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Nice. And maybe the Paperwhite should ship with a clip-on battery operated LED lamp with the proper color temperature.

They moved the wireless control to Settings a while ago, with the most recent system software update. I've got a 4th gen Kindle, so maybe that update wasn't supported on the Keyboard version. It pisses me off too.

geekfactoron Sprint Launches StarStar Me To Replace Your Phone Number With Your Name

What happens to my StarStar number if I cancel it?

If you have a StarStar number and then decide to cancel it, it will stop working at the end of your current billing period. It will then be returned to the pool of "available" numbers.

What happens to my StarStar number if I change carriers? Can I transfer or "port" it?

Your StarStar number cannot be transferred or "ported" from carrier to carrier the way your regular phone number can. When you change carriers your number will be returned to the pool of "available" StarStar numbers.

  https://sprint.starstar.me/faq

Um, no thanks.

geekfactoron Automatically Check In To (get an awesome seat on) Your Next Southwest Flight

I used to fly SWA pretty frequently too, and now I never even bother to check their site unless I'm planning very far in advance. They are usually 30-50% more expensive than even traditional carriers on most routes originating in St. Louis.

geekfactoron How airbnb lost me as a customer

The probably don't really care. It's just some CYA forced on them by their insurance company.

geekfactoron Ask HN: I am shutting down. And starting up, again? What do you think?

Why not build on fruji vs starting anew? How long ago did you launch it? What kind of growth could you see if you focused on it?

geekfactoron Push, push, push. Expanding your comfort zone

I recently read a similarly themed article that had an interesting perspective on risk:

"To be alive is to be at risk, to be free is to be at risk, and to be powerful is to be at risk."

http://www.landmarknewsletter.com/landmark-forum-leaders-in-...

geekfactoron DC "Uber Amendment" would force sedans to charge 5x more than taxis

Seriously, this was down-voted? Do you work for Uber?

geekfactoron DC "Uber Amendment" would force sedans to charge 5x more than taxis

Further, if Uber really wants widespread support on this, they should publish some data showing how many of their customers/rides would be affected under this law. How many times in the past year has a customer paid under $15 with Uber? (I'm suspecting not many, as a percentage of total fares, but that's total speculation.)

geekfactoron DC "Uber Amendment" would force sedans to charge 5x more than taxis

The headline here is totally sensational and factually incorrect. Has anyone actually read the linked article?

The proposed amendment sets the minimum for a sedan at 5x the flag pull rate on a taxi. So, in DC this would mean that the minimum rate for a sedan is $15 bucks. While I'm against government creating arbitrary and anti-competitive laws like this, it hardly seems as bad as forcing sedans to charge 5x more than taxis.

geekfactoron Zombie Theme Park in Detroit

Can someone say "liability issues"?

geekfactoron Open Letter to Web Designers and Developers: Max CSS

Beyond Firefug and Inspector, there are also CSS prettifier tools out there like the excellent http://procssor.com/process. That's about the best you can hope to do, unless you are expecting developers to put extra educational content in their maxified CSS files. Which ain't gonna happen!

geekfactoron Web designers: you need a Retina MacBook Pro

I’ve been using a Retina MacBook Pro for one week, only as a secondary computer,2 and I’ve already changed my font, redesigned my narrow layout’s header, and conditionally replaced an image with text. I’ve noticed that fonts, especially, respond extremely differently on the Retina screen: many of my old, non-Retina choices simply didn’t look good, and many fonts and metrics that were previously poor for screen use can be used nicely on Retina screens.

So you swapped out your old fonts that look good for 99% of people for fancy new ones that, while "poor for screen use" for those 99%, look nice on Retina screens?

geekfactoron 37signals Tada-List is now closed

Fried discusses some of these issues in a recent mixergy interview:

http://mixergy.com/basecamp-build-products-that-people-love-...

geekfactoron YC S12 company refuses to pay for my design. "Send your claim to our legal team"

Based on the screenshot currently gracing the eligibleapp.com home page, perhaps the CEO specifically requested a Path knock-off. ("We really love the Path app, can you make it look like that?")

geekfactoron Louis CK selling tickets to latest tour exclusively on his site

The site is down, but here is the text:

hello folks! I'm going on tour this year from October through Feb. I'll be all over the goddamn place. This year, I'm trying something new, building on the fun, success and fan-benifit of selling my content online. We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring the price of tickets down and make them easier and less complicated to buy. We figured out a way.

Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I've made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.

By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I've cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing. opt in to the email list if you want, and you'll only get emails from me.

Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away. Some of these rules may be a pain in your ass, but please be patient. My goal here is that people coming to see my shows are able to pay a fair price and that they be paying just for a ticket. Not also paying an exhorbanant fee for the privalege of buying a ticket.

Tickets across the board, everywhere, are 45 dollars. That's what you'll actually pay. In every case, that will be less than anyone has actually paid to see me (after ticket charges) in about two years and in most cases it's about half of what you paid last year.

The benifit for me is that I won't get angry emails from anyone who paid a ton of money to see me due to circumstances out of my control. That makes me VERY happy. The 45 dollars also includes sales tax, which I'm paying for you. So I'm making more or less depending on the state.

Another benifit to me is also one to you. I get your email address (if you opt in) when you opt in. You don't have to join ANYTHING to buy these tickets and if you opt in, youll only hear from me once in an old man's jizz-cycle. Obviously none of this means anything if the shows aren't good. So that's up to me. As I do every year, I'll be performing a brand new hour (or more) on all of these shows. Lastly, it was a real challenge to find venues around the country that could work with our exclusive ticketing service under these perameters. It means I'm playing in very new places. I really appreciate all of these theaters that are letting us give this a try.

Setting up this tour has been fascinating and difficult. this ticketing service is a brand new thing and I really fucking hope it works and that there aren't any problems. If anything comes up, please be patient.

Doing things this way means I"m making less than I would have made if I did a standard tour, using the usual very excellent but expensive ticketing service. In some cities I've had to play smaller venues and do more shows. But I like doing more shows and about a year ago I reached a place where I realized I am making enough money doing comedy so the next thing that interested me is bringing your price down. Either way, I still make a whole lot more than my grandfather who taught math and raised chickens in Michigan.

alright, that's it, folks. I'll be sending this message out to folks on the opt-in list and sending a separate email that lays it out much more simply with the proper links. I am doing this because when I emailed you about LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL, (which is still on sale for 5 dollars!) about half of the people who got the email really enjoyed the long, verbose, unedited message. The other half HATED it and would have preffered a price, a link, and me shutting the fuck up. This way, you can read this if you like, or your can just see the massive shit-ball of text and throw it in the garbage, and focus on the simple email.

I hope to see you all on the road.

regards, Louis C.K.

geekfactoron Obvious Goes Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat is people!

geekfactoron Show HN: Joosy, the rails-tied browser app framework

Ok. I started with the Getting Started guide and just submitted a pull request. I'm sbc on GH.

geekfactoron Show HN: Joosy, the rails-tied browser app framework

I'm looking forward to trying this.

Also, happy to help w/ some quick copy editing. Is the joosy.ws site in github somewhere?

geekfactoron Show HN: My 1-year project, iPad IDE with GitHub and Heroku integration

Does this work with any Git repo or just GitHub? I've been using BitBucket recently for free private repos.

geekfactoron Behind The Scenes At Adioso - Part 1: Reality Check

Seth Godin's The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) [1] is an oft-recommended resource on the topic, though I didn't find it particularly helpful the last time I was in a similar situation.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591841666

geekfactoron The depressing reality of your startup failing

Amazon does notify users of price changes -- up or down -- for items that are kept in your shopping cart.

geekfactoron IOS app success is a lottery: 60% (or more) of developers don't break even

Downvoting. What does the nationality of the crappy app author have to do with anything?

geekfactoron HN Speaks: Music for Coding - Master Compendium

http://soundcloud.com/kapslap/kap-slap-spring-break-mix

http://soundcloud.com/juliengray/julien-gray-gondwana-extend...

http://soundcloud.com/monca/djuma-soundsystem-les-djinns

http://soundcloud.com/jaytechmusic

http://somafm.com/play/suburbsofgoa

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

http://soundcloud.com/designerdrugsmusic/sets/datamix-mixtap...

http://di.fm

http://hypem.com/popular

http://soundcloud.com/3lau/sets/top-10-downloaded-tracks/

http://www.themusicninja.com/live-set-full-kaskade-coachella...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/porter-robinson-essential-m...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/knife-party-essential-mix-l...

http://soundcloud.com/dirtysouthjoe/luvstep-2-5

http://soundcloud.com/cberra88/straight-bass-to-the-dome

http://soundcloud.com/erwtenpeller/war-of-the-worlds

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/flux-pavilion-essential-mix...

http://soundcloud.com/qrip/flux-pavilion-essential-mix

http://soundcloud.com/somejerk/moombahton-over-miami-vi-some...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBIYl88Zwyc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AooMCiV2eb4

http://bootiemashup.com/

http://mashupbreakdown.com/nhh

http://www.audiogalaxy.com/mix/11997-The%20Coding%20Zone/

http://www.mixcloud.com/alec_empire/alec-empire-atari-teenag...

http://open.spotify.com/user/czstrong/playlist/2Vw6VBC3BDKGc...

http://open.spotify.com/user/whalesalad/playlist/6nRqAHIzMFd...

http://soundcloud.com/djsfrommars

http://soundcloud.com/sunnyventura

http://soundcloud.com/featurecast

http://friskyradio.com/

http://somafm.com/play/groovesalad

http://kohina.com/

http://epiphanyradio.org/

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/above-and-beyond-live-group...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/mat-zo-live-group-therapy-m...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/arty-group-therapy-miami-wm...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/andrew-bayer-live-group-the...

http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/boom-jinx-live-group-therap...

http://soundcloud.com/prettylights/pretty-lights-the-hot-sh-...

http://musicforprogramming.net/

http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-filthwater-mix-www

http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-broverload-vol-2

http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-all-your-bass-are

[abakus on pandora]

geekfactoron How to read Korean in 15 minutes

> The additional burden of it using a separate regular alphabet is negligible in comparison.

While trying to learn Thai and Arabic at varying points years ago, I was frustrated to find that so many of the books out there ignore the native alphabet/script and instead rely on various romanization or transliteration schemes. In many cases I found these schemes, particularly the IPA [1], just as hard or harder to learn than the native script and pronunciation.

I understand that IPA has it's place, particularly in academic circles and/or if there is no native speaker around to model for proper pronunciation, but if you're giving me an audio CD too, what's the point of the intermediary?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipa

geekfactoron Google's cloud-based machine learning tools

Incidentally, here is an article I wrote today introducing three new machine learning tools being launched by startups:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2012/02/three-new-tools-bri...

Discuss: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3640954

geekfactoron Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued

A friend of mine turned me on to the audio version of this book, "Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute" [1], many years ago.

It's more about a mind shift than rocket-science techniques, but I can attest to increasing my income by tens of thousands of dollars by putting its ideas into practice.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-Your-Salary-Minute-Revised...

geekfactoron The Trello Tech Stack

Does anyone know of any open-source projects out there using a similar stack? I'm particularly interested in learning more about client-side view rendering with Backbone and Mustache... server side can be any of Node, Rails or Django.

geekfactoron Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

10 out of the 10 "available domains" for the term I entered ("cloud") showed up as not available when I clicked Double Check Availability.

geekfactoron My Call to Senator Schumer’s Office on PIPA: It’s So Much Worse Than I Thought

In this respect it would/could be like a Wikipedia for bills.