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UpFromTheGut

Don't get too excited, although I don't personally have authority to dismiss this, I have word that this is a completely FALSE rumor (sorry, I can't back that up-- at least do yourself the favor of being skeptical).

Edit: Confirmed http://twitter.com/Microsoft/status/14850981422 (Microsoft official Twitter)

Quote: "Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI."

Re:New IDE: code bubbles on Wednesday March 10, 2010 @07:31PM (#1182440)
VS2010 made some improvements to this (RC is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx). Now you can tear off tabs from the main window and place them on another screen, or tile them on the same screen. Also, now there's functionality to split a file into two viewing panes.
A small bug: if I want to search for "basket", I'll type "basket" + TAB + [ZIP] + Enter. It looks like your overloading the tab key though, so it selects the first suggestion when I hit tab. You might consider handling suggestions the way Google does on their homepage, that seems to work well.

Edit: typo

Re:4 Wrong Ways and 1 Awesome Way to Choose a Language on Thursday January 28, 2010 @07:56PM (#1085525)
Microsoft would be foolish to not give away free developer tools. You don't need to purchase anything to use .NET; you can download an ide that comes with a C#, VB.NET, C++/CLI compilers off the bat:

http://www.microsoft.com/exPress/

And besides that, you can get compilers for F#, J#, IronPython, IronRuby, etc.

Re:The Free Software Foundation's Reaction to the iPad Launch on Wednesday January 27, 2010 @10:37PM (#1082906)
Even though I don't own any Apple products, I'm still glad they are around for this reason. More competition in the marketplace is good for me, the consumer, which should go without saying.

However, I'm not sure Android is a good example of your point. I think Android had been in the works for many years before the iphone was released (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#Hist...). In fact, Apple multi-touch patents are holding it back at the moment.

Re:Ask HN: Review my site -- socialreader.net on Monday January 25, 2010 @02:11PM (#1075836)
Is this meant to be used in lieu of a feed reader, or in complement? At some point you should work on nice error pages, by the way: http://www.socialreader.net/blah/
Re:Bountii on Bing Cashback: It's Broken on Wednesday November 04, 2009 @07:01PM (#922925)
This is funny, but I doubt there is any actual security flaw. I expect that Microsoft will verify these transaction later on with the vendor and throw them out.
Re:I'm 20, brilliant and totally lost on Tuesday October 27, 2009 @07:26PM (#906737)
I hate to be pedantic, but I think "negatively correlated" would be more correct. Even though people know what you mean, it gives the phrase less meaning in case you meant to use the technical definition.
Re:How to use Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @03:55PM (#895497)
It's slower, though. It takes longer to search through the index than to just run the program in the windows directory. For programs I run frequently, I place 1 letter shortcuts in the windows directory. That way, to launch a program I just type Win+R+[char]+Enter. You can also launch shortcuts on the taskbar using Win+[0-9], but if you already have an instance it will just show you the existing one .. which is useless because that's what Alt+Tab is for.

Edit: You can also assign shortcuts like Ctrl+Alt+[char], but those are more awkward to use, and also will focus an existing instance instead of creating a new one.

Re:The best unknown activist investment of 2009 on Thursday October 15, 2009 @01:48PM (#883853)
Feel free to correct me, but I believe the trust was funding for the ~$5B project that BrisConnections was beginning. If the trust was dissolved, BrisConnetions would be unable to complete their project. In order to protect their project, they purchased Bolton's voting rights.
Re:College Without High School on Wednesday September 30, 2009 @12:17AM (#851892)
It's eerie for me to read that article; I am also a programmer that skipped high school and recently graduated from UC Berkeley.

As far as skipping high school goes, I think I'd recommend it. I was immensely bored in school before I did, and I wasn't a good student beforehand. I got out of school several years early, and had more time to pursue things I was interested in. Now, I have a few more free years than I would have had otherwise, and because I worked through school, a financial cushion to take time off, travel, and potentially start a business.

For those interested in skipping high school, it's very easy, and anyone can do it. You should enroll at the local community college and ask the universities that you are interested in what you should take. Your professors will also be helpful in guiding your curriculum and helping you transfer. One thing to consider, though, is that some private schools like MIT, Stanford, and so on rarely accept transfer students. If you're interested in certain private schools, you should ask their admissions councilors for admissions statistics for transfers vs. freshman admits (and also general admissions advice). Good luck!

Re:The MIT Guide to Lock Picking on Thursday September 17, 2009 @07:14PM (#829220)
This is an excellent guide for beginners, and gives a good understanding of how pin tumblers work (and a few other types of locks). Also, there is a good survey of tools and their particular uses. If you are interested in learning about lock picking, read this guide and go down to your hardware store and get a deadbolt to practice on. You can make your own tools, but if you're lazy, Southern Ordinance is a great retailer. Good luck!
Re:Ask HN: Good looking news/social media sites? on Monday September 07, 2009 @10:59PM (#810189)
As a matter of personal opinion, I prefer lists to newspaper style layouts. With the new york times site, my eyes wander, never actually reading anything. I lose focus very fast and move on. With HN, though, I will invariably read every title. Lists are not overwhelming to me like many other layouts are.
Re:Ask HN: Graduate early? on Monday September 07, 2009 @12:57AM (#808607)
Sometimes it's helpful to think in contrapositive: would it be more regrettable to miss that year of high school, or to miss other opportunities that time could afford you?

I, in fact, skipped all four years of high school, and opted to go to community college instead. I collected college credit until I was 18, went to a university, and finished in 4 terms. I'm much further along now than I would have been otherwise, and haven't regretted the decision once.

You could always attend community college for a year before going to college. You'll save money, have a lot of course work behind you before transferring, and get to meet new people at the college. If you're in California, you'll have a much better shot at getting in to a UC as well.

http://openphotovr.org/ is really cool, good work! I uploaded a small set, and it was very easy to make a 3d scene.

I'm sure people would be willing to pay to be able to host a viewer on their own site. For example, companies may put a 3d scene of their office on their jobs listing page. Or restaurants, museums, universities, and so forth would do well to have one on their site.

Re:Please don't use hnreputation on Thursday August 27, 2009 @04:23PM (#789957)
I think karma can be very informative-- it gives me an idea of what the majority viewpoints are.
My biggest problem is getting on track. Once I've started working, I really get into it and I can't pull myself away for anything; food, sleep, etc. The best trick for getting started is attacking some small, even trivial, task that doesn't require thinking through.
Re:BadaBingle = BingGoogle² on Wednesday August 26, 2009 @06:54PM (#788263)
I've found bing results to be comparable to google so far (mostly identical), but bing just lost a lot of respect from me:

search: "learn you a * for great good"

Bing returns no results .. it doesn't respect the wildcard.

I got a lot of practice at these 'tricks' while taking a few chemistry classes; all multiple choice. It was excellent practice too since I attended classes but did not study, so the answer was somewhere hidden in my mind, associated to whatever I was thinking about when it was discussed. A large part of it also, as the author also mentioned, is reverse-engineering the question to find likely decoys and falsely intuitive answers.

For those interested, it worked pretty well for itself. On one of the classes, I entered the final with a perfect 80% and got a perfect 90% on the final-- netting an A due one of the instructor's policies.

What is the HN meet? Can you give more information?
Re:Ask HN: Just launched our beta, tell us what you think on Wednesday August 19, 2009 @02:49PM (#773440)
I like the design. I knew immediately what it was. It might be nice to be able to list a job that I need done as well, instead of hunting for a someone that I think could do it.
Re:The Android Opportunity on Monday August 17, 2009 @01:09PM (#768534)
From a business perspective, making a Porsche-caliber android phone doesn't make too much sense for Google. As far as I know, their business objectives include

1) getting as many possible people online with their cellphones searching the web & clicking ads,

2) stealing Windows Mobile market share,

3) and selling android apps to as many people as possible.

And I believe, in that order.

Besides, I like being able to replace batteries, sim cards, and sd cards on my g1.

edit:formatting/typo

Re:Google Chrome OS Screenshots? on Monday August 17, 2009 @01:37AM (#767433)
I see your point now, thanks for elaborating. As it stands, I use my desktop for dev work, which I wouldn't think of putting Chrome OS on, but, I still am eager to put it on my laptop.
Re:Trash this app as much as you can on Monday August 17, 2009 @01:29AM (#767428)
I like the idea. While crowd-sourcing is good in many areas, sometimes it "feels" good to interact with a company. I could definitely imagine myself using your service, especially with the no risk free license. On the usability side, I had to squint to see past the bright pink. Try a white background =)
Re:Google Chrome OS Screenshots? on Saturday August 15, 2009 @09:43PM (#765478)
"... but if they want good stuff dev'd on it"

I think this completely misses the point. Applications are web apps. You're not supposed to dev for the OS.

Edit: formatting

Re:Ask HN: Where do you live? on Monday August 10, 2009 @03:57PM (#753895)
East bay
Re:Serious Twitter, LiveJournal Outage Ongoing on Thursday August 06, 2009 @03:30PM (#746208)
I started reading as if it were pseudo-code, but then realized it was English with a few extra curly braces.
To see how combination locks work, see http://woodgears.ca/combolock/index.html. The video at the end of the page is particularly helpful.
Re:Brainfuck compiler in brainfuck on Friday July 10, 2009 @02:53PM (#698165)
I wonder if putting brainfuck on my resume would get me in the door, or thrown out the door.

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