How We Know Chrome OS Will Be A Hit: Steve Ballmer Doesn't Think So - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/14/how-we-know-chrome-os-will-be-a-hit-steve-ballmer-doesnt-think-so/?awesm=tcrn.ch_5r0&utm_campaign=techcrunch&utm_content=techcrunch-autopost&utm_medium=tcrn.ch-twitter&utm_source=direct-tcrn.ch <comment><USER2> Oh, as opposed to all the times when CEOs make positive, optimistic statements about their competitors' products.

<comment><USER3> No, as opposed to all the times when CEOs completely ignore their competitors' products in public statements.

<comment><USER2> The article isn't clear whether this was a voluntary public statement or a result of a direct question (the TechFlash article seems to hint that it was a question). It makes a pretty big difference.

Had he answered with "no comment", the headline would've been "Microsoft shaking in their boots". Giving a vague non-answer might have been safer, but it still doesn't mean we should read too much into his answer (and even that could have been twisted any number of ways).

<comment><USER3> Good point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oh please, just stop writing stuff about what is not known yet.

All these pseudo journalist are taking Google OS as a great success for granted and ridiculing someone who uses a safer and smarter approach of just not predicting the future.

</comment><comment><USER5> What Ballmer declares publicly means nothing. When the reports start floating out of Microsoft of the violence that he has committed against office furniture, we know we have something.

</comment><comment><USER6> Not sure how I feel about the "He was wrong before, so he must be wrong again," strategy. Ballmer's probably learned a thing or two in the past few years, and history isn't always the best measure of future accuracy.

<comment><USER7> you can't feel good about it; I don't - that strategy is as backwards as many of the things Msft does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> When MG Siegler left Venturebeat they wrote a post titled "we'll miss you...especially your headlines" and this is the perfect example of why. The man's got a talent.

The post itself comes across as filler. Ballmer disparages all his competition and given Microsoft's track record I'd guess he's been right more than he's been wrong (only in the last 5 to 10 years has Microsoft become the gang who can't shoot straight). But again he insults everyone so it's not really an indication of anything.

<comment><USER9> _All_ of MG Siegler's posts are filler with a catchy headline for linkbait.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> All events given in the article are independent of each other and future outcomes. There's absolutely no reason to bet money on Chrome because of Ballmer.

</comment><comment><USER11> i think the battle on the future "slim os" will be attached to questions on HCI. and thats where ms has some nice cards. but will they play them correctly? and for sure its not an indicator what balmer says in the first place. he still needs to get rid of windows 3.11 eerrr mobile ;)

</comment><comment><USER12> I wish I could have down-voted this article, all I read is Ballmer bashing.</comment>


N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi Scours Globe for Top Students - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/education/21nyu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

<comment><USER2> The middleast realizes that education is important for their growth once they run out of oil. They notice the success of israel and are trying to mimic it by creating institutes of excellence, but what they dont realize is there is no way they can mimic the culture of israel, which is more responsible for their success than anything else.

Its like u can build buildings in Bangalore but u cant replicate the culture of the valley. Bangalore ended up being a sweatshop where technology companies set up back end offices.

More over when half your population is not considered equal to the other half and is considered not ok for smart jobs or serious careers, I think that's a serious disadvantage human capital wise. Personally I don't think these programs will do any good.

Also, most of these programs are really new and I doubt if they will match the quality of the parent programs.

Disclaimer- I was offered to interview for one such program last year and I did not take it up.

</comment><comment><USER3> As international as they try to make it, I do not expect it to beat the flood of global students applying to USA schools, some departments in US schools, especially in the master's/Ph.D levels are a lot more international then you would expect.

<comment><USER4> [http://www.cs.cornell.edu/People/Students/MEngStudents/index...](http://www.cs.cornell.edu/People/Students/MEngStudents/index.htm)

<comment><USER4> wtf? WHY DOWNVOTED? I WAS PROVIDING GOOD REFERENCE FOR ABOVE COMMENT!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why Abu Dhabi? If you're really going for an "international" school, why wouldn't you pick somewhere a bit more stable? If neutrality is key, then I'd choose someplace like Geneva.

<comment><USER6> What's unstable about Abu Dhabi?

<comment><USER5> It's strong economy is based on a limited resource that much of the world is shifting away from. And its social policies remain incompatible with many of the major countries of today.

Also, the surrounding area is torn apart by a never-ending war.

<comment><USER6> _It's strong economy is based on a limited resource that much of the world is shifting away from._

Unlike most other gulf states, Abu Dhabi has actually been diversifying it's economy for years. According to Wikipeda, _non oil and gas GDP now constitutes 64% of the UAE's total GDP_ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi#Economy>

_its social policies remain incompatible with many of the major countries of today_

Perhaps, but it's certainly more liberal than most of it's neighbors. I would have thought an international university could act as a factor to improve that as well.

 _the surrounding area is torn apart by a never-ending war_

It's about 600km from Iraq. That's very roughly the same distance Los Angles is from the Mexican drug wars - where more people are being killed than Iraq at the moment.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Nextdoor Breaks a Sacred Design Rule to End Racial Profiling - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2016/08/nextdoor-breaks-sacred-design-rule-end-racial-profiling/ <comment><USER2> Jeff Atwood blogged about this last week. 'Can Software Make You Less Racist?' [https://blog.codinghorror.com/can-software-make-you-less- rac...](https://blog.codinghorror.com/can-software-make-you-less-racist/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Damn, after only a paragraph I was hit with the anti-ad-blocker message. Now I'll never finish that article.</comment>


Show HN: An easier way to print code - <AUTHOR> http://jaredpetersen.github.io/codeprinter/

<comment><AUTHOR> GitHub repo here: [https://github.com/jaredpetersen/codeprinter](https://github.com/jaredpetersen/codeprinter)

</comment><comment><USER2> What problem do you solve by using this?

<comment><AUTHOR> Computer Science students often have to turn in a digital and printed copy of their code for lab assignments. Also, some developers just prefer to have a physical copy in front of them when they're figure out why something isn't working.

Unfortunately, many IDEs don't allow you to print out your code. The ones that do tend to put headers and footers on and/or don't allow you to customize the font and font size used. I was trying to print out some code in Eclipse and I had to go change the IDE's overall font size in order to make the code actually readable.

So, it's a very specific use case.</comment></comment>


Backup and Sync from Google available soon - <AUTHOR> https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2017/06/backup-and-sync-from-google-available.html <comment><USER2> Again, no Linux version.

<comment><USER3> The Linux desktop market share clearly isn't large enough to devote resources to. But you can take comfort in the fact that that creates space for 3rd parties:

[https://www.insynchq.com/](https://www.insynchq.com/)

<comment><USER4> Right, because when it comes to your data, giving access to yet another third- party, this time from Singapore, is always a good idea.

> _The Linux desktop market share clearly isn 't large enough to devote > resources to_

Dropbox has a Linux client. I personally couldn't give a damn about Google's motivation. By not releasing a Linux client, it means they _don 't care about me_ as their customer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 100GB for $2/month is pretty nice after you exhaust your 15GB. Sucks that the storage sizes only go up by factors of 10 though.

<comment><USER6> The problem for me with google apps is that they don't have a family pack. I can get Office 365 for 10 dollars for 5 home users, and each would get 1 TB, 60 minutes of skype, and office desktop. I am waiting for google to offer something similar (sans the desktop version). If I was to purchase G.Suite for 5, it would be 50 dollars vs 10 dollars (and no 300 minutes of skype).

<comment><USER7> Thanks - I didn't know about it. Do Office 365 comes with both the browser and desktop counterparts?

<comment><USER6> Correct. Office 365 offers both. The only problem for me, is that I rather use gmail than outlook.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Digging the link to Drive File System reveals that is not Linux either. Like Dropbox's proposed product, this also seems baffling from a technical perspective. Implementing a user-mode filesystem is the easiest on Linux.

</comment><comment><USER9> I find it interesting that they showed the Photos app on OSX. Seems like at least one of this updates goals is to challenge iCloud desktop users.

</comment><comment><USER10> If we wait just a little longer we can discuss the product itself.

</comment><comment><USER11> I use the drive CLI on a regular basis, easy workflow for thos familiar with DVCS: [https://github.com/odeke-em/drive#drive](https://github.com/odeke- em/drive#drive)</comment>


Beginner's Guide to the Language of Airport Runways - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/a-beginners-guide-to-the-secret-language-of-airport-run-1689493625?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

<comment><USER2> See also FAA's pub: Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

"The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge provides basic knowledge that is essential for pilots. This handbook introduces pilots to the broad spectrum of knowledge that will be needed as they progress in their pilot training. Except for the Code of Federal Regulations pertinent to civil aviation, most of the knowledge areas applicable to pilot certification are presented. This handbook is useful to beginning pilots, as well as those pursuing more advanced pilot certificates. "

[http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/av...](http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/pilot_handbook/)

<comment><USER3> Websites like FlightAware also have a variety of fun documents about specific airports and procedures. I'm personally rather fond of the map for RIVER VISUAL RUNWAY 13 at LGA: [http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KLGA/IAP/RIVER+VISU...](http://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KLGA/IAP/RIVER+VISUAL+RWY+13)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is rather interesting to know that it takes this much work into preparing and operating airport run-ways i learnt a lot from this forum it is very informative with enhancement of pictures fascinating!!</comment>


Cost of incarceration in the U.S. more than $1 trillion - <AUTHOR> https://source.wustl.edu/2016/09/cost-incarceration-u-s-1-trillion/ <comment><AUTHOR> >"for every dollar in corrections costs, incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs" [...] "$80 billion spent annually on corrections"</comment>


The real reason why domain names don't matter anymore - <AUTHOR> http://cultivatus.co.uk/2011/11/30/the-real-reason-why-domain-names-dont-matter-anymore/#more-792

<comment><USER2> Argues that your site name is more than the domain - since we all find it by search, and search is ubiqituous.

Perhaps we just need meta-tags formalized, and can give up on the domain name - go the way of IP4 address (and the buffalo)</comment>


Decrypting WebLogic Passwords - <AUTHOR> https://blog.netspi.com/decrypting-weblogic-passwords/ <comment><USER2> Truth is, the whole Fusion Middleware stack is... not very hard to compromise, even without resorting to password-cracking. Product-specific knowledge is often enough to retrieve plaintext credentials from a number of products. The whole Oracle ecosystem is like that -- SQLDeveloper's passwords can also be retrieved very easily.

The unspeakable truth is, in most enterprise companies, the ability to retrieve a lost password (when the original employee is on holiday/was fired/stepped under a bus) is more valued than the ability to secure it.

We always talk about security theatre like it only happens at airports, but I see lots of it in regular companies as well.

<comment><USER3> >We always talk about security theatre like it only happens at airports, but I see lots of it in regular companies as well.

Excel spreadsheets, shared across the network, that contain all important company passwords - I've seen it at more than one company.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You could already do this without coding anything.

[http://recover-weblogic-password.appspot.com/](http://recover-weblogic- password.appspot.com/)

Here's the same thing for WebSphere:

[http://www.poweredbywebsphere.com/decoder.html](http://www.poweredbywebsphere.com/decoder.html)

<comment><USER5> I'm against uploading any type of sensitive information to an unknown website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This kind of thing isn't exactly unique to WebLogic.

Privileged filesystem access generally means doom for your application's security layer, as you'll be able to springboard into databases or other systems from there.

If you have access to a salt file, you can generate hashes from that. If you have access to an encryption key, you can decrypt encrypted strings. Plus, so many configurations just use plaintext passwords.

The cool thing here is he found a way to decrypt these without having to run a WebLogic script, which has always been a minor pain.

</comment><comment><USER7> It was known that Weblogic was storing encrypted passwords, but publishing just how easy it is to decrypt them and the fact that they're using the same key across all Weblogic installs is the real concern.</comment>


30 days after launching my side project - <AUTHOR>

Hi, I launched a side project called Pinwoot (https://pinwoot.com) exactly 30 days ago on hackernews and reddit.
Pinwoot is a simple user discovery tool for Pinterest users to grow their pinterest following organically but quickly and find like minded pinterest users.
After 30 days of launch, I managed to get 7000+ active users, about 100 paying users and $6129 in revenues.
My learnings : 1. Build your first main feature really well 2. Dont launch with 100s of features, keep the product simple 3. Make sure to have some influencers on your board as users from day one and make them super happy 4. Use tweet button very smartly - this is make or break up for your side project 5. Dont hurry up into making money, let your users ask you for more feature and then roll out paid features.
I invite your feedback and suggestions on how to further increase my user base. People are loving the product (you may search for pinwoot on twitter) but somehow, none of the good blogs are covering it. Any contacts or suggestions, most welcome.
My name is Alexander and can be reached at email@example.com <comment><USER2> "After 30 days of launch, I managed to get 7000+ active users, about 100 paying users and $6129 in revenues"

Wow! That's brilliant! How did you manage to convert 100 users to pay >$60 in less than 30 days? Can you tell me more about it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. As I mentioned in the post, I made sure that everyone sees the benefit of this product within 30-60 minutes on the platform (algorithm pushes new users on top of list to get them few followers quickly)

I waited for users to start asking for some extra features or more seeds/credit points (people get 15 seeds to start with). I also clearly mentioned that we have two things in pipeline 1.) Another useful free feature 2.) Pro Accounts as low as $15(will be available for only first 100)

So, by first week, people had tested the fruits of being on pinwoot, so they started queuing up for pro accounts.

In 2nd week, I allowed people to start buying seeds for as low as $5 and maximum $29. So, my users are buying those seeds on regular basis for last 2.5 weeks. I haven't launched pro accounts yet - once those are launched, I may see monthly rev at around $15K.

In nutshell, make that one feature super awesome but add a limit to it such that people get addicted to it and in want for more, they pay you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Clickable: <https://pinwoot.com>

</comment><comment><USER4> Congratulations - looks slick. I don't have a pintrest account so I can't really try it out or give you meaningful feedback, but good luck going forward.

</comment><comment><USER5> I really love this idea and think I can/would like to help out.

Can we chat on Skype? My username: sdnerzz

</comment><comment><USER6> "Use tweet button very smartly" -- elaborate ?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have to engage/activate our existing users to get more users. For that twitter is the best mode.

On signup, we request users to tweet (just a request) - about 10% new users to do this tweet. The language of this tweet was selected after number of (sort of) A/B testing with different texts.

In the dashboard, when ever a user gets more than 10 new followers, we start showing a message that provokes them to share a message like "Woot! I got X #Pinterest followers from Pinwoot for free. If you are on Pinterest, you must try it". This tweet is resulting in 15% of new signups daily.

<comment><USER7> Great idea prompting the user to tweet after 10 follows. Can I ask why you didn't do the same with Facebook posts? Is your target market more likely to be on Twitter?

<comment><AUTHOR> We tried with both Tweet it or Share on Facebook. 83% people clicked on tweet it only button. 12% clicked on both and rest 5% on Share on FB only. All the new users that we got from this "Got_Followers" social sharing where from twitter only. Yes, zero converted from Facebook posts. Hence, we decided to stick with twitter only.

Another test we ran on our Facebook page (<http://facebook.com/pinwoot>) was to have a tab called "Try Now" which was basically connected to our Facebook connect app - that was great, many many conversions. So, we are still using it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Get a 3D view of any location in Britain's public Lidar coverage - <AUTHOR> https://houseprices.io/lab/3d-lidar <comment><USER2> That's pretty cool! Is there any way to export this data as an .stl? Some of the scenes would make cool 3D prints

<comment><AUTHOR> I've added an export function now which exports to Esri .asc format. Not sure how difficult it is to turn that into a .stl, but I found this article[1] which looks helpful.

[1] [https://research.umn.edu/units/uspatial/news/3d-printing- mod...](https://research.umn.edu/units/uspatial/news/3d-printing-models- derived-lidar-data)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is this kind of data available for other countries (eg US)?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not aware of any high resolution composite model for the the US as a whole, but there are variety of regional surveys to be found scattered around. This guy maintains a good list: [https://arheologijaslovenija.blogspot.com/p/blog- page_81.htm...](https://arheologijaslovenija.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_81.html)</comment></comment>


DDD revisited - <AUTHOR> https://lostechies.com/gabrielschenker/2015/04/16/ddd-revisited/

<comment><USER2> I was confused until I figured out that "DDD" was not "Data Display Debugger" but "Domain-driven design".

FWIW, the last commit on the debugger was 6 years, 1 month ago.</comment>


Making one line of code do the work of 47 - <AUTHOR> http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2009/03/making-one-line-of-code-do-work-of-47.html

<comment><USER2> I've never liked this paper.

First, I quibble that the metrics are off: the "code ratio" ignores intrinsic factors that alter the numbers, such as the overhead in a "scripting" language for driving the interpreter and managing its resources.

Second, and more importantly, it posits that the role of a scripting language is to automate and glue together systems code. History hasn't borne that argument out. You can assert that every Python or Ruby extension is an example of systems code offered by the interpreter for glueing, but architecturally I can make the same claim about every kernel interface, device driver, and chipset feature. The fact is that in 2009 high-level languages are the principal programming environment; lots of apps get built without even considering a "systems programming" environment.

Finally, what makes Osterhout's argument even more incoherent is the fact that there's no real line of division between systems programming languages and scripting languages. Feature for feature, Common Lisp and Python are both "scripting" languages in Osterhout's definition. But Common Lisp is a fine systems programming language (people build operating systems in it). He really just seems to be building walls around the immaturity of specific interpreters --- Tcl, in particular, which has always had one of the most primitive execution environments.

There's no such thing as a "scripting language". They're all just programming languages.

<comment><USER3> The C-based way of handling things has been, for some time to write a low- level core in C and glue things together with a "scripting" language that's written in C and provides good C interoperability.

The Lisp way, which seems to be getting more popular (e.g. PyPy, Clojure) is to be high-level by default, but allow type annotations, unchecked math and such low-level things to optimize code where the profiler tells you there are problems. I think this way is objectively better, if only because the profiler has more information at runtime than the programmer does while coding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "47 lines into 1" invokes for me the idea of very specialised scripting languages, that have been tooled for a specific task. You can do "start http server", but can't parse a cookie for yourself.

Nothing wrong with this for sure - But, what I think is the holy grail is taking 47 lines into _3_ \- with a language has the capability to let you do that again, and again - (i.e. exponentially increasing the semantic power of the language).

</comment><comment><USER5> That's a classic paper, and well worth reading for those who haven't come across it before.</comment>