report as spam instead of unsubscribing because it's an exercise in futility to try to opt-out of their spam.

skeron Microsoft CEO Candidate Elop Said to Mull Windows Shift

> analyst Rick Sherlund said the sale of Bing and Xbox, along with other moves, could lift fiscal 2015 earnings by 40 percent

Short term, quarterly numbers-focused business people. Lying off 50% of their employees will also improve their numbers by 2015.

Apple and Google have become the largest tech companies thanks to their consumer facing products. Selling Xbox and Bing will only seal MS's faith as another IBM. Windows Phone and Surface will stagnate (even more) and eventually they will have to be let go too.

Non-tech people often ask me if IBM still exists when it is mentioned in a conversation. They'll be asking the same thing about Microsoft in a decade or two if Elop takes over.

skeron Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

Yes, there has always been people complaining in forums. I've seen steps to recover some of the lost stuff, but I no longer bother. My original account predates the Google acquisition and I lost everything when they made the username -> Google Account transition years ago.

Probably my fault because I always decline these things until Google forces the integration upon us anyway.

skeron Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

I've pretty much given up. Google has deleted my playlists and favorites countless times. Every time they try to integrate YouTube with one of their services/account management, I end up losing everything.

My only consolation is that Google+ is accumulating a lot of vitriol and hate across the web. It's shaping up to be the most hated "social" product in the entire Internet.

skeron Microsoft Earns $2 Billion Per Year From Android Patent Royalties?

I always thought HTC and Samsung were exempt from these royalties by releasing their own Windows Phones. That's why Samsung doesn't care at all about their WP offerings.

Samsung, HTC, Apple and Nokia should account for over 50% of the global market. If my assumptions are correct, are the rest of the smaller players able to pay that much money on royalties alone?

I'll like to see some numbers. The article is seriously lacking data.

skeron Bigger than Google Fiber: LA plans citywide gigabit for homes and businesses

At the end of the day, this is what Google wanted, to push Internet adoption forward. If others want to compete, mission accomplished.

skeron NSA Fallout Thwarts AT&T

How exactly would AT&T acquire the second largest mobile network operator in the world, who happens to have a similar market cap and apparently larger profits? Obviously it would be a merger, but the article makes it sound like an aquisition. And what could AT&T possibly offer to Vodafone?

https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AVOD&ei=FW91UrjjOqq...

https://www.google.com/finance?q=at%26t&ei=EG91UuCSGaX2iwK8Z...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Inc.

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

skeron NSA Fallout Thwarts AT&T

Most of the Latin America mobile market is in the hands of Telefonica (Spain) and America Movil (Mexico):

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

skeron An analysis of the C#/.NET platform

What would it take for MS to make C# fully open source with no threat whatsoever of patent or copyright litigation? Is it really a strong selling point keeping companies using Windows? Now that MS is the underdog in the mobile wars, wouldn't it benefit them if developers of other platforms adopted C#?

They already gave F# away to the community. I don't see why they can't do the same thing with C# and hopefully all of .NET. Maybe the post-Ballmer MS will do it.

skeron Nokia Becomes The Fourth Largest Smartphone Brand in USA in Q3 2013

I'll look into it, although I was thinking more of a Lumia 92x or 1020, mostly for the camera.

skeron Nokia Becomes The Fourth Largest Smartphone Brand in USA in Q3 2013

Nothing wrong with it, but MS decided to go the Apple route by providing a locked-down system. That works well for 90%+ of the population, but I need to be able to use my device as I use my PC, installing and configuring anything I want. Android and its custom ROMs are the best offering I could find. Ubuntu and Firefox OS could be good alternatives too.

skeron Nokia Becomes The Fourth Largest Smartphone Brand in USA in Q3 2013

Yes, Nokia is the only company that gives me hardware envy. I've been wanting to run Android on one of those gorgeous Lumias for a long time. I've never felt like running Android on an iPhone.

Maybe if they reach 10%+ someone will take the trouble of hacking Android into one of their phones.

skeron Web Framework Benchmarks Round 7

Slightly glad to see ASP.NET improved a little (at least the stripped/raw/barebones version).

Slightly sad to see the Mono performance is still abysmal.

Edit: link to the blog. It was submitted earlier, but apparently got killed:

http://www.techempower.com/blog/2013/10/31/framework-benchma...

skeron Dotcloud becoming Docker

VMware is currently valued at 35B. Who is to say Docker couldn't be the next VMware? I would invest in these guys if I could.

skeron 9/11 Suspects Can’t Mention being Tortured during Trial because Classified

> The US isn't a democratic republic anymore.

I also used to think that my government wasn't a democracy because they don't represent me. But the truth is, they do represent the majority of the population.

If no branch of your government gives a shit about this issue, that's because the majority of your society doesn't either. So long as they have McDonald's and reality TV, who gives a shit about some random terrorists being tortured?

Change the mindset of your society and then, only then, you will see change in your government, but not before.

skeron Is Glenn Greenwald the Future of News?

> isn't there a sociological theory that basically says that an organization tends to be controlled by the people who care about the continuity of the organization, instead of the goals it represents?

Yes, what you describe is the Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle#Iron_Law_of_Bur...

skeron Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

> The question is whether we can get to a point of no return with self-driving cars before that effect takes hold.

Insurance companies can take care of that too. Just charge a huge premium to drivers who want to drive by themselves. You'll see even the most confident macho driver submit to the AI overlords.

skeron Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

They'll have to fight the insurance companies.

Insurance companies will probably love to be collecting rent on every vehicle while having to cover 90% less accidents.

skeron Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

That promise was made when Schmidt was running things. We all know by now that Page is much more aggressive at monetizing existing products and killing off non-essential ones. We can expect more of these things in the future.

skeron Ask HN: The Man from Earth

Great movie. It goes to show that, just like in video games, graphics aren't that important.

The producer even thanked piracy for spreading awareness of the movie:

http://torrentfreak.com/producer-thanks-pirates-for-stealing...

skeron Ask HN: Posts dropping off from homepage?

Your post went from #24 to #79 in five minutes: http://hnrankings.info/6498675/

It happens all the time. I often comment on one of the top 5 articles, only to come back a few minutes later unable to find it on the front-page. I always thought it was a flagging issue, but considering the nature of your post, I'm starting to think it might be a bug with the HN algorithm.

skeron Did Shutting Down Silk Road Make the World a More Dangerous Place?

I suppose that's a rhetorical wondering. There's plenty of people who think the government can do no wrong, even here on HN.

skeron After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

I feel you there buddy, gotta get the whole (yeoman, bower, grunt, angularjs, batarang, postman, karma, typescript, git, git deployment, ci, visual studio support, assorted js librariers) setup ready to kick some ass.

skeron Prediction Markets

If daringfireball upvoters never got banned, I doubt you have anything to worry about.

skeron Response of US Govt to Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and LinkedIn [pdf]

As Kevin said, I was paraphrasing. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYDhMmVLXI

skeron Response of US Govt to Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and LinkedIn [pdf]

Reminds me of the Obama speech regarding Syria:

I don't need Congress' or anyone's permission to strike Syria right now. But since I'm such a nice guy, I'll just go ahead and let Congress have a vote before I do it anyway, just for kicks.