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Stories from July 11, 2008
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They're shooting themselves in the foot with their poor communications. I'm basically in agreement in that I don't want some proprietary system I can't fiddle with, but they need to cast hackers as people who want to have fun and create cool things, not as a bunch of venomous haters who are jealous of Jobs' (well deserved, IMO) success.
32.
Ask YC: Finding a co-founder(s)
19 points by jond2062 on July 11, 2008 | 34 comments
33.
U.S. Considers Takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (nytimes.com)
19 points by sdurkin on July 11, 2008 | 15 comments
34.
Ask HN: Thoughts on grad school? (CS PhD)
18 points by time_management on July 11, 2008 | 18 comments
35.
FCC chief says Comcast violated Internet rules in blocking file-sharers (yahoo.com)
17 points by epi0Bauqu on July 11, 2008 | 7 comments

“On a title-by-title basis, of the 130,000 titles available on Kindle and in physical form, Kindle sales now make up over 12% of sales for those titles…".

So, it is 12% of those 130K titles, not 12% of all book sales on AMZN. I am not sure how many titles Amazon sells overall but it's probably much greater than 130K which means that the Kindle's share is lower.

Just wanted to point out that the post's title might not be entirely accurate.

(Update: it looks like Amazon stocks several million book titles)

37.
AMD Is Fighting For Its Life (cnbc.com)
19 points by mojuba on July 11, 2008 | 17 comments
38.
Female CEOs at top Silicon Valley tech firms down to zero (mercurynews.com)
18 points by nickb on July 11, 2008 | 25 comments

There have always been a few stories like this.

I understand that to someone who saw what happened to reddit, the sight of words like "Obama" or "Union" in a title is very alarming. But not all stories with those words in their titles are boring political ones.

Don't worry, I won't let News.YC go down that road. I'll munge the voting algorithm before I let that happen.


And when the speech was over, McCarthy spoke up from the auditorium's front row. "I'm a little puzzled," he said. "What does this have to do with AI?"

I love you, John!


'iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones.'

I dislike the fact that Apple has considerable (compltete?) control over the distribution of an iPhone app and even charges the developer for doing so.Frigging unbelivable!

42.
Discovery is the New Cocaine: Going Beyond Engagement (slideshare.net)
18 points by mingyeow on July 11, 2008 | 5 comments

Someone should write a book like the little schemer but for physics. One of the best classes I took in college was somewhat like this. We measured the period of the pendulum using our heartbeats, and we also measured how long it took things to roll down differently sloped ramps. From this we derived the period of the pendulum and the relationship between slope and speed. Eventually we used this to derive the universal law of gravitation using the period of the moon's orbit as the only given. It was pretty cool because there was no math involved. Instead of using calculus to derive the equations, we instead found them inductively by iterating over a couple thousand lines in excel and then looking for the pattern. The idea of the class was to understand physics by deriving all the equations the same way the people who discovered them did. It was pretty cool.
44.
 Followup Answers re: Lifestyle vs. Investment and Angel vs. VC (tonywright.com)
16 points by prakash on July 11, 2008
45.
New iPhone 3G Sold Out (appleiphoneapps.com)
17 points by reddit on July 11, 2008 | 11 comments

Restating your problem: the circles I run in now don't have what I am looking for, how can I find what I am looking for? Simple answer: change the circles you run in. Go to the watering hole for the prey you want to take down -- users groups, coworking facilities, and professional networks like workingwithrails and linkedin. Then, do a small test project, then try a harder project together. Expect to go through many before you find the one that fits.

'Just because you've become a young man now (Man, now) There's still some things that you don't understand now (Son, now) Before you ask some girl for her hand now (My son) Keep your freedom for as long as you can now'

My mama told me...'you better shop around' (Shop, shop around) a-whoa-yeah You better (uh-huh) shop around! (Shop, shop around) Uh-uh-uh

47.
The reddit time machine (a series of screen captures and mock-ups from over the years) (redditall.com)
16 points by kn0thing on July 11, 2008 | 2 comments

My mother (who thankfully is not so old) uses the Justin.tv officecam for exactly this.

I think the stupid SUV's are the only thing that kept GM around this long. They probably would have died years ago if they never came up with them (the damn things are pure profit).

As for Toyota-style management? It's difficult to do with strong, uncooperative unions. Want to replace 100 workers by robots? Not happening. Want to give workers decision making power, tempered by accountability for their decisions? The union demands more money for the decisions, and thinks that "accountability" means "talk to the steward."

There is a reason Toyota builds factories in Kentucky instead of Detroit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/04/business/04uaw.html?_r=1&#...

I'm not saying GM made no mistakes, but unions did play a huge role.

50.
Is Google heading down the Yahoo path? (sitepoint.com)
15 points by swombat on July 11, 2008 | 14 comments
51.
Who shot General Motors? (Labor unions, in 1950.) (nytimes.com)
15 points by cmcginnis on July 11, 2008 | 46 comments
52.
When I Thought I Was Smart (toyblog.typepad.com)
15 points by antiform on July 11, 2008 | 5 comments
53.
Introducing DataFabric (fiveruns.com)
15 points by prakash on July 11, 2008 | 7 comments
54.
Ask YC: Four Year Roadmap
15 points by matt1 on July 11, 2008 | 22 comments

"I'm going to live forever or die trying."

I'm often tempted to disagree with the effective HN ban on political issues, because it leaves so many of the most important facets of life off the table.

But, alas, I think this is correct. This is a terrible forum for discussing political issues -- because the signal-to-noise in politics is very low (any political discussion is mostly about team-building, horse-trading, and tooth-baring, not problem-solving or analysis and certainly not software or technology) and we don't have the time to wade through waist-deep piles of personal statements, deal memos, and threats; because this site draws people from very diverse political backgrounds who will take a very long time to reach equilibrium if they start team-building, horse-trading, or baring their teeth; but mostly because the place just works better if there's some focus. It helps us to know when to shut up.

I interpret PG's mission statement not as an attempt to ensure that "anything of interest to anyone smart" is on topic, but as a signal that he doesn't want to be the Big Man who sets the agenda for news.yc. He wants the community to do that. And we have: political discussions get discouraged (using our polite jargon: "That's too reddit for this site") and I personally strive to limit my team-building, horse-trading, and tooth-baring efforts to the slyest possible implications. For example, I'm going to go mod up edw519.

It's not as if there are no other political forums on the web.


Am I the only person who thinks that the subjective "WOW" is unnecessary from the post title?
58.
The most important revenue number you present in a business plan (jslogan.com)
14 points by jslogan on July 11, 2008 | 1 comment
59.
Rails - Simple Asynchronous Processing (savagexi.com)
14 points by sanj on July 11, 2008 | 3 comments

Poorly titled and misrepresented

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