Hacker News Reader

dmbasson Google Maps heatmap of GitHub repository stargazers

Are you talking about the sample image in the readme? I don't think it says what repository that data corresponds to. The guy is also New York based so it might just be that his github social network is skewed to the right coast.

dmbasson Do Web Developers Ever Learn?

You can do whatever you want. You have the URL and can return any arbitrary bytes. The way you look at the hash in JS on the client would be the same way you look at the URL on the server.

dmbasson Kickstarter vaporware of the day, Lifx edition

In the video, the guy literally says "For $69 dollars, you are essentially pre-ordering a LIFX smartbulb." (4:11) That's one of the major misconceptions people have about Kickstarter and these guys are playing right into it.

dmbasson [dead]

Which itself is a redesign of the iPod Mini.

dmbasson iPhone 5

Damn I kind of assumed it would be Thunderbolt. Guess they're just preparing for when Thunderbolt controllers are small enough to fit inside.

dmbasson The real source of Apple device IDs leaked by Anonymous last week

The Conde Nast analogy breaks down since Conde Nast owns all those publishing properties while BlueToad is just a service provider to multiple, separately owned publishers. I think it's fairly reasonable to let the B2C entity be responsible for contacting the consumers.

dmbasson Nokia Faked Its New Lumia 920 PureView Ad

Additionally, the second half of the video (the HDR low-light photographs) is also completely bogus. The crispness of focus on the girl contrasted with blur on the car in the background as well as the range of light and saturation of color are all evidence of a diligent composite of multiple exposures.

dmbasson Facebook’s New (Evil) Plan to Grab New Users

I'm pretty sure, I (and none of us in my family) even remotely know this 'advancetehri' guy

Doesn't change the fact that anybody can enter any phone number and upload it to Facebook.

when I clicked that link and when @iambibhas clicked that link, we both got immediate friend request from 'advancetehri'.

This sounds like an oversight on Facebook's side. The link should only to be used by one account of the person invited.

Evil plan to grab new users?

No.

dmbasson Fuck it, ship it.

How about "Fuck yeah! Ship that bad boy!"?

To me, "fuck it" has a defeatist connotation that really has no place around something that you are proud of.

dmbasson Show HN: Brandseen - A logo coloring game built in 24h

What causes it to show 3.14? I got it 2 or 3 times.

dmbasson Vigilantes Have Renamed "The new iPad"

I think the iPhones are named so as to be easily tiered. Right now Apple sells iPhones at 3 price points (minus extra storage models for the highest end). 3GS at $0, 4 at $99, and 4S at $199.

The 5 will likely bump the 4 out and move the 4S in to take it's place at the $99 tier.

dmbasson [dead]

Probably because this is just a trumpet tooting, pat ourselves on the back and firm handshake press release and doesn't contain any insight into anything, really.

dmbasson The Facebook Fallacy - Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse

It sounds like you went to the same school of advertising as Coca-Cola. See Part 1 and 2 of their marketing roadmap to 2020: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerdMmWjU_E and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwIq-8GWA8

dmbasson Engineers with some free time... Click Ctrl - G - 6 at ZeroCater.com

Great sounds for when you're brogramming with your bros.

dmbasson Welcome To Life

The "copy" becomes the "real" you because it has extended life. Both you and the "copy" consider yourselves to be the "real one" (or maybe you accept the coexistence), but you are going to die and the copies will live forever.

You think: "That copy isn't me, ericb!" * dies *

Copy thinks: "Great! I, ericb, just got a new lease on life!"

dmbasson Language Immersion for Chrome - learn a new language while you browse

I'm not sure si está working pero it's really entertaining to leer todo sus comments en espanglés.

dmbasson IPad app for Stack Overflow

It appears to be a read-only experience application. Plus, writing code on iPad would be awful whether from a couch or not.

dmbasson Goodbye Yahoo, Hello Bootstrap and Backbone.

I think you're missing the point of Bootstrap. It's meant to keep your site looking nice while you bootstrap it; to avoid doing a ton of graphic design work before you even have a working prototype. Once you're able to spend money on graphic design, you probably won't be using Bootstrap.

dmbasson Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

Are you kidding about the iPad? It definitely suffers from lack of RAM. Almost every time you change tabs, it has to reload the page.

dmbasson Instagram for Android — Available Now.

The filters mostly just add a little zazz and personality to the photos. It's more about sharing. I kind of liken it to Twitter but with photos as the centerpiece instead of 140 characters.

dmbasson A working Firefox Windows 8 Metro prototype, status update 3

TFA says that the prototype is based on the Fennec (Firefox Mobile) XUL code. But since it's so early and so ugly, I expect the styling to become more Metro-y as development progresses.

dmbasson Notes from UPenn's Forum on Brogramming and Sexism in Computer Science

Not really. Would you have preferred a shirt that says HOGRAMMER? I just think "exclusivity" is a super weak argument against the term.

Clearly you feel strongly about this so maybe explore exactly what the problem is until you can articulate it in a more direct manner. There are most likely legitimate problems of sexism in CS, but BROGRAMMING is more sensational than important.

dmbasson Notes from UPenn's Forum on Brogramming and Sexism in Computer Science

Brogrammers are the Jersey Shore of programming. A small, laughable, easily ignored minority of the population. They are a joke whether they take themselves seriously or not.

If you don't like them, spend your time with programmers who don't brag about sex parties.

And why do you want to be a part of brogramming if you hate it so much? (inferred from your comment on exclusivity to men as a problem)

dmbasson How startup life is different when you’re building stuff, not apps

I used to work for a company that manufactured hardware (I wrote firmware for them) and manufacturing was a constant headache and bottleneck, from getting all the parts on time to picking, placing and waving the boards with a high yield to finally assembling the end product.

Building a successful hardware business is much more difficult than building a successful software business (and thus more risk and less glamour). You have all the same problems in terms of solving a problem, finding a market, and getting traction but you have the additional problems of manufacturing, shipping and retail logistics. Those are probably more challenging to solve profitably than the shared problems.

P.S. Mad props for the companies in Asia that so reliably manufacture the computers that we use every day.

dmbasson A "Moneyball" statician predicted Jeremy Lin's success 2 years ago

I would expect a complete statistical approach to work great for a sport like baseball where a team is exactly the sum of its players (i.e. most play is individual), but basketball it seems like basketball has so many other factors because you need all 5 players to work together to be effective. A weak player can bring everyone else down and a strong one inflate everyone else's stats. But maybe that just makes the statistics that matter more complex.

dmbasson We are sorry

I think you mean "make your words as bold as your actions." :)

dmbasson Introducing Chrome for Android

If you have a Droid X and can live without the camera, EncounterICS is unbelievably good.

dmbasson Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think

The analogous party here might be the money laundering business that gets shut down for the duration of the trial.

dmbasson Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think

in a drug bust, it's pretty cut and dry as to whether the targets are doing something illegal

That's way too subjective for law. The prosecution has to prove to the jury (NOT the judge) that what they found is, in a criminal case, beyond a reasonable doubt, an illegal substance.

dmbasson Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think

IANAL, but isn't this situation equivalent to a drug ring bust?