caudicus

To add some weight to parent comments, there are lots of comments from Googlers using AngularJS here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4113530. I recently switched from Backbone to Angular and have no plans on going back. [edit: I'm not a Googler, I just use Angular]

I stumbled into the about section, and in there they mention they're using a fleet of 500 volunteer ADS-B receivers networked to a central server, and they actually just pick up on planes with ADS-B transponders (more common in Europe than the US, it seems) - http://www.flightradar24.com/about - so it looks like they're not aggregating official/moderated data feeds or anything.

Caution: recently minted millionaire egos at play.

At the same time that amendment didn't pass (just to be clear). It was basically a tactic by the anti-SOPA contingent to blur the lines of legality...the pitch was "Why waste taxpayer dollars enforcing pornographic copyright? Vote for this!". I'm don't think it was raised was really a reflection of the lack of desire of the AG to enforce porn copyright...I'd guess not based on the context of it as a defensive, anti-SOPA move.

edit: it was raised by Jared Polis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Polis - who is in the anti-SOPA camp.

It's probably just "failure of imagination" in preventing this hack - inertial navigation tech isn't exactly new (was pioneered in WWII and really came to age building ballistic missile navigation systems) so I doubt cost/classified technology would be a factor. It's just sad because having an intertial navigation system and a GPS system working to agree with each other or else some fallback (inertial homeward bound since that's an internal system, your accuracy would be off but it'd get back to friendly territory at least) would have prevented an attack like this (I believe at least - please tell me if I'm wrong).

Found this through a quick Google search - "DIY drones" http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/autopilot-system-for-full-...

I'm not sure what hardware in the system is really making the Iranian's mouths water - obviously the stealth tech has to have a great monetary and military value...I wonder how much the internals of this system compare to a predator drone that they already have captured many of as the article stated.

This is the cover of this week's Economist, despite the fact they really only have two other articles in it...one talking about the Skype purchase and another talking about the increased investment of web technology companies in both the US, Europe and China.

I'd guess it's signal/noise ratio issue. I'd assume the number of "I have a startup but no money" people outnumber the "I have money and am looking to invest in a startup" people. By forcing startups to "pitch" and "schmooze" it acts as an filter to keep everyone but the most serious startups from wasting the time of these investors, even if it does take away time from these fledgling companies.

edit: On top of that, in reply to "low key" - I'm reading that as "low net-worth but still willing to spend" - http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html under "Friends/Family" - taking money from non-accredited investors is a burden according to this essay, but I don't know details myself.

Reserved instances (assuming you're going to use it for the full year, which of course is the big caveat) also bring the cost down to $0.007 an hour with an up-front investment of $54, so:

(($0.007 * 24 * 30)*12 + 54)/12 = $9.54 a month assuming you use it for the full year.

Edit: Also, as mentioned by _delirium, Linux instances are also $0.02 an hour. I did the Linux calculation but the same one with Windows goes at $0.012 per hour.

While reading this I was wondering about Godel's constitutional loophole to allow a dictatorship and Google'd upon a hacker news discussion of the same topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=447852

Looks like they have something like that actually - http://www.astorybeforebed.com/milpromo - or they just added it REALLY quickly to the site. ;)

Seriously. I've worked at a large bank and a small software company and both of their in-house email systems would go down at least a few times a year for all kinds of weird reasons. There are lots of ways for things to go wrong in general.

This is sort of un-related, but for fans of coding to ambient music (or anyone for that matter) - if you haven't already, check out "9 Beet Stretch" - http://www.park.nl/park_cms/public/index.php?thisarticle=118 - Beethoven's 9th Symphony stretched out over a 24 hour period. I heard it first on the "Time" episode of Radio Lab (great show). It's a real trip to listen to.

On iTunes you can go to Radio -> Ambient and there are a bunch of stations that play the style of music. I'm a fan of StillStream and Drone Zone.

So what does exactly equal scaling then?

I'm not disagreeing that scaling isn't only caching, but it's often a component just like anything else. Caching often helps scaling, as do multiple databases, working out bottlenecks in code...whatever else.

In response to "Wait, what? Where does it say we're an alternative to relational databases, or MySQL?" you responded: "The whole article is a comparison to relational databases."

Sure sounded to me like that was an answer to his question, and you were saying the author is saying CouchDB is an alternative to relational databases by saying it is a comparison.

I obviously wasn't trying to define what a comparison is, I was just giving a reason FOR this particular comparison.

You need not be so snide, sir.

I think they're trying to say how they differ from relational databases since most people know and understand relational databases. It's like telling someone in America how cricket is played and using baseball as a base point to explain it.

Totally agree. I've found that one of the most depressing things is feeling like a "cog in the wheel". If someone sent me this letter, I WOULD open up the window and scream "I'm going to make this product the best I can", and trust that I will be rewarded for it as a shareholder. That would cast all what I have historically labeled as "cynicism" toward my employer away. I'd believe that they finally "get me".

I guess it's all about just getting the employees and management on the same page and attacking a problem - with a startup it is really easy, since the division between the two is pretty small and blurred. And that's why we love the startup lifestyle.

I remember watching a call with someone from Dell on CNBC during the last US recession (2001 recession and "jobless recovery" the following couple of years). He said that Dell was basically going to cut prices like crazy and actually lose some money in order to gain market share during the down time so they could capitalize on it when the economy swings back up again.

I wonder if Apple has something like this in store in terms of the "cheaper laptop" rumor. We're (sort of) already seeing this with the iPhones. ("Cheaper" but higher monthly rates which nullify the savings in the long run.)

Well, I don't know the internals but Merrill might have a better balance sheet than Lehman. Also, BOA might be trying the whole "get too big to fail" thing - riding the wave of moral hazard and hoping for a government bail out if they ever hit the rocks hard.

Agreed - just as a sample, here is another one posted a while ago (Jan. 2007) - http://www.getacoder.com/projects/need_operating_system_4287...

There are Linux and Mac versions coming - they're just releasing first on Windows.

Well, to their credit Netflix's market cap is only 4x that of Blockbuster. ;)

As a Boston native, I can attest that people go to Dunkin' Donuts for the coffee, not the donuts. That is the main attraction of the place - donuts, bagels, etc - are all secondary. A chain that doesn't have the coffee is bound to fail.

Here's another article talking about this - http://www.lasnark.com/attn-los-angeles-entrepreneurs-please...

One thing to note about bank loans: usually the bank asks that at least some of the credit line is made personally liable to you/someone on your team. It's like the first time you get a credit card and you have a parent/guardian underwrite it since you have no credit history.

The business is like a person, with its own Tax ID and everything (just as we have social security numbers), and when that business has no credit history you may need to use yours to get it started and establish a credit history. When you put some of your own money on the line, the bank feels a little better off since you're risking your own capital along with their capital, and not just their capital.

I would say something like this...if you haven't already, this is the kind of thing you need to really create a business plan for.

Read this - http://www.slate.com/id/2132576/ - it might give some perspective. The profit margins on these things can be very narrow. That isn't to say it's a bad idea - just be sure you know what you're going into. I fear too many people think about how cool a place is, but don't think about how profitable it is at the same time. I know this is heresy in the web start up world...but at the same time we all admit that starting a web site these days is mad cheap - starting a brick and mortar place like this is not. ;)

I'd honestly pool some money up amongst your friends who are looking into this and run a market survey. Maybe hire some college kids who are majoring in marketing on the semi-cheap, or run it yourselves if you have that background. Use the survey data to indicate viability - try to find your target market, and project profitability with an expansion plan. Maybe a franchise? Or do you just want to do this to pay a salary and have a fun job? These are questions that the business plan with hash out.

The real problem is the idea is easily reproducible, and the returns are going to be semi-low, so you'll probably have a hard time attracting VC or Angel money - but I could be wrong. I'm guessing the most feasible thing is to raise money through friends, family and maybe a credit union one of you guys belong to. If you do have a solid business plan and can convince yourself and others to put your own/their own money on the line, it's an indicator that it is a good idea.

There are those trendy cereal places in LA, right? Maybe you guys should go into one of those places and just ask the owner how it's going so far. Throw your idea out, who knows, maybe they'll know someone. Find out all you can from them.

Anyway...just some random thoughts. I'm doing a low-tech venture myself right now reselling a diesel fuel additive (despite my programming background), and have been going through a lot of this stuff (market surveys, business plans, viability, projections, etc) myself.

Listen to this episode of Radio Lab - http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/25 - it talks how, in our dreams, we start to do free association of events that have occurred during the day to make sense of them. Pretty interesting stuff.

Well for drive through Starbucks you order first and pay second, so just envision that scenario.

Hmmm...I'm not sure if I buy that statement...is there strong correlation between income and debt levels? Any data to back up that statement? I mean basic financial advice is that everyone should maintain a health "debt to income" ratio - so according to that, debt should increase with income. That's theory...I searched for a graph of income vs net worth, but couldn't find one.

Most low income working people I know avoid debt like the plague - with the exception of car loans and house loans, which low and middle income people pretty much approach the same way, but just purchasing at varying price levels.

Just to be clear, I'm comparing low and middle income families. That said, low income people do spend a larger percentage of their money on food and energy as compared to middle income families (since everyone needs to feed themselves, keep themselves warm and go places).

I think students would be the only exception to this...but I'd guess they're an exception, as they are taking out debt because they know their future earnings are going to go up in the long run.

Edit: However I do see what you're saying in terms of upper income people losing money tied to investments due to inflation. But I'm just saying, all else equal, for a zero-debt lower income household vs a zero-debt middle income household (of which there exist many), the lower one is going to get hit hard by this.

I wonder how much of this is sort of self-feeding behavior: e.g. in America we use email a lot at work, so emails are answered quickly, which reinforces its use. But in China, they don't use email so much, so email isn't answered quickly, which discourages its use. Maybe it's more initial conditions and less culture.

So either you are working on some startup that will be a viable competitor but are still in the famed "stealth mode", or you know public information you are not sharing with us. C'moonnn, tell us more. ;)