HN user
Read a lot, write a little.
Agree on this, and not just in tech.
I work for a large financial co in NL (~50k employees) and 36-hour contracts are the standard for all full-time employees. 32 is considered part-time for us.
Regardless, most people certainly work 4 days a week here. Of all my friends and contacts, I think I know of only a handful working 5 days a week.
A lot of the arguments here, whether for or against the idea that this achievement 'belongs' to the U.S., miss an important point.
Not everyone working on past, current and future Mars Exploration Programs is an American citizen. The funding may be from the U.S., but the individual contributions at NASA come from all over the world.
To name just three, there's Fernando Abilleira, Spain (trajectory analyst); Nathalie Cabrol, France (planetary geologist); and Firouz Naderi, Iran (manager of the Mars Exploration Program). There's a huge list of people, you should check it out: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/programmissions/people/
The original NYT article was posted to HN almost two years ago. The comments from that post are worth a read: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1743513
Instead of debating the merits of reading due to the fact that you can't remember what you read, why not improve how you read to drastically increase how much you remember. Why not (re-)learn how to really read.
Of course, I'm talking of Adler's How to Read a Book.
Admittedly, it's intention was to help in absorbing and analysing The Great Books [2], but I have found it of unbounded usefulness when reading any non-fiction (retention rates went through the roof). Regardless: without using the techniques he discusses (some of you may already, without knowing it) you'll never be able to read or learn from books at your full potential.
This is an incredibly ridiculous story. This student is exactly the type of person Hollywood should be nurturing: a creative student with vision, perusing his creative 'dream' and not letting his limited means get in the way of his vision.
It's a real pity that this happened, and a lost opportunity for the film industry. It could have been simple for them to take this as an opportunity and make something great out it. Instead, they alienated the type of person they need.
That said, I don't think this is an excuse to take 'revenge' on these companies, "one download at a time".
I would like to hear the other side of this story, though.
From what I understand, sellers are the ones that get stiffed in almost all PayPal disputes. As a buyer, I'm not surprised you had a good experience.
Note: As both a seller and a buyer, I've never had a problem with PayPal.
Given the timing of this poll (and it's European-bias as of 10:30 UTC) I would have been interested in a breakout between the European subregions (Eastern/Western/etc.).
(Although I guess limiting this as much as possible is desirable, otherwise there will be too many options available and the poll will not be very user-friendly.)
No, it's not Parenting Magazine. It's also not bodegajed Magazine.
Like many have said before—to others who stress a dislike over an article that made it to HN's front page—if you don't like an article then flag it, ignore it, and/or don't click on it and comment. Move on.
I'm not a parent, but as soon as I saw this article in my feed reader I came to HN to see what other hackers had to say about parenting. I am not disappointed.
There's also another way of making money from advertising: flat rate.
While I'm opposed to the idea of ads on HN, if it were to be implemented I can't imagine PG looking at CPI/CPC methods. Rather, I suspect advertising space would be 'rented' on a monthly basis for a much higher fee to technology companies, etc.
But I'll reiterate: I'm against advertising on HN for multiple reasons (poor revenue model for a community like this; there are better alternatives; I don't like them), and I would not be surprised if PG was too (although I've not way of knowing).
I just read that the Bletchley Park Trust needs to raise a further £1.7m on their own in order to 'unlock' the £4.6m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[1]
Time to get that bank card out of my wallet.
[1] http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/contact/donation/sup...
Neat. Remind me of the feedback integration on Google+ -- is this where you got your inspiration?
Love it...
No, I don't think this is taking pedantry a bit too far.
As other replies to the parent comment show, people seem to feel that this sort of abuse (meaning the registering of absurdly generic trademarks) is typical of a large organisation like EMI.
The fact is, this is a false belief (at least in this case).
It's false as EMI didn't trademark the word. We can go around blaming cultures like EMI's for mistakes made by individuals decades earlier, but I don't think that's a valid way to argue. Do you?
…clearly EMI should not have been awarded a trademark on the term "entrepreneur" in the first place.
They didn't get awarded the trademark in the first place.
As the article says, Chase Revel, who started Entrepreneur in the '70s, registered the trademark for "entrepreneur" and began to enforce the mark. The trademark went along with the magazine when it was sold in '87.
Not yet, although I'm just starting the process for a non-fiction topic I find fascinating: the intersection of wine and psychology.
I'll soon be starting to blog on the topic at http://winepsychology.com (subscribe if it's something you might like) and will be using that format to structure my thoughts and the material for the book.
I have no ideas of grandeur (i.e. making money or even being traditionally published), just a desire to create a long form collection of information that is hopefully accessible and enjoyable to a wider audience.
I'll look at self-publishing closer to completion and how to market and track my progress throughout. Hopefully this will spawn some good HN-worthy posts, too. Wish me luck!
Laugh all the way to the bank? It'll be the bank laughing at me if I turn up saying "Look, I saved $9.99 on an ebook by pirating it."
Step 0: Practice public speaking
The single best way to become a "kick-ass" public speaker is to speak in public more often. Deliberate practice.
All the tips in the world won't help if you don't get up in front of an audience and practice just that: being in front of an audience and speaking to them.
How can you do this? Toastmasters (http://www.toastmasters.org/) is a fantastic group to join and is available all over the world. I swear by it and so do my friends who have also joined (I went from a nervous public speaker who dreaded the thought of public speaking to a nervous public speaker who _loves_ getting in front of an audience).
Wolfram|Alpha have changed their name: http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2011/04/01/wolframalpha-changes...
Now it's: http://www.wolframalpha.com/bieberbeta.html
WolframAlpa|Beta would have been funnier in my opinion. This just feels like my dad trying to be hip.
http://pinboard.in is now a Yahoo! product.
Before I realised, the "from Yahoo!" image (top left) stopped me in my tracks.
Micropayments to remove a small watermark?
Some people would never pay, so making the watermark huge and ugly wouldn't be a good idea as you would lose a large amount of new users coming to you through WoM from pleased, existing users.
… but a small yet visible watermark, removed for $1?
I'm not sure about the possible ROI, but it's a thought.
The sheets you bought may feel like a luxury good, but that's not necessarily correlated with the thread count.
Thread count is much less important than the quality of the cotton/fiber and the quality of the weaving. Even shops that sell sheets admit to this, saying that thread count is a metric, but is primarily a marketing tool.
More: http://www.lonegunman.co.uk/2010/01/22/buying-linen-thread-c...
I knew there was a previous, related discussion.
HN Domain Exchange: Add your unused domains http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1794289
Like Wordoid? http://wordoid.com/
It can occasionally come up with some gems and is one of the three tools I use when trying to find available domains (the others being http://domai.nr/ and http://impossibility.org/)
I'm not quite sure that's entirely true, as is pointed out in the article.
In the NL Apple Store, polyurethane Smart Covers costs €39 each while a leather one costs €69 (in Apple's eyes €1 = $1).
This wooden cover costs €50.
I don't think it's fair to compare wood to polyurethane, but feel free to do so in order to make your argument stand.
The implementation details of the 1-Click patent are still fairly broad/generic: http://www.google.com/patents?id=O2YXAAAAEBAJ
It's worth noting that while the USPTO granted the patent (and even after multiple reexaminations still granted parts of the patent), the patent was never granted at all in Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Click#Patent
I think that's looking at it in entirely the wrong way. It's naive to assume that long form marketing works like that and that those on the lower half are more receptive to the style.
I see two steps to understanding why long forms works and why people like us have an aversion to the method:
* Seeing the same things in different ways
* Assumptions about our place on the Internet
Seeing the same things in different ways
Take as an example the face mask adverts halfway down this A List Apart article on Whitespace in design: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace
Looking at the direct mail version of the face mask advert we primarily see a bad design with no budget invested in it. We may assume that the face mask is likely to be of poor quality.
Others (e.g. those not versed in design theory/used to seeing nice designs… i.e. those who are not able to readily grasp why something just looks badly designed) may well see a small, honest, single-person company that didn't waste money on graphic design. He invested in the product, not the design.
The two designs are designed with intent; positioned differently for a different clientele. One no-less intelligent than the other, just less educated in marketing tactics and design.
We see the same thing in vastly different ways, drawing different conclusions about different aspects of the same offer.
Assumptions about our place on the Internet
It doesn't surprise me that long form works so well on the Internet.
Because we surround ourselves with people in our own social circle -- be it on Twitter, here on HN, etc. -- we forget that we are only a tiny subset of the Internet population: the subset of people who enjoy testing, reading about and discussing marketing, design, entrepreneurship, sales, psychology, etc.
Most purchasing and browsing on the Internet is done by those not as well-versed in these areas as us: we're out numbered by the people who know less about these topics by a huge factor.
They come across a long form marketing piece and good copy will snag them and bring them in, selling it to them slowly but surely.
When we see it: bad design!, scam!, psychological tricks!, close! The copy doesn't get to us. It doesn't sell us. It isn't positioned toward us.
Combine this difference of opinion and our temporary delusion that everyone should be like us and you have your reason why we find it hard to comprehend why long form works so damn well.
- OK, my apologies for the length of this reply. Rant over. Hope it makes sense.
The official word from Twitter (as you pointed out):
* Inactive Account Policy: http://support.twitter.com/forums/26257/entries/15362-inacti...
* Trademark Policy: http://support.twitter.com/articles/18367-trademark-policy
However, Twitter have been known to free up unused usernames by request.
Two years ago I used the following method, YMMV[1]:
Send username@twitter.com an email with the subject line "Change username to existing, inactive username" with the following content:
---
* Username I want: @SquattedUsername
* Existing username:@MyRubbishCurrentUsername
* Change username: not start again with new.[2]
---
A day or two later my account was automatically transferred.
[1] This method assumes that you currently have a Twitter account and the 'squatted username is inactive.
[2] If you want the Tweets from your current account to be transferred (rather than deleted/archived) say this. Otherwise state that you would like to start afresh.
Agreed; the former.
However the option to also receive alerts in exchange for my email address would be a nice additional option (emphasis on additional... main use would be the former).
If you're only looking to save stories to read later on a day-by-day basis, why not upvote stories you want to read later and then visit your 'saved stories' when you have better access (accessible through your profile page)?
Do you honestly believe that the president has the power to reverse the TSA, cancel the PATRIOT act, close Guantanimo, end warantless wiretapping and spying on Americans, etc.?
He can raise the issue, make public statements, try and push through legislation, etc., but he can't just do all that as simply as you're making out.
He desperately wanted health care reform and he didn't have the power to do that in the way he wanted. What makes you think the president can do all this if he wanted to? It's nowhere near that easy.
Linux's 'failure' in getting people to spend "that kind of money" in a consumer context is most likely due to the fact that it's not a centrally-owned commercial entity with a product line and shareholders (i.e. what Apple Inc. is), not due to do any actual 'failure'.
I'm not saying that the users of Apple products and those of Linux distributions don't differ in their purchasing habits (and I'm not saying they do, either)--I'm just pointing out the flaw in this line of reasoning.
And I don't know why you keep repeating this "biggest non-Exxon company in world history" argument, too. It's sensationalist and by two of the most common metrics, false:
* By market capitalization they've been the biggest in only three quarters in history (most recent), all of which are smaller than other companies in history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_by_market_...
* By revenue there are many, many non-Exxon (i.e. oil?) companies bigger than Apple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_by_revenue