A feature request (I see that Werner is reading this message thread): for development it woud be very nice to have the Java AWS SDK have a local emulation mode for SimpleDB and DynamoDB. This would allow development while flying or otherwise off the Internet. Similar functionality as AppEngine's local dev mode.
HN doesn't show vote totals, but it does sort posts based on the number of votes (descending), so the more popular posts rise to the top, just like the front page.
Well, yes and no. Upvotes push submissions toward the top of the page, but the ranking algorithm also includes a decay factor so that old articles eventually fall away.
