Hacker News Reader

jmatton Secret Space Plane Can’t Hide From Amateur Sleuths

And according to real time tracking, it's about to fly over Libya:

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=37375

No surprise that the US is flying it's secret space spy plane over the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_L...

jmatton At work? Try this Hacker News homepage inspired by Node [SFW]

One way to proxy is through ssh. Create an ssh tunnel to a trusted machine and setup your browser to use localhost:<ssh tunnel port>:

http://wiki.freaks-unidos.net/weblogs/azul/firefox-ssh-tunne...

This is a decent example. I've seen others that have more options and presumably more functionality.

A few notes from past experiences. Your IT department will completely freak out. Hopefully they'll also be impressed. HR will freak out worse because they won't understand. A good IT employee will come see what the heck is up with your ssh throughput to a weird vps or home box - befriend this person if you haven't already. Average code-monkeys will be impressed, especially if you don't do web development. Finally, it's almost certainly a violation of that 20 page agreement you signed on the first day of work.

jmatton How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick

I agree. It's horrible and it directly affects health and disease. I don't know how to quantify that, at least with respect to this discussion. I was replying specifically to the parent comment and whether intentional injuries were skewing the mortality numbers.

jmatton How Western Diets Are Making The World Sick

According to the WHO information it appears that deaths due to intentional injuries are relatively low in comparison to most other forms of disease and illness in Afghanistan:

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimate...

Even when looking at Males 15-59. Though it should be noted these numbers are from 2004. Additionally, I really have no sense of how accurate these numbers are.

jmatton Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player

Go look at all the complaining from when the iPhone original was announced and came out. It didn't have a number of features that were considered at the time required:

The original release of the operating system included Visual Voicemail, multi-touch gestures, HTML email, Safari web browser, threaded text messaging, and YouTube. However, many features like MMS, third-party apps, and copy and paste were not supported at release. These missing features led to hackers "jailbreaking" their phones which added these missing features. Official software updates slowly added these features.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(original)#Software_Hist...

Looking back now they clearly did the right thing. In articles at the time when journalists did a feature comparisons it lost. But when people and journalists actually used it - it was awesome. I argue a product can be both a MVC and have simple, powerful, useful, polished features. Just look at the ipod and iphone (yeah similar reviews happened for ipod. See the infamous Slashdot quote).

jmatton Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player

I think it's bold of Amazon to launch essentially a minimum viable product and beat Apple to the punch. Now they have customers and are getting meaningful feedback to make future improvements. You rarely see this outside of Apple and startups. I'm glad to see Apple running into some real competition.

jmatton Introducing Amazon Cloud Drive

Yeah I was expecting that. Something that was more or less a drop-in replacement for Dropbox. Plus the bonus of streaming with Cloud Player. No doubt Amazon wanted to get it out there in the hands of customers and beat Apple and the WWDC. As long as they keep improving it in the next few months I don't think anyone will remember that they launched with a MVC.

jmatton Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player

Just that I don't listen to many of bands/artists that put their songs on Amazon MP3 may make this offer less appealing.

I don't know much about this but cdbaby[1] will do that for what seems like an affordable price. It just takes a bit of effort and sacrificing some profits in lieu of better distribution. I'm not saying it's right for everyone, but it's possible to get music out there if you are an artist. And cdbaby will let artists choose where/how they digitally distribute so artists could just choose Amazon MP3 if they wished.

[1] http://members.cdbaby.com/whatwedo/default.aspx

jmatton Universal Property of Music Discovered

"This was also the case with almost 97%"

So about the other 3%? I can't help but wonder... what it sounds like and whether there is a perceived difference.

jmatton Show HN: LocalGo - bit.ly for addresses

I like this idea. As someone who has built a number of small business websites in the past, I could see using a lg.cx link.

Some comments:

Permanence is always a concern with url shorteners. Especially for small business websites where I'll implement the site (and the associated admin allowing them to customize much of it on their own) and sometimes not touch the code again for years. I don't know what the solution is for this concern but it's worth noting and it's something that business owners ask about when you are using "new" technology.

Don't add comments by default. Yelp already exists and in general comments allow for trolls more often than useful, meaningful information. Meaningful comments generally come from a community. Maybe have a checkbox to allow for disqus comments.

An alternate take on comments... Moderate and scope them. Allow for comments that are actually ABOUT the directions and location. This is probably the ideal solution. But it may also be a lot of (needless) work.

An embeddable widget would be great. Ala google maps. Something that could be embedded with the ability to customize the design minimally. Just enough customization so that it matches the site it's embedded on. When I'm working on a small business website I'm always looking for drop-in reliable widgets that customers are happy with. Ideally the widget would be a drop-in replacement for google maps. But still with all the useful additional links and description found on a lg.cx page. It's an easy sell since it offers more options for the users.

As for customizing the name in the link - that doesn't really matter to me. I can see why it would be cool. But you've already solved the problem - shrinking insanely long google map links and providing a single location with links to multiple map services. I'll likely wrap an lg.cx link with a meaningful description in an <a> tag if it's on a website or in an email. I can see customizing names as useful for "true" bit.ly uses lg.cx though.

jmatton [dead]

I would have been interested in everyone's use of Nootropics[1]. I've taken and had productive, beneficial experiences with Modafinil and some Amphetamines. Though I am reticent to recommend use or talk about it much (likely my own DARE to say no cultural bias).

Something I found interesting in the poll is it seems to exclude a number of prescription drugs that people may be using. Just look at all the results that are falling under "Other". I tend to not discern a difference between the two when discussing drugs with hackers.

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

jmatton You won't find FSF on Facebook

It's getting to be difficult to avoid sites that are affiliated or offer Facebook*.

Even ycombinator (and indirectly Hacker News) is guilty of being loosely affiliated with Facebook.

http://ycombinator.posterous.com/facebook-to-begin-giving-y-...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/11/facebooks...

jmatton Facebook raises $1.5 Billion at $50 Billion Valuation

It seems to be a valid alternative: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chomp_at_the_bit

jmatton Sorry, your “cool” webapp is probably not going to make money

Off topic but ... Welcome to HN!

jmatton Gaming like it’s 1979

The "buy the album" link doesn't work on windows 7 / firefox 3.6.13

I went to buy the album, or at least see what the price was, and the link sent me to http://normativedesign.com/#/anamanaguchi

jmatton Google To Invest Millions in Palestine

I remember seeing Gamezer[1] on Google Trends 2010[2] and being surprised. It really struck a cord that I hadn't heard of a game/game company that was a top 10 google trend keyword. It's top regional is Palestine.

[1] http://gamezer.com/

[2] http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/ http://www.google.com/insights/search/#date=1%2F2010%2012m&#...

jmatton Total Lunar Eclipse Mon Night/Tue Morning for Western Hemisphere

Nice. Sounds like a great reason to stay up late.

The next annular solar eclipse for north america:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_20,_2012

And the next total solar eclipse for north america:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_201...

Please correct me if I'm wrong or add to my list.

jmatton Android 2.3 Gingerbread source code is being released right now

Stop syncing!

Isn't this what bittorrent is for? Or any number of other peer-to-peer services. I mean, maybe everyone will need to verify with a MD5 or SHA. But this seems like such a 90s way of distribution. It's too bad pirating has given peer-to-peer such a bad name. Ideal valid use cases for P2P, like this, end up avoiding it due simply to social and cultural influences.

EDIT: Added a bit.

jmatton Thinking in Clojure for Java Programmers

Autocomplete and debugging with clojure works. The problem is most clojure developers don't use common java IDEs. So it appears like it doesn't work or exist. But recently there has been an explosion of plugins to help everyone that isn't familiar with emacs & slime.

Autocomplete:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4289480/how-to-do-automat...

Debugging:

http://clojure.org/getting_started

Plugins:

https://github.com/swannodette/textmate-clojure

http://code.google.com/p/counterclockwise/

http://plugins.intellij.net/plugin/?id=4050

Options:

[emacs is too hard on windows] http://clojure.bighugh.com/

[but I use a mac] http://aquamacs.org/

[but I write ###.NET] https://github.com/richhickey/clojure-clr https://github.com/jmis/vsClojure

jmatton Ask HH: Does this app exist? (robust virtual scratch paper)

I was searching for a page and came across this. I thought I'd respond since no one else has. Hopefully this helps.

A few sites come to mind that fit this idea in one way or another.

http://balsamiq.com/

Balsamiq - This app was not purpose built to take notes, sketch and brainstorm. That being said, almost everyone I know that has bought it uses it for that purpose sometimes. I know I do. It is still limiting important ways. Dense or complex textual content just doesn't work. Though it works well for diagramming such information. It doesn't have any dynamic behavior like checkboxes. It can't track the history of a document. And it doesn't support sharing. But I have used it in meetings in lieu of pencil and paper. And it kicks out diagrams that impress customers and would be a nightmare to create in gimp or photoshop.

http://writeboard.com/

writeboard - In a minimalist perspective this could work. A big plus is it works with most 37s products.

http://workflowy.com/

workflowy - Seems to be the new hotness right now. It's essentially an upgrade over writeboard but without integration into 37s products.

http://37signals.com/draft

Draft - But it's ipad specific... /sigh. I haven't seen it in person but by this time everyone knows what they are going to get from a 37s product. Minimalist, consistent design targeted at a specific common business process.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/

OneNote - I don't like plugging Microsoft products let alone Office ... but it does everything that you want. Combine OneNote with a tablet pc and it's impressive. I used to work in the .NET world and knew a few architects that used tablet pc 5+ years ago pre-OneNote and they could do all of this back then... but it took time to learn tricks and teach the applications how to read your handwriting. They completely failed at the pricepoint of the device, at marketing it and at making any incremental improvements towards non-powerusers.

jmatton Fast Iterations: How Napoleon Managed the French Army

This is only peripherally related. But since we are on the topic of Napoleon...

Charles Joseph Minard created and published a flow map of "Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812"[1]. This graphic is way ahead of it's time. It provides so much information in such a concise and clear form that it's hard to imagine that it was published in 1869.

Also see more information on Tufte's website[2][3]. That is how I originally found out about it.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Joseph_Minard and http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...

[2] http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard

[3] http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard-obit

jmatton Google Beatbox

This is what you need to do to get it to work:

0. Use fix close quote on bit.ly redirect if you are using the parent comment...

  javascript:(function(){document.body.appendChild(document.createElement("script")).src="http://bit.ly/googlebeat"})()

1. Load Google Translate: http://translate.google.com

2. Load the bookmarklet.

3. Click the new buttons at the bottom of the page.

See the howto from the gist: https://gist.github.com/721554#file_how_to.txt

jmatton WikiLeaks Archive — Cables Uncloak U.S. Diplomacy

It's created by Ronnie Roller[1] the same guy that created ihackernews[2].

ihackernews is the best way to view news.yc on a smart phone. And viewtext is incorporated there to ensure that pages are readable.

I've had very good experiences with both. Thanks Ronnie.

[1] http://ronnieroller.com/

[2] http://ihackernews.com/

jmatton Yacc is dead

The PDF from AT&T Labs for those of us without ACM digital library access:

http://www2.research.att.com/~yitzhak/publications/ddg-tr.pd...

jmatton Please contribute to usethesource.com

  javascript:window.location="http://news.usethesource.com/submitlink?u=+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+&t=+encodeURIComponent(document.title)

  <a style="color: #777; font-size: 2em;" href="javascript:window.location="http://news.usethesource.com/submitlink?u=+encodeURIComponent(document.location)+&t=+encodeURIComponent(document.title)>post to news.UTS</a>

I used it to post lis.py with no problem: http://news.usethesource.com/item?id=728

jmatton Groupon considers sale to Google or fundraising

They are. Though I don't use facebook enough to really know if it makes sense.

Facebook Places:

http://www.facebook.com/places/

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1616082

Facebook Deals:

http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=446183422130

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865817

EDIT: Updated style.

jmatton Show HN: Are you a Climber? Thrutched, Version 2

Also it would be nice if there was room for opinions even when creating topics. I know your community page[1] says submissions should be factual and neutral. There are all sorts of things I wouldn't post based on that. For instance my favorite summer alpine climbs in the Rockies... Since it would be neither factual or neutral.

[1] http://www.thrutched.com/community

jmatton Show HN: Are you a Climber? Thrutched, Version 2

I like it. There is definitely a need for this sort of information in the community.

For some reason markdown isn't working right with my first post. Specifically the embedded link:

http://www.thrutched.com/freedom-of-the-hills

jmatton I broke textCAPTCHA with Python

I like this sort of approach for community oriented captcha. Ask a question that anyone within the community would know or could easily find out but a general purpose spam bot or average person would be unable to solve.

If the community is profitable enough or becomes big enough some spammer will spend 15 minutes or 50 dollars on mechanical turk and find all the answers. As others have mentioned it is an arms race in the end. Back and forth each side upping the challenge.

jmatton Creating a Lisp Executable

In clojure/lein[1][2] it's simple enough though not really equivalent to a real executable:

  lein uberjar

That'll create a standalone jar. But, of course, the computer will need some sort of JRE.

This definitely reminds me of creating executables in python. Even though python really isn't a lisp it has seemingly crazy, difficult and under-developed and underutilized ways to create executables.. somewhat surprising considering how popular it is today[3].

[1] See http://clojure.org/

[2] See https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen

[3] Long list ... all have pluses and minuses http://www.py2exe.org/ http://pypi.python.org/pypi/py2app/ http://www.pyinstaller.org/ http://pypi.python.org/pypi/bbfreeze/0.97.2 http://cx-freeze.sourceforge.net/