draz

What's stopping the app creator from asking the user (in a settings" page) which browser s/he wants to open web pages in? Default will be Safari, unless changed explicitly

I downloaded it, and I like it. I wish they also had the swipe-to-right to see the browsing history.

looks about right for NYC (I'm only posting this so people can know they can reliably use it)

> One may argue that if she has no understanding of the European financial meltdown, and just wants to find evidence for the failure of the welfare state where there is none

There there. Relax. I was not arguing that the social measures were the only cause of the financial meltdown. They are, probably, a contributing factor. You brought up Spain, which in particular, I am quite familiar with due to personal relations with a Spanish. Real estate was the major factor (as it was in the US), that is true. However, when Spanish citizens tell me they show up at the ER for a sore throat because the ER is closer to work/fit their schedule/whatever instead of setting an appointment with a doctor, I think that's a big "social" expense that could and should be avoided. Why do they do that? Because it's free! So who cares, right? There's nothing wrong with providing free health insurance (and I'm a big advocate for it), but showing up to the ER without a reason should be penalized.

Also, when I hear that people who have no desire to work (because they're homemakers, for example) show up at the unemployment office simply to collect unemployment or just to be eligible to "fun" courses (to fill up their days), that's a social expense (in Spain, if you're unemployed, even for an extended period of time, the government will pay for all kinds of courses, be it knitting, accounting, or something else). Those are expenses that affect a country's well-being. I AM all for these things. But that's what I meant that they may have gone too far.

I work for one of the top 10 hospitals in the United States. Our health insurance, ironically, isn't all that great. Co-pays are relatively high, certain things not covered, etc. So it got me thinking about health insurance and how it affects us (US residents), in comparison to our European counterparts.

One may argue that Europe went too far with their "social" expenses (hence, the current financial meltdown). Possibly. However, their view of healthcare (education, and other items) as a BASIC human right is one I strongly believe in. Healthcare should NOT be a luxury item. Yet, it is treated as such in the US. Almost exactly a year ago, I had a bike accident right off the Golden Gate Bridge. For 10 minutes I was limping my way to Sausalito until I happened to run into a police officer who thought I should be picked up by an ambulance to taken to the hospital (although they suspected that I had a concussion, broke my arm and shoulder, I came out with just scratches). I HAVE insurance, but for weeks after this injury, I was opening my mailbox at home, expecting a $20K bill (just the 15 minute ambulance ride was $2000). I was absolutely terrified. Imagine... and I HAVE insurance. Luckily, I ended up paying just a few co-pays, and the issue was resolved.

One of the benefits of a great employer in the US (like you have -- Microsoft, for example) is "Health insurance, Dental covered" etc. That's how they post it in job boards. Shouldn't health insurance be a given??

To your argument that things are settled through loans, etc: I am utterly against it. Obviously, statistics show that these things don't work. The hospital I work for serves an under-served population. People suffering from chronic diseases and who should be seeing a doctor on a regular basis do not. Why? Cost. They end up showing up in the ER with a MAJOR issue months later. Their condition is much more complicated to treat, and significantly costlier. So, we "saved" on a silly, cheap follow-up, but ended up spending a huge amount later. And guess what? These patients can't pay their bill anyhow, so we have to write the expense off.

I am familiar with quite a few people who would have loved to change their jobs, or even start their own business, but are too worried about losing their health insurance benefits. Is that the right way to go for the US? Probably not.

[edited: put it initially under the wrong parent. text left as is]

tuition reimbursement is contingent on acceptance to a program. I do not believe you can take classes without being enrolled in "A" program. Admissions through School of Continuing Education (aka, GS) is one way to get into a program. Moreover, Columbia has recently cut back its employee benefits significantly. Starting this fall, no employee can expect to receive more than 3 classes per calendar year. This is in contrast to the previous policy, which allowed an employee to take as many classes as s/he wishes, as long as it does not interfere with one's job responsibilities.

I thought PLOS (http://www.plosone.org) was created to be a disruptive agent

I dont work for Google, so I dont know. I'd imagine some projects aren't all about the strategic long term "money plan," rather that strategic long term "people plan." This is a cool project, and Google might just want to give talented people an outlet for their creativity. They work on this fun-project (and are having a good time so they don't want to leave Google), and they also work on another project that actually brings in money. Moreover, a project like signals prestige to outsiders (which attracts more talented people). Plain and simple

i dont know much about this industry, but I am guessing the delay works to some organizations' advantage. Don't they get to keep the money longer in their accounts and thus have better cash-flow (on paper, at least)?

well, it's a tough one... Intellectually, I agree with you, but it's sort of a gut feeling. The issue is that as a start-up you are limited in resources. So how many campaigns can we run? How many friends can we nag to use our service time and time again? etc. You don't want to exhaust your resources at the beginning. Of course we will launch and iterate, but this is just a fear. Is it rational? Maybe not. I hope not :-)

I am working on a start up in my spare time myself. My partner and I know very well that we need to launch and iterate. For me, there's a fear that if we launch too early, there may be too many issues that will turn users away. When we will finally be "ready" (as much as we could be), those users will not want to come back and try our service. It's all about first impressions. Having said that, I STILL believe in launching early. I interpret it, though, as stripping as many parts of the product as possible and then gradually adding them in

In one word: reputation. These schools want to be seen as social-responsibility leaders, etc. I don't want to sound so negative about it, but there's some element of publicity these institutions are seeking.

Think of this: how many people criticized Steve Jobs for not getting involved in charity, although he had billions in the bank? Do you think it looks good for Harvard University, with over $15bn in endowment to not do any good will project?

Lastly, some of these schools already offer remote learning via video. Putting the videos on iTunes is a sunk cost.

Disclosure: I went to one of those "big name" institutions as an undergrad, grad student, and I also worked there. Few are the projects that are TRULY out of the goodness of somebody's heart

Harvard and Stanford (and other big name universities) are in the business of "selling" diplomas, not content. You cannot put on your resume that you "aced" a Harvard iTunes course, but only that you graduated from Harvard. I applaud these institutions for realizing it and allowing others to benefit from the content. Think of it as the public library model -- you can certainly pick up Tocqueville or Newton writing and read it, but it offers no guarantee of your mastery of the material. The diploma (supposedly) gives you that badge.

I completely agree with your analysis, but it only holds in countries where there is an official Apple store (vs. distributors, who at least in one location that I know of, provide a bad customer service)

out of curiousity -- could the Manhattan grid be naturally used for satellite calibration (thus masking intention)? Could we install objects on top of buildings to help calibration (surreptitiously)?

I think it stems from the fact that you can almost always find a Java library for whatever enterprise product you're looking to work with. I have yet to find a major company (not a start up) that did not release some sort of Java API to its product. Just an observation and my experience, not rooted in any "scientific" study

having just recently finished reading the Jobs biography, this turn of events for Dorsey reminds me of him: ousted from leadership, appointment on the board, heading a new company (Square vs. Pixar), and then serving as head of two companies simultaneously.

"Flash automation designer?" Flash is dead! Why would someone want to put in his/her resources (time, money) into a dying craft?

major in math (vs. cs), take less classes (so i could work on my ideas), intern at start ups, study abroad (semester or 2) at a place I'd never even consider living in (because once you graduate, it probably ain't happening, for various reasons. In college, you still have a support system)

what i'd do the same: hang out almost exclusively with people outside my major. My college friends are writers, traders, architects, etc, and I've learned immensely from them during college, and afterwards.

it's (very) cool, but x-mixed-replace is not supported in all browsers. I sure hope the browsers that support it don't end up dropping their support.

unfortunately, I must agree with you. 9 times out of 10 candidates cannot answer the question you've posed. One time I even had a candidate with 17 years of experience (!!!) who didn't even know what a join was (masked in a question form). I let it slide, pretended like it was an "advanced" question, and came back to it later (figured he was nervous). The second time around I phrased the question "so, imagine I want to join data from these two tables so that the output would be first name, and location" (2 different tables). Even then, the candidate did not get the hint.... Instead, he offered to change the schema of the fake database and have all the information in one table....

a la Boxee?

it's interesting that no one mentioned the good produced when a company that does not do "good," per se, makes good money (for profit) and then donates some of it to worthy causes. I personally think this is the ultimate win-win situation: you provide a service people want (that is, increase of happiness), but at the same time also help those who cannot afford you service (increase in good).

"Generally, Google and companies of similar size are audited every year. Thus, the IRS actually has a permanent office within the Googleplex compound because they audit them year-round" I think this statement is incorrect. The auditors hired (PwC, Deloitte, E&Y, whoever) are at the Googleplex all year round, but not the IRS

I keep seeing Redbox mentioned. Financially, it's a rational decision to split consumption between Netflix and Redbox. But I believe that most of the appeal in Netflix is the convenience of getting the movies at home, without having to go outside. It's 87F here in NY right now -- do I REALLY want to leave my AC'ed room and go get a movie? Probably not. Disclosure: I'm a VERY early adopter of Netflix streaming, first through the browser and then through a bluray player I purchased 3 years ago.

Hi Manuel! I didnt mean for it to sound the wrong way, as if I'm ungrateful for the work you have done. As I've mentioned, it really is good, and it got me up and running and experimenting with Node.js quickly (for which I'm thankful for!).

Maybe other people from HN can pick up the glove? Maybe a book deal with Manning/O'Reilly/Wrox (unless you're not interested in pursuing writing)?

I was just reading the Google+ public "How-to" collaborative doc the internet community has been building (http://bit.ly/qg0Yf6). Maybe the Node.js guide should take this format and make it into a living manual?

I've read the guide a few weeks ago, and it's absolutely great! I certainly learned a lot, and it saved me a lot of time Googling for answers. I think it would be a great addition to the book to discuss some of the frameworks that take Node.js to the next level: MVC (Express?), debugging, etc., and provide some examples. How does the author actually go about doing real-world projects? (I'm thinking along the lines of the Manning books that not only introduce a language, but also discuss plugins, etc)

As a Java developer, I cannot imagine writing a website with "pure" Java vs. using a framework such as Struts 2, for example.

hmm, are there no copyright issues involved with using another company's logo (I suppose I'm assuming a trademark was filed)?

"Display advertising on the web has surely been around for longer than Flash?"

True, but pretty much only as static displays. I do agree, though, HTML5 isn't a game changer, just another means to deliver moving content (only open, and not proprietary to one company)

I think the biggest issue for adoption is overlooked -- advertisers and monetization. Flash has been around for so long that the infrastructure has been built around it, and it's quite stable. As more companies learn how to harness HTML 5 for advertising purposes (with metrics, etc), we'll see more and more of it.