Hacker News Reader

mrmaddogon Extracting Colors With Colorific

I feel like k-means in in Lab color space would lend itself well here too. Either by picking a large k that you then narrow down by picking the highest contrast colors, or instead by running k-means multiple times with different k's until you get an error threshold that is tolerable and results that have a high enough contrast. K-means is also a pretty easy algorithm to understand/implement.

mrmaddogon Recursive Drawing

This is really cool, and playing with it made me smile. I wish it had two things:

1) A way to delete objects that you placed by accident. (perhaps there is a way to do this which I couldn't find). I keep going back a page and losing everything because I press the delete button.

2) A way to label layers, with generated descriptions of what the layer is. i.e. Here is a new layer called a "heart". A heart is two circles and one square. A "valentines day picture" is two hearts. Likewise, a "tree" is a rectangle, with another a rotated "tree" touching one end of the rectangle. I can imagine this being a great way to explain programming concepts in a visual way, and giving people the vocabulary to talk about them.

As for my artistic abilities... http://cl.ly/251m2k0z1Z0z142r3S42

mrmaddogon Show HN: Weekend Project - SlideWriter for iPad

Looks really good! I think it would be useful if a two finger slide moved the cursor by word boundaries as opposed to speeding up the cursor. For example, in your video around the 1:00 mark, you two-finger swipe to get to the end of the line, but fall short by a couple of characters. If you moved by word boundary, then mistakes like this would be much less common. (I would suggest that when two finger swiping backwards, you move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word, and when swiping forwards you move the cursor to the end of the next word, much like how option left/right work in any Mac text area field).

mrmaddogon $1000-a-day Pinterest scammer claims hoax

This is a prime example of how to not write a correction piece.

The gist of the story is that they used a screenshot to verify somebody's identity, and it turns out the person faked it. However, instead of saying "we made a mistake and didn't verify our sources properly," they go on to spin stories like "But is Steve a prankster, or is he a spammer having second thoughts" and "Regardless of its validity, Steve’s story helped expose a very real issue for Pinterest." Both could possibly be true, but they are just speculating to save face.

The part that annoyed me to make me comment was this paragraph:

"So who is this spammer? Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell right now. Even if another person claiming to be final-fantas07 came forward, the only way that individual could prove his or her identity—a screenshot—could be faked (again)."

Really? A little bit of critical thinking and you could have him make a post using one of his bots' account, or delete a post, or use any other more reliable, actually verifiable source.

mrmaddogon Cisco’s Bold Networking Start-Up

What I find fascinating is that this seems to be a regular facet of cisco's culture. Some employees leave, start a start-up with access to Cisco's manufacturing/engineering resources, poach a bunch of employees from Cisco, then get bought back for huge sums of money a couple years later. As the article mentions, this must be tough on morale for the people that aren't picked to join the hot-new product-line.

I use the term "leave" very lightly. Apparently, Mario, Luca and Jain's previous spin-ins: Andiamo and Nuova moved right across the street into buildings still owned by Cisco.

mrmaddogon Why you should never, EVER use linked-lists in your code

Until then, why do not we all just stay away from the linked-list for the time being? After all C++ is all about performance - and linked-list is not!

No, thank you. Instead, why don't we try and understand the benefits and pitfalls of various data structures? Although linked lists may not be a great generic data structure, they can be incredibly useful for certain types of actions. Enumerating their strengths is a much more useful exercise than asserting sweeping generalizations.

As for your example: any stack or queue data structure is more efficiently implemented with a linked list than an array/vector. (Or any data structure that just needs to do operations on the head/tail of a data structure.)

mrmaddogon Viral Video About Body Scanners

2 days ago, from a BusinessWeek article about the author of the blog post:

“I call it the corny dad approach. I’m basically the Bob Saget of blogging,” the 41-year-old tells Bloomberg Businessweek. “This isn’t really the most exciting subject, so I thought I should inject some personality into it.” Three years removed from working the security lines himself—he used to train TSA officers at the Cincinnati airport—Blogger Bob has clearly gained some perspective on the experience. [1]

Whether or not entertainment has a place in government blogging is an argument for another day, but I think we can all agree that under no circumstances should this type of blog post ever be allowed as an official government response.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-05/why-cant-the...

mrmaddogon Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

It is a good trend, but when people do it incorrectly, and then fail, the entire industry can just say "Ha, look, that direct-to-consumer model doesn't work."

I want him to succeed. I want to be able to watch a trailer of his video, think it is hilarious, go through a one minute payment process, and have the video to watch instantly right after that in whatever format I want. If that is Gaffigan's plan, why bother pre-announcing it? Why not just wait till he has something to sell?

mrmaddogon Louis CK inspires Jim Gaffigan to sell comedy special for $5 online

His post seemed a bit off to me. I got the feeling that he's doing this because "Oh look, Louis CK made metric ton of money this way, lets see if I can emulate his success" rather than actually understanding the motivations for why consumers want a 5 dollar, drm free comedy special.

It also seemed strange that he is pre-announcing this release. I think this initial post will be his biggest shot at publicity, and it is peculiar to have no call-to-action (i.e. check out my related comedy if you've never heard of me, go ahead and pre-order it now, etc.). Right now there is nowhere for the reader to go after finishing the post (his "videos" tab isn't representative of his standup comedy) and there is very little for a reader to share about this story besides "Somebody is planning on doing something like Louis CK did."

I'll be impressed if I remember or hear about this again in April, when the special is actually released.

mrmaddogon Tty.js - a terminal for your browser using socket.io

GsteOne is another very cool terminal-in-a-browser: https://github.com/liftoff/GateOne

mrmaddogon Show HN: Craigslist Car Search

This looks fantastic! Reminds me of padmapper, for cars. I'm really liking some of the things you've done to parse out information into a more digestible/searchable format. The dynamic filters, mousing-over-to-see-different-images, and allowing me to 'favorite' listings makes this a godsend compared to manual craigslist-surfing. Have you considered searching by color? I know this won't be easy to parse out but perhaps image recognition would be more reliable?

Well done!

mrmaddogon WSJ comes out for SOPA

On the flip side, the WSJ could say the exact same thing about Google, Facebook, Ars Technica, etc. Just because they offer a different viewpoint doesn't mean you should completely write them off. Instead, it is useful to read these types of pieces to see what the opposition really wants.

If there is to be any sort of compromise, we can't just shut our eyes and plug our ears when the traditional media says what it needs in a law.

mrmaddogon [dead]

I understand how reserving usernames is good for encouraging sign-ups, but I don't see it doing much in the way of viral marketing. As for "private beta access," I hardly see how it can be viral when I have practically no information about what your company does. A "collaborative decision tool that frees you from the hassle of meetings to speed up your workflow"? Sounds like any number of companies that are released every other month.

Show me how you are different than Asana. Give me a crazy video that shows "the future is now" which I just have to share, don't just put up a generic "Tweet this" button. And if you really mean "And it’s very useful with friends too," then allow me to instantly get all my facebook friends connected when I sign up--don't make everyone jump through hoops to sign up.

It is a nicely designed webpage, but there is so little information for me to process that I can't even remember the company's name, even having looked at the site 3 times. I'd like to think you guys have a really cool product that somehow magically frees me from meetings, but I can't imagine how that would work without media or descriptions to guide me.

mrmaddogon Response to 'I'm turning 30 and I've produced no amazing art'

Yep, I couldn't find it by searching on iTunes, so I used your blog's search engine (and found it after a couple different tries).

I am a programmer like you, but if I can come up with some ideas for a cohesive strategy for your product, I'll shoot you a note!

mrmaddogon Response to 'I'm turning 30 and I've produced no amazing art'

...my first app, which allows you to enter your 20 favourite recipes. It will then choose a week’s worth of dinners at random, and compile a combined shopping list for you, and let you tick off the items as you purchase them. Now the market has decided that this idea isn’t worth paying $1 for. [...] I can only conclude – the idea sucked.

This actually doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, and would definitely be something I'd get if I stopped working late and started cooking more. Anyhow, a good idea and a strong implementation do not guarantee success.

I'd guess one reason it didn't sell well is because nobody thinks to themselves "Oh, I need an app that randomly picks meals I already know how to make and gives me a grocery list." Rather, this is an app that people will stumble upon and decide whether they think it is useful or not. Perhaps the missing ingredient for this app's success was neither idea nor execution, but rather marketing and a bit of well-timed publicity.

Edit: Found the app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/random-chef/id438618418?mt=8&...), and I would double down on my wager that it is a marketing/presentation problem: those first 2 screens definitely do not look very appealing. I'd scratch the paper texture--or if you really do want a paper texture, use something that you'd actually write a grocery list on, and not an ancient manuscript. The multiple different fonts throughout the app don't help with the readability or the presentation. Anyhow, the idea still sounds good, but how do you expect people to think it is well implemented when the first two pictures they see look like a mess!

mrmaddogon How to turn off Carrier IQ on your iPhone

It is these types of stories that make me wince whenever I am linked to computerworld.com. No new information was offered, the title was primed for linkbaiting, and the rest of the story was a regurgitation of pieces found elsewhere (with extraneous bolding). I wish I could un-see the pre-roll advertisement--not because I hate advertising, but because I can't believe computerworld gets money for that type of story.

mrmaddogon CEO, the Least Popular Job in Silicon Valley

“The people who could possibly do these jobs realize it would be easier to create a new company rather than try to get an old stodgy one to adopt new ideas”

Interesting theory, but I feel like the article's other point that company boards have an aversion to hiring the right people is the more accurate criticism.

mrmaddogon Michael Arrington Resigns From Techcrunch

Even though I hope M.G. Siegler becomes the next head of TechCrunch, I have a feeling that AOL will view this as it's chance to take command, and put one of its own on top. Sigh...

mrmaddogon Windows 8: Improving our file management basics: copy, move, rename, and delete

Are multiple large copy jobs common? I can't recall ever doing large copies of two distinct sets of files simultaneously, which makes me wonder when I'd ever use this dialog box. Would be curious to know what their telemetry data shows.

Another thing I think is interesting: the graph will never be intuitive because they've compounded the progress bar with the actual plotting. Thus, fast operations will take up a larger percentage of the graph because during fast operating speeds more progress will have been completed. Conversely, slow periods in the graph will be disproportionately smaller compared to the actual percentage of time that the slow operation took.

mrmaddogon Facebook Just Bowed Out of the Check In War With Foursquare

Exactly. Facebook is not exiting the location game, but rather opening it up to a much broader audience.

I presume Facebook found that the people who used check-ins was a subset of the people that used tagging functionality, so they scrapped the check-in model and focused on making location accessible in a format that a) more people are comfortable with and b) is consistent with the rest of the Facebook experience.

mrmaddogon Who Does Facebook Think You Are Searching For?

I would think that clicking on links that a person posts is a good signal and thus would increase your engagement number. Other signals that probably feed into this are pictures you look at, likes, comments, groups you are in common with, etc. i.e. anything that ties you to another person, though I bet they are all weighted differently.

mrmaddogon Stanford Fall 2011 - Introduction to Databases

This was one of my favorite CS classes I took at Stanford. It will do a great job teaching you the theory behind dbs then bridge that theory with real-world examples. If you want to get an idea about how databases operate behind the scenes AND how they should be properly used, this is a great class for you.

The relational algebra sections of the course are intriguing because it forces you to solve problems using a set of constraints that aren't present in other programming languages—really interesting stuff.

More information is at the class website http://infolab.stanford.edu/~widom/cs145/index.html

mrmaddogon When Children Attack...

I wouldn't even argue that the kid is the problem, but rather that the kid's behavior is symptomatic of a completely dysfunctional family.

At a certain age, responsibility starts shifting to the individual, but a 6 year old can hardly be considered the heart of the problem here. How to fix the deeper problem (having a mother that doesn't/is unable to care for her children) will always be an unsolved problem, but the best solutions I have seen so far involve beefing up our public school system so that the kids have a place that they can be given individualized attention.

mrmaddogon Share frequency on social networks

I'll second that aside. As an aside to this aside, I noticed that the paragraph starting with "Higher frequency generally leads" is wrapped in closing </p> tags, as opposed to the <p> </p> (the things you notice when you highlight text as you read!)

mrmaddogon Sales of obscure game consoles vs. non-iPad tablets

The Nintendo Virtual Boy "was released on July 21, 1995 [... and Nintendo] discontinued it the following year" ... so no - it really was a flop that sold more units than the playbook (to date).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy

mrmaddogon In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban

I am firmly against blocking any communication tool on the internet, though I am all for prosecuting those that incite violence and illegal activities should they be dumb enough to use a website that can be linked back to them.

mrmaddogon Facebook Is The New Nielsen Family

First was the introduction of Like/Share/Recommend buttons for third party web sites. Now Facebook is providing a data engine for third party ads. It seems clear that the next step is for Facebok to become an ad provider for external networks.

I think this new deal is a pretty smart way for them to test the waters with regard to privacy + third party ads.

mrmaddogon Chocolat - the new editor

Don't get me wrong, I have grown to love emacs. I use it all day, every day, and a good portion of my hippocampus is dedicated to storing away emacs keyboard shortcuts. But why can't I have what is good about emacs (a ton of buffers, unlimited bash shells, keyboard based) in a native text editor? I'm content with emacs now, but why do engineers have to spend so much time wrestling with an editor like emacs before being able to use it properly?

mrmaddogon Chocolat - the new editor

When will somebody produce a text editor built for remote editing of text files? The vast majority of programmers that I know do all of their work on a remote build-server, and thus are relegated to using emacs, vim or some extremely ungainly combination of TextMate+FtpServer/Remote Filesystem Mount.

Could some intrepid developer create an app that would allow me to easily a) open and edit remote files b) open arbitrary terminal windows that are already ssh-ed into my build server so I can grep/find/make/whatever else I have to do. This would be the killer editor for me and most people I know, and it pains me every time I see a new editor that doesn't do this.

mrmaddogon TaskRabbit Turns Grunt Work Into a Game

"Since many common tasks are carried out in the senders’ homes, runners are vetted through a three-step process, which starts with an application form and progresses to an automated phone or video interview that poses a series of questions designed to weed out deadbeats. Finally, TaskRabbit pays the database giant Acxiom to perform a federal criminal background check on each prospective worker."

Sounds like what AirBnB should be doing for both renters and hosts...