Hacker News Reader

10dpdon University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered:

1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP.

2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, enabling students to gain valuable experience within top-tier tech companies.

It would be great to hear of any other reasons for their success.

10dpdon Command & Conquer in HTML5 with multiplayer

Just wait for the flood of In-App Purchases to ruin the gameplay.

10dpdon San Francisco can become a world capital. First it needs to get over itself

I was surprised that the risk of a large earthquake was not mentioned in the article. Having lived in SF for over a year and experienced two relatively minor 4.0 earthquakes, this is a real risk and one that suggests it doesn't make sense to pack the city with large, high rise buildings.

SF is also a city of extremes - it contains the richest people in the world and the poorest people. Something really need to be done about the large mentally ill population before SF can be considered a truly forward looking city.

10dpdon Because of the storm we're pushing the YC application deadline back to Friday

Why New York and not somewhere like Haiti that really needs your help?

10dpdon Shepard tone

So can we come up with an meaningful definition of 'cool'? There is an infinite number of arbitrary 'cool' things in the world - audio perception is definitely interesting, but so is granular synthesis, binaural audio and physical modelling.

I'm just not sure if the role of HN is to educate users on 'cool' things. Maybe its because most of the US is currently sleeping...

10dpdon Shepard tone

Why is this the top HN story? There are tons of perceptual audio examples that have been around for decades. Check out Curtis Road's Computer Music book for an in-depth analysis of this technique and more.

10dpdon Skydiver shatters world record with 24-mile leap

Why the downvotes for a reference to one of the greatest songs of all time ( Karma Police by Radiohead ) ?

10dpdon Skydiver shatters world record with 24-mile leap

Arrest this man. He talks in maths. He buzzes like a fridge. He's like a detuned radio.

10dpdon Show HN: Discover music and music related iOS apps

Clickable:http://www.majorapps.com/app/music.php

10dpdon Great work Visa, now I hate you

Did anyone else read this title thinking it was from a disillusioned immigrant?

10dpdon Ask HN: side projects on resume?

I think it depends on the side project and how well it reflects your skills - if its something you are proud of by all means go for it. Just be careful though, a bad side project could convey a negative image that may override any academic success.

10dpdon Show HN: Syncr lets you check email, Facebook, Twitter, send SMS all in one app.

Clickable: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/syncr-sms-email-facebook-twit...

10dpdon Laser-powered bionic eye gives vision to the blind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recovery_from_blindness provides a succinct overview of Molyneux's Problem, a philosophical thought experiment that attempts to address this very issue.

This quote is especially interesting from a 13 year old whose sight was restored in 1728: "When he first saw, he was so far from making any judgment of distances, that he thought all object whatever touched his eyes (as he expressed it) as what he felt did his skin"

10dpdon Laser-powered bionic eye gives vision to the blind

This is exciting, but two questions:

Is the implant upgradable? Imagine in 2 years the resolution is doubled but because your an early adopter, you're stuck with the original.

There's more to sight than light - eg when Jesus healed the blind dude in the Bible it took two steps, the first to restore vision, a second to restore perception.

10dpdon IOS 6 beta 3 now available.

Go read 'Crossing the chasm' - many people on HN are early adopters that love the opportunity to try out cutting edge software.

10dpdon How do I get unstuck as a developer

By drive skills forward on your own, do you mean by working on side projects? If not, you should be looking at innovative ways to use your API through personal projects. Why not create a simple app that uses the API and put it on the app store? Create a mashup with your API and another API. But do something, otherwise you'll have regrets later in life.

10dpdon What are some notable dead open source projects

ARC? :)

http://arclanguage.org

10dpdon Ask HN: Minimum Viable Product?

Create an MDP (Minimum Desirable Product) as opposed to an MVP.

10dpdon Show HN: Weekend project - iTunes RSS & Spotify mashup

Clickable: http://www.majorapps.com/music.html

10dpdon Thoughts on Paul Rand

The point is to find out which products John Maeda has worked on?

10dpdon Startup Founders Are C2C

Unfortunately human psychology dictates that all human organisations must have some form of hierarchy, and 'CEO' is a label/shorthand for the person at the top of the hierarchy.

This is unfortunate, as having a CEO assumes having a board of directors which many smaller startups do not.

10dpdon Thoughts on Paul Rand

"At the time I was building a reputation for myself as being a gifted graphical user interface designer."

What products has John Maeda designed that we can use or have used in the past?

Writing books is great, but its the practical application that really builds reputations.

10dpdon Why Do We Wear Pants? Horses.

Pants in the UK = underwear. So why do we wear underwear?

10dpdon Make Your App Icons Boring

OK so you've posted some of your ideas on icon design, now provide some robust evidence that your ideas are valid. Otherwise, this is merely speculation.

10dpdon How to bootstrap in The Valley/San Francisco for 3 months

I'd be interested to know what kind of visa you have to enable you to work over here in the US?

10dpdon Live CERN Higgs Announcement in 20 Mins

It works

Unfortunately I was unable to listen in due to being on a mobile device....

10dpdon Live CERN Higgs Announcement in 20 Mins

Why is potentially the worlds finest discovery of the 21st century being communicated using the worst software to be cobbled together in the 20th? (Aka Flash)

10dpdon Apes With Apps - Ape building a vocabulary of thousands of words with ipad

Tablet is the generic name for tablet. iPad / ipad is an Apple registered trademark.

10dpdon #BoycottApple trending on Google plus due to Galaxy Nexus ban

Has Apple actually posted the cash required to enforce the ban? Until confirmed, this is merely doublethink.