The sign up/don't sign up button is dynamically generated based on the perceived desirability of the user. I wouldn't take rejection badly, the main thing is to learn from it.
How did they determine the "perceived desirability of the user"? Seems a little presumptious to me - I didn't even know what it was until I clicked the link, and the first thing they say is "we don't want you."
I took it to mean "instead of buying, try it out."
After hearing the part about the "perceived desirability of the user", I'm thinking maybe they only want to sell to certain people today, perhaps return visitors? Maybe they want all their new visitors to try it out before buying? They could have the button change based on cookies, and they just started an ad campaign that's on HN's front page.
Edit: This comment was unhelpful? If not, why downvote?
It says if your going to use captcha, use reCaptcha because it is "by definition hard for ocr". I think it is completely mistaken.
Two words are shown for reCaptcha, one that is "by definition" ocr easy and one that is hard. You don't need to "solve" the one that is hard. In-fact, you can put anything for the hard one. You only need to solve the part that is "by definition" ocr easy.
I've seen posts of the same link with the same title only a few hours apart get dramatically different traction (5 vs 285 up votes). There are tricks to try and game the system but it also involves more luck than most people seem to think. That said, posts that are truly insightful and anything from PG will make it to the top, it seems, every time.
I have traveled in some very, very poor places. I have met people that live without four walls and a roof. Literally, these people only have three walls! The interesting thing is while their lives are full of hardship and suffering, many of them are also very happy and joyous. It seems to me they are much happier then many very privileged people. It is all relative.
guylhem and blissofbeing both make very good points here. We can take into consideration the motivation behind the wish to be happy. It reminds me of a story I read while studying. I'm going to paraphrase here so please forgive any mistakes.
There was a man traveling down a road while it was raining. He came across a statue of Lord Buddha. He thought to himself, "The Buddha is getting all wet, that is not right. I shall cover his head so he doesn't get wet". He took off his shoe and put it over the Buddha's head.
Now, in those days (and even today in many parts of Asia) the act of putting something from your feet onto a Buddha's head is very disgraceful. In Thailand people don't even let their toes point at a statue of Buddha. Many people would think that man did something very wrong. However, his motivation was to protect Buddha and that single act was the eventual cause for himself to become a Buddha.
I am no expert and am just repeating what I have read elsewhere. Hopefully I did not mess the story up to bad and someone will still benefit.
Its unfortunate that the article does not do much to explain what "happiness" in this context means. These monks are meditating on compassion and the wish to benefit all sentient beings. The gamma waves are a byproduct of this type of meditation. The scientists are making the link between gamma rays and happiness, not the monks.
