Hacker News Reader

unwantedLetterson Sony: All personal data stolen from PSN

If someone has had their data stolen, are there any steps that they can take to ensure that they are not fleeced or does this mean that it's only a matter of time (or perhaps luck)?

unwantedLetterson My book (Essentials of Metaheuristics) officially in paperback

I think your "Or if you are without honor" line was very intriguing. That is the simplest way of getting your book, and to me (and I imagine most people) is almost impossible to use because of the language you have used. The point of this post was to request you to post numbers. How many of those that downloaded a free copy, downloaded it after filling the form, and how many did so "without honor"?

unwantedLetterson Why OS X just doesn't cut it

For someone who is singing the praises of linux, his website (it does look like his personal website) is pretty awesome. Specially http://cloudhead.io/

unwantedLetterson Meet news:yc, the open source Hacker News client for your iPhone.

I stand corrected.

For the uninitiated (as myself): "“Free software” does not mean “noncommercial.” A free program must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. Commercial development of free software is no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important. You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to sell copies. "

From http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

unwantedLetterson Meet news:yc, the open source Hacker News client for your iPhone.

On the page it says it'll probably be $4.99. So it is open source, but it may not be free.

unwantedLetterson Color

Any idea why they call this app Color?

I thought the app had nothing to do with photos initially.

The only reason I read about it was that they were "given more money than Google". I wonder if that can be used as a marketing strategy. Take enough money to get yourself in the headlines and simply return it after you get it. I'm sure its illegal and it's surely unethical, but it might work.

unwantedLetterson Indians cry out for Apple's attention

It was the 17 inch model(which to be fair was the last one that even Apple phased out). The store I went to was on RK Salai. I had gone to the store soon after the 2010 models were released. I thought it was mid-2010. But it seems the release date was April 13 2010. So I probably went within a week of that date.

unwantedLetterson Indians cry out for Apple's attention

The Reliance iStore (which is a "premium reseller" of Apple products and what most Indians think is an Apple store) was selling me a non-unibody Mac in mid-2010 in Chennai (a fairly large city of approximately 4.6 million people). I didn't bother to check what rev it actually was, but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth about Apple.

The iStore website: http://www.istoreindia.com/index.html

(edit: I must add that they don't have the machine online, I was just linking to the iStore website)

unwantedLetterson What happens when you're the #1 story on HN

I'm not sure, but I think that saying stuff like that can be interpreted as indirectly encouraging users to click on ads.

Interesting article and discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2049105

unwantedLetterson Google AI Challenge Winner Post-Mortem

Oh wow. I missed that completely. Thanks for pointing it out.

unwantedLetterson Google AI Challenge Winner Post-Mortem

Postmortem of the previous winner: http://a1k0n.net/blah/archives/2010/03/index.html

Shocking how similarly they begin. Is something going on here of which I am not aware? Why do they both start so similarly?

unwantedLetterson Google Chrome tops 'Dirty Dozen' vulnerable apps list

I'm not sure what the first paragraph in the article states. The part I'm having trouble with is: most discovered software flaws requiring security updates and notifications. Does that mean that Google Chrome fixed the most bugs, or were the most bugs found in Google Chrome?

If it was the former, Google is being shown in a positive light and they don't have any sort of "dubious distinction", and if it was the latter, then Google has an explanation for that. Lots of bugs are found in Chrome since Google pays developers a lot of money to find bugs in Chrome (not really sure about the others).

From the same site: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/110110-google-offers-b...

unwantedLetterson [dead]

The first article/puzzle: http://thetreasureblog.com/2010/11/the-delicatessen/

unwantedLetterson Nginx, erlang, golang, java http server benchmarks

Note: The article is a year old (It was posted exactly a year ago today).

The Go language benchmarks have probably improved considerably).

unwantedLetterson Paul Graham : uses this.

Ah, true. I was posting it more as just a simple sighting of Windows, and because Jason's setup is pretty incredible.

unwantedLetterson Paul Graham : uses this.

http://jason.rohrer.usesthis.com/

Another windows sighting. And the most fascinating of the interviews I've read.

unwantedLetterson Ask HN: What is Wealth?

This might not exactly answer the question, but it points out an interesting distinction between being rich and being wealthy.

Chris Rock on Wealth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m37JkkGjAY

unwantedLetterson Review my startup : Yoink http://yoink.com

http://yoink.com

unwantedLetterson Thank you, Ubuntu

You probably meant 6.06. That was my first Ubuntu as well, though it was also my first Linux distribution.

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

unwantedLetterson [Firefox] Jägermonkey: it’s in ur browser

Also like the big "No." mid page.

The team seems to be pretty focused on getting to be faster than Chrome/Safari. Great idea to have a simple goal, and a simple answer to whether they have achieved it or not.

unwantedLetterson Finally, Hacker Monthly Subscriptions

From the page: # Starting from issue #4, the digital version of Hacker Monthly will costs $3 each and comes in pdf, epub and mobi format.

unwantedLetterson Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Actually, I recently tried submitting this article, and HN rejected my submission: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

It had been previously submitted over 1200 days ago(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12964).

Anyway, thank you for telling me how I should search for articles. That's a great tip.

unwantedLetterson Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

The link is exactly the same as the link submitted in the second posted link.

I'm not sure how HN let's me post it.

I apologize for the link I posted.

You are somehow always able to find links that have been posted earlier. How do you do it? If you tell me how, I'll do it before I post a link so I don't duplicate.

unwantedLetterson Oracle rebrands Java, breaks Eclipse

Ah, sorry. I didn't actually know the law. Looked it up on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

It's wrongly stated there, so you might want to change it there as well.

unwantedLetterson Oracle rebrands Java, breaks Eclipse

For those of you that don't know Godwin's law, it states: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1".

unwantedLetterson Who Can Name the Bigger Number?

What surprises me is that hacker news still let these dupes get posted. I was under the impression that a URL once submitted cannot be resubmitted. I've submitted duplicate articles before (unknowingly) and it simply acts as an upvote for an article that has already been submitted. I was thinking perhaps it lets you re-post after a certain predefined amount of time, but between two of the postings, there were only 18 days.

unwantedLetterson Alexander the Great

I added this because I was inspired by his tale. His drive and determination let him rule one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen when he was not even 30.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it.

unwantedLetterson EU agrees Iter fusion construction shortfall funds

I usually do that. I can't remember where I found that headline, but perhaps it was changed after I posted it. I'm not sure what happened, and I apologise for the brain pain.

unwantedLetterson Ask HN: Review my status board startup

Email sent.

Cryptic Subject: Error details.

(So check your spam)

unwantedLetterson Ask HN: Review my status board startup

I know this isn't going to concern you TOO much, but I thought I'll add my comment anyway.

I'm on a Fedora X86_64 box running Firefox 3.0.11 (with no flash, but I don't think your site needs it anyway), and whenever I click the "Add a Widget" button, I get an error.

I provided the browser/OS details to help narrow the problem.

The screenshots make it look like it'll be a great app. Congrats on getting it out there.