2010-07-01 front | Hacker News

Stories from July 1, 2010

Go back a day, month, or year. Go forward a day, month, or year.

1.		Stop complaining and pay programmers more
		227 points by wake_up_sticky on July 1, 2010 \| 272 comments
2.		Where does a tree get its mass? (thelastpsychiatrist.com)
		176 points by sajid on July 1, 2010 \| 58 comments
3.		One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot (scientificamerican.com)
		146 points by ca98am79 on July 1, 2010 \| 68 comments
4.		University of Reddit (universityofreddit.com)
		141 points by awa on July 1, 2010 \| 38 comments
5.		Andy Grove: How To Make An American Job Before It's Too Late (bloomberg.com)
		120 points by jakarta on July 1, 2010 \| 158 comments
6.		Node.js Channel as a live Wargames map. (mape.me)
		118 points by jashkenas on July 1, 2010 \| 19 comments
7.		DuckDuckGo integration with StackOverflow is now live (duckduckgo.com)
		110 points by wyclif on July 1, 2010 \| 22 comments
8.		Symbian-Guru.com Is Over (symbian-guru.com)
		110 points by prabodh on July 1, 2010 \| 42 comments
9.		UseTheSource: a place for beautiful code (jgc.org)
		108 points by jgrahamc on July 1, 2010 \| 20 comments
		gdl on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: One reason why humans are special and unique: We m... > Is the next generation going to be so intellectually lazy in their sexual fantasies [because of Internet porn] that their creativity in other domains is also affected? Wow. I know each generation ends up spreading FUD about the habits of the younger ones, but I never expected to be criticized for not masturbating creatively enough. Puritanism sure ain't what it used to be.
11.		Weekly free delivery service from Amazon.com: AmazonTote (amazon.com)
		104 points by ashishbharthi on July 1, 2010 \| 53 comments
12.		Where does a tree get its mass? Richard Feynman explains. (youtube.com)
		94 points by chaosmachine on July 1, 2010 \| 25 comments
		mkramlich on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Google agrees to buy ITA Software for $700 million gigantic move in the travel industry ITA runs behind the scenes at Orbitz and many other OTA's. saying it could cause problems for major players in the market would be an understatement. (I'm a former Orbitz and Cheaptickets engineer, as well as tech advisor to some travel startups)
14.		Tapulous acquired by Disney (techcrunch.com)
		83 points by adamhowell on July 1, 2010 \| 18 comments
		ojbyrne on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Stop complaining and pay programmers more I have a simple theory. Most managers are still educated according to Taylor's Scientific Theory of Management, where the managers are more intelligent than the "factors of production," and their role is to "scientifically" direct their work so that they create additional value (which is multiplied by how many workers they have reporting to them). Their salaries reflect that model, and thus is proportional to the salaries of their direct reports times the number of direct reports they have. This is well-ingrained in the workplace, and in society. Unfortunately programming is really the first discipline where the primary determinant of the "factor's" productivity is not the manager's skill but actually the intelligence of each individual. There's huge conflicts created, not just about salaries, but job roles, and really the structure of society (which is really built around an educated managerial class overseeing (and living apart from) a less educated working class. The primary issue with paying programmers more is that they're butting up against those managerial salaries and life roles. Programming doesn't fit Taylor's theory. To change that isn't just about micro changes in business, it's about macro-changes in society.
		commandar on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Jobs: "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is jus... Steve Jobs at D8: “When this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people that said you’ve got to just let it slide. ‘You shouldn’t go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.’ And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can’t do that. I’d rather quit.” It's funny because my advice to Steve throughout this ordeal would be akin to "retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it." Perhaps Steve should widen his perspective a bit and realize that it's much easier to accept something is "not worth it" when you don't feel like you're the one that's been wronged. He should know.
17.		Opera 10.60 Released: WebM, AppCache, WebWorkers, Geolocation and Speed (opera.com)
		75 points by Indyan on July 1, 2010 \| 23 comments
18.		UK Government asks: "Which laws would you like to see repealed?" (hmg.gov.uk)
		74 points by dotcoma on July 1, 2010 \| 70 comments
19.		If We Told You That, We Would Have to Shoot You (whattofix.com)
		74 points by dpatru on July 1, 2010 \| 26 comments
20.		Ask HN: How to get the first 10 users?
		73 points by msencenb on July 1, 2010 \| 38 comments
		blehn on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Jobs: "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is jus... Imagine the problem was with ATT (not hard to imagine), and Jobs sends the CEO an email expressing his dissatisfaction, to which the CEO replies, "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it." I wonder how Steve would react. He sure as hell doesn't market the iPhone as "just a phone," so how can he expect his customers to think of it that way?
22.		Python's Tornado has swept me off my feet (perplexedlabs.com)
		69 points by matticakes on July 1, 2010 \| 19 comments
23.		a² + b² = c² (imgur.com)
		63 points by niyazpk on July 1, 2010 \| 6 comments
24.		The Road to Passenger 3: Phusion Passenger Lite (phusion.nl)
		62 points by mudgemeister on July 1, 2010 \| 7 comments
25.		Android SurfaceFlinger tricks for fun and profit (jsharkey.org)
		62 points by there on July 1, 2010 \| 9 comments
26.		Ask HN: So what was Knuth's "earthshaking announcement"?
		61 points by Kliment on July 1, 2010 \| 31 comments
		tvon on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Jobs: "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is jus... > The world is quickly crashing down around Apple fans everywhere. Oh come on.
		mikemainguy on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Stop complaining and pay programmers more That's silly, physicians, mechanics, lawyers, and many other skilled tradesmen are just like programmers. The problem is that many folks see programmers as somehow different than these folks.
		starkfist on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Stop complaining and pay programmers more I'd imagine the incompetent ones wouldn't bother applying to jobs that are "way out of their league". Never done hiring before, eh?
		alec on July 1, 2010 \| parent \| context \| on: Google agrees to buy ITA Software for $700 million I work at ITA on QPX, the airfare search engine. We've been doing those sorts of radius searches for years, although we don't currently integrate street-level data for any customers that I know of. Head to http://matrix2.itasoftware.com, put in where you are, then click "Nearby" - the default is 50 miles, even! Then ask for a calendar of lowest fares. You can even tell it "I want to stay 2-5 nights". Many of our customers have something similar, but it's not always on the front page.
		More