jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: When does it make sense to complete rebuild a web application?
This open source application is built on the same PHP codebase that existed since 2001. Over time it developed for example a custom MVC framework, a templating engine, ORM and object serializer.

On one hand it is very hard to get new developers on board, since there is no good documentation and there were questionable decisions in designing this application.

On the other hand, this software is widely used and deployed at different locations. It's not terrible but also not a great experience using it.

Would you rebuild the project from scratch? How would you go about it? Would you use a web framework?

(Mentioned software is Stud.IP, a campus management system and e-learning platform for German universities)
jQuery 1.4.3 Released
http://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/2d201873ff47b927a8c1efcee07191a47033744c
From the jQuery blog:
There are a few areas in jQuery that have seen extensive changes since 1.4.2 was released:
* .css() and related css-handling methods were all overhauled.
* Logic for determining element visibility and toggling of display in animation code.
* Much of the traversing logic has been improved and changed (is, filter, closest, find).

Why are you still reading? Go update your sites!
Chart: Seasonal search trends
http://www.google.com/trends?q=job%2C+diet%2C+drugs%2C+democracy&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Google Trends is much more elucidating than Alexa. An extremely powerful tool for monitoring points of consciousness.

"Sex" is a particularly interesting argument: http://www.google.com/trends?q=sex%2C+porn&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Note Ramadan: http://www.google.com/trends?q=sex%2C+woman&ctab=0&geo=SA&geor=all&date=all&sort=0 (...and the correlation between Saudi news stories including "sex" and "woman")

Can't wait for the Trends API.
Ask HN: How should I best invest £5000?
What should I do with £5000 so that 1-3 years from now, I'll have more than £5000? Theoretically, my life will not be affected if I lose it all so I can afford to be risky but I'm leaning towards not being very risky (maybe you can convince me otherwise?). Thanks
Six questions that rejected Venture Capital seekers could not answer
http://memeburn.com/2011/06/six-questions-that-rejected-venture-capital-seekers-could-not-answer/
Raising funding for an early-stage venture is always difficult. There is no bottled recipe for success, but even if you have a great concept that is scalable combined with a passionate team that can execute the growth strategy, you still need to communicate this in a multifaceted investor’s pitch.
SpiderOak IAMA/AUA on reddit.com
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/rmp9l/we_are_spideroak_and_we_are_handing_out_5gb_free/
The spideroak.com team answers questions from the reddit community.
Why startups need to be more about "why" than "what"
http://www.techvibes.com/blog/focus-on-why-not-what-2013-05-22
Discussion about why your startup should be more about "why" than "what". Your customers buy why. they don't buy what.
Notice HN: The Review System on most major sites is broken
I was going to blog about this, but I'm short for time, so I thought I'd just post here.

I was poking around my server logs, seeing what folks bought after visiting hn-books, and I found this author, Tim Ferriss. He has some book out about how to become superman, lose gads of weight, put on super muscle mass, all while picking your nose and watching Oprah. Or something very similar to that. (For all I know the man is a miracle worker. His pitch seems a bit over the top, though)

When I click over to Amazon, one of his books has 1062 reviews, all positive! http://bit.ly/fVCXNM

Geesh! Look -- I've been poking around Amazon, both as a new affiliate (the above link is an affiliate link) and as a customer. I like reading reviews for stuff I buy before I buy it. Both the good and bad reviews help me make an informed choice.

But something is really wrong here. As several reviewers noted on his most recent book, the number of positive reviews is just crazy. Books with tremendously great reputations don't have anywhere near the reviews as some of these books do.

There may be an innocent reason for this. Perhaps just a big fan club? Or more darkly, perhaps folks are starting to game the review systems. This isn't the first time I've suspected something is seriously wrong with the review systems on ecommerce sites. It's like a hidden form of spamming where you never realize you're being spammed. Hopefully some aspiring startup can help fix it. Maybe some kind of weighed meta review site? Because as more hacking takes place, more and more this pattern of selection isn't going to work at all for the consumer.
Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi at Barcamp Yangon 2012
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150599276797567.406584.189050577566&type=1
Some photos of Aung San Suu Kyi giving the opening speech at Barcamp Yangon 2012. That's all.
Picture of the Day: Getting to school at all costs
http://www.euronews.com/picture-of-the-day/
Static image: http://static.euronews.com/images_news/img_pod_getting-to-school-at-all-cost-pod-2703-RTXXXLL.jpg
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
http://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
http://thoughtmaybe.com/all-watched-over-by-machines-of-loving-grace/
Ask HN: Does MacBook Pro is really worth its price?
I am a developer from India, working on a project which could be my first startup. Financially I am dependent of part time freelance gigs, So buying a laptop is a big deal for me.

I have heard a lot about merits of MBP, but I'd like to have opinions from Hacker Community.
Does MBP really worth its premium ?
Or should I buy a modest Laptop and save money which I could use in my startup.

It'd be great if you guys could tell me about your primary work machine.

Edit : This would be my first MAC, so I don't really know much about MAC. Its just the buzz around it, because of which I am considering buying it.
Anonymous disposable online cellphone.
http://www.textandvoicemail.com
(your own phone #, send/receive texts, voicemails etc)
Democracy at Work Is Bad
Managers are outsourcing their work to teams, in the name of democracy. They ask the team to come up with goals and direction for the work, which was actually the job of the manager. Effectively this results in someone from the team making decisions on behalf of the manager though he is not a competent authority to do so, leading to poor decisions. Managers believe that this approach has benefits of democracy, empowers the team and makes them more committed to the work etc.

However, a business org with roles is different from the political voters without roles. Organization roles have an accountability for the decisions made and they are expected to be experts in their domain. A voter in a democracy is not expected to be accountable for his decisions (there are no wrong votes) nor is expected to be expert in choosing a leader. A democracy is not meant for making decisions at work in an organizational context.
Show HN: A Minimal PHP Wiki
https://mindwi.se/?WikiMind
First, I'm by no mean a programmer.
Second, I am reading HN for years, just registered to make this public and see if it can be useful for someone. I have nothing to gain monetary.

A while ago, I decided that no blogging system was simple enough and I looked for a small wiki to use as a CMS/blog. Found WikWiki on C2.com and I mixed it with some basic Markdown syntax, a minimal template and added password protection.

The result is a single php file, no database and no dependencies. Code is a mess, not modulable, probably wrong in so many ways, but it can probably used by some as personal notepad, wiki, CMS, blog, etc.

Any comments appreciated.
Go to Newsweek.com, press ↑, ↑, ↓, ↓, ←, →, ←, →, B, A, hit Enter
Go to Newsweek.com, press ↑, ↑, ↓, ↓, ←, →, ←, →, B, A, hit Enter

Credit goes to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/cf02e/go_to_newsweekcom_press_b_a_hit_enter/
Show HN: CVitter – generate an alternative profile page for your Twitter account
https://cvitter.com
Initially, I created the project for Chirp Dev Challenge hackathon this Summer. The idea behind it was very simple: enhance Twitter profile page. The problems solved with these enhancements are:

1. The existing page does not show all the available data that can help users to understand if they want to follow someone or not. Some users try to describe what they tweet about in description or in a pinned tweet. But not everyone does this though.

2. Sometimes, it happens that you follow a user, but it turns out they mostly tweet in a language you don't know. A few latest tweets shown on the profile page do not necessarily match the most used language.

3. Sometimes you follow a user because you liked a tweet or two, but later it turns out they write about the topics you are generally not interested in.

4. It would also be nice if the profile page contained some fun and catchy stuff, just for the sake of it:).

In the ideal case, I’d prefer for it to work for any user without the need to login beforehand, but then the app limits would be quickly hit unfortunately.

In case you are not sure you’d like to login yourself, please take a look at some generated profile pages:
https://cvitter.com/lwoleksii,
https://cvitter.com/nasa,
https://cvitter.com/azure
A Sundry Collection of Venture Hacks
http://www.venturehacks.com/articles/personal-blogs
A few old hacks from our personal blogs.
Ask HN: How to get feedback from smart people for a project?
Hey HN,

I've started working on a build system, and I'm very hyped and enthusiastic. However, I really want to get the design right, and I don't feel I can do that all by myself. I've written a request-for-comments document, but now people need to see it. How do I get to people who could review it and give me some suggestions? Perhaps what they would like in a build system? Where would I start? I don't personally know people who could understand what it's all about.

For the record, here is the RFC, your thoughts are very welcome: https://github.com/geomaster/zef/blob/master/Zef-Design-RFC.md
Ask HN: Why will Matrix succeed where XMPP failed?
And how would we ensure it does succeed?
Show HN: Eraser – Whiteboard for engineering teams
https://www.tryeraser.com/
Hi HN, Eraser is a whiteboard for engineering teams. It comes with primitives like markdown notes, code blocks, diagram-as-code (for ERDs and sequence diagrams), and architecture icons.

You can use keyboard shortcuts for almost anything. ⌘/Ctrl→, ⌥/Alt→, tab can build you an entire flow chart. You can also use the slash (/) command to quickly insert things. It's real-time multiplayer and you can try without signing up.

Feedback is welcome!
Ask HN: Any AdMob folks I could talk to? Trying to clean up an iPad FUBAR
I launched a new iPad game this past Monday night, and it did reasonably well on Tuesday for a free game (3000 downloads) but I noticed that my ad revenue seemed a bit higher than I had expected. At first I thought this was good news, but then my wife pointed out some errantic blinking of the AdMob ads. It was hard to tell, but it looked like it was refreshing the banners too fast.

Yup, bug in my production code. Hard to debug, because hooking up XCode to an iPad and running a debug version of my app makes test iAds show up instead of real ones, and the bug in my client-side mediation code was triggered by iAds' low fill rate causing flip-flopping between showing iAds and AdMob. Net result, every time it flipped over to AdMob, I started a new refresh timer that fired every 60 seconds. :-\ Arg!

At 1:30 am I deleted the AdMob app ID for this app to stop the ads from showing up, and so now all is quiet. I went ahead and emailed AdMob through their contact form, but my gut is churning in fear that I'll still be auto-banned for this, even though I asked to have the revenue from this incident (not much, around $50 I think) removed from my account.

Are there any AdMob-ers or Googlers that know the right people that could hook me up with someone to talk to about this incident to help me do whatever needs to be done to clean this up?

I'm trying to do the right thing here - not trying to blow TOS or cheat as this is my full-time job.

Thanks for your help, and sorry for the long ramble :-)
Ask HN: Can Node.js Replace Mozilla Rhino?
I was reading through John Resig's blogs about testing out different data structures for storing and searching an english dictionary using Javascript. It struck me that he uses Node.js instead of Mozilla Rhino to test and analyze these structures and algorithms, despite the fact that he works for Mozilla. Now I know that Mozilla and John are enlightened enough not to let project sponsorship or ownership get in the way of using the best tool, but I'm curious? How does Node compare to Rhino?

Is Rhino dying? Steve Yegge never released Rhino on Rails. Now, also, I know that Node is vastly different, as a platform from Rhino because, in Node, you write entire web applications using chains of callbacks, and Rhino is just a JS interpreter written in Java. But, what are the applications where Node can replace Rhino, either because third party libraries aren't necessary or because the libraries are implemented for Node?

I'd like to hear from HN users who've started using Node where they were using Rhino before and also from users who have JS code which will only run on Rhino.

I'll start off with a SVG/PDF print server I have written in Rhino which uses Apache FOP and Velocity. I can't imagine Node has libraries to let me do the same thing.
Ask HN: What's your favorite way to organize information, notes or knowledge?  
I've been using Evernote for quite a long time but it's not perfect.

I got really painful when I was trying to record some code snippet with it. On the other hand visiting notes in their website is not really satisfying.

A wiki might be a better solution but I can't find one with good desktop client.

So what's your idea?
Ask HN: Fixed vs Dynamic pricing.
Let's assume you've got a product that you can sell with two different pricing stratiegies:

A: three-level-pricing: basic - normal - pro

B: Custom pricing: The customer set the complexity (not the single features) on a horizontal slider, and the price adjusts accordingly.

Generally speaking, which one would you adopt?
Any startups doing anything interesting with LinkedIn API, yet?
Spending the holidays integrating the LinkedIn API to our app; I know, I know, get a life. Looking to revisit this old thread:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492642

The API seems to be getting a little bit better, but the ToS still prevents simple things like sending HTML in a message!

Any suggestions for a better way to reach business users with a (respectfully) viral app? Jive seems to be opening up their API, what about Yammer?
ICFP Programming Contest 2007 (just started, ends monday)
http://www.icfpcontest.org/
The contest looks interesting. The task is to convert one picture into another and you must do so by using a string of DNA-like tokens as input commands. There is a complex set of rules dictating this process.

I have only skimmed it so far, but it looks like a constraint satisfaction problem, and it looks like a lot of hardware would be a bonus. Lisp might actually be a good tool for this although I'll stick to something more comfortable if I decide I want to take it on.
A Calm, Reasonable Argument Supporting Apple’s Anti-Flash SDK Language
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/11/a-calm-reasonable-argument-supporting-apples-anti-flash-sdk-language/
Actually the original post url is http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/04/11/gruber-a-voice-of-calm-in-a-mobile-world-gone-out-of-control/
Shaun the Sheep
No download sales today? Algorithms not working? Installs going bad? Yeah, me too. That's why I end every day watching "Shaun the Sheep," a stop-motion animation series from Aardman Animations. (Episodes available various places online.)

Shaun is a hacker in the best sense of the word: curious, bright, experimental, fascinated by devices, and willing to take risks.

I recommend this addition to the toolbox of things to make one's day better.
8 tips for "scaling" CSS development
http://blog.roninapp.com/2008/09/22/8-tips-for-scaling-css-development/
Techniques for scaling CSS development to multiple developers just like you would any major component of your code-base.
Ask HN: Anyone have process for creating good internal application names?
I work at a large financial institution, and we are really bad at naming our internal applications. They usually end up as some four or five letter acronym of the process or problem. I’m sure others people have worked with application names like CAPS, MAPPS, TRAXS CRIMS and thought they suck.

So does anyone have a nice process for coming up with internal application names?
Portfolio Review: Justin.tv
http://alsop-louie.com/portfolio/portfolio-review-justintv/
This past week, Justin.tv launched its live broadcasting system. Read the Los Angeles Times coverage of the company.

Everyone's first question to us: How the heck are you going to make money on that investment? Good question! Answer: We don't know, exactly. We have some suspicions.
FunnyJunk's lawyer isn't afraid of the Oatmeal
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/06/15/funnyjunk-lawyer-charles-carreon-isnt-afraid-of-the-oatmeal/
Charles Carreon seems to be less of an "Internet lawyer" and more of an relic, parading out his outdated work on the sex.com case. He seems to have succeeded in impressing the non-technical masses but has no actual expertise with regards to how the Internet works nowadays.
Live Current Media to develop Cricket.com
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/17/live-current-media-signs-a-50-million-deal-for-exclusive-online-rights-to-indian-cricket/
After reading the TC article, it seems that focus is being shifted towards the development of Cricket.com. Are you guys planning to integrate the two or have your efforts been repositioned towards the development of Cricket.com?

When the news that Auctomatic was acquired was released, several here thought that the acquisition was solely a method of getting a web dev team, and wasn't so much about the growth of Auctomatic. Reading this article makes me feel somewhat the same...
We Slept in an Office for 6 Months..and Still Failed
https://medium.com/p/faa1751563ca
The short story of our failed startup Wisdomly
Educating yourself on youtube
http://www.khanacademy.org/
It's only matter of time before all topics and subjects will be covered by a professor, then broadcast for free on youtube. How will this affect existing universities? Will they become obsolete as we know them today?
Show HN: Calcutext – Do calculations with your written text
https://calcutext.com
I was finally able to finish this open-source project that I built to about 90% completion nearly 2 years ago when my daughter was born, during my 1-month parental leave, and then sadly left untouched until a few weeks ago. Hope you enjoy trying out the app and looking at the source code! :)

GitHub link here: https://github.com/jaredreich/calcutext
COBOL turns 50
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/319269/cobol_turns_50
In reality COBOL will be the 100 year language, it's halfway there.
Effective textbook for migrating to Objective-C from C++
http://ktd.club.fr/programmation/fichiers/cpp-objc-en.pdf
Effective textbook for people migrating to Objective-C from C++
Oh Crap Hackers
http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/01/30/oh-crap-hackers/
Hollywood vs. Real Life
Three ops lessons you should learn before your next outage
http://blog.cloudability.com/three-cloud-ops-lessons-you-should-learn-before-your-next-outage/
Three simple things that everyone on your ops team should know before your systems go down.
ErlyWeb vs. Ruby on Rails EC2 Performance Showdown
http://yarivsblog.com/articles/2007/12/09/erlyweb-vs-ruby-on-rails-ec2-performance-showdown/
I loved rails until I tried to implement something non-trivial in it and realized it was just absolute crap. I suspect it is this way because it came out of the minds of designers rather than programmers...and DHH's attitude is "F You" so it will never improve... but maybe I'm just spoiled having used WebObjects.

I ended up writing my own web app platform in about 3 months-- custom language, integrated persistence engine and http-server, no-thought-required concurrency... so I'm happy now. I'm just kinda surprised that more people haven't done this.

If you don't have the time to do your own solution, use Erlyweb (which is hampered by being "Rails for erlang") or WebObjects (which is hampered by running on Java).

Anyway, I expect that the outperformance of Erlyweb compared to rails will be more dramatic-- in excess of 10 to 1, when running a more complex application, and even higher when running on a multicore cpu.
Ask HN: How'd you go about getting and managing consulting work?
I'm currently a dev at a small company in New York, but am about to leave to pursue a graduate degree in LA. I'm wondering if anyone has advice on how to start up and run a limited software consulting business. Since I'm committed to the graduate program, I want to make sure I don't launch into something that'll suck up all my time, but I also know that programming websites (or anything else, i've diverse skills and experience) is going to pay far better than any of the work-study jobs I'm going to pick up. Is this a pipe dream, or could I get away with working 10-15 hours a week in software whilst doing an intense graduate program?
SuperHappyDevHouse Tomorrow - Saturday 01/31/2009
http://superhappydevhouse.org/
Bringing any fun projects?

I'm thinking about going to meet some people and working on my GTD spending tracker, or an art gallery dedicated to meat.
Tycho from Penny Arcade writes an excellent post on communication and offense
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/2/2/matter-dickwolves/
Some backstory: They put out a comic in which they made a secondary joke that involved rape (you should probably read the comic, it's not necessarily ABOUT rape). Readers thought the concept was funny enough and a "Dickwolves" t-shirt was sold. Eventually, the shirt was pulled but that didn't stop criticism.

A few months of anti-rape blog members and Penny Arcade members "interacting" eventually resulted in death threats.

Original Comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/
Show HN: My Weight over 18 Months
https://ethercalc.net/lxu1j6iw2j
I work in IT and made some adjustments to my lifestyle. Here is my weight every Saturday over 18 months. I am surprised at the amount I still consume. Maybe more what, than how much. Main thing I have learned is that diet is about what you eat over a month, not a day. The massive slice of Snickers Cheesecake with ice-cream I had after last night won't impact my weight unless I do it regularly.

Walk 2.8 miles daily (so Google fit tells me)

Don't eat much bread, no butter

Skimmed milk

Porridge and fruit for breakfast

Vegetable curry etc for lunch

4 or 5 pieces of fruit a day

Lots of Coke Zero / Diluted juice

Dinner - whatever

Don't eat after dinner
Android Surpasses Opera to Become the Number One Mobile Web Browser of Choice
http://www.techieapps.com/android-surpasses-opera-to-become-the-number-one-mobile-web-browser-of-choice/
According to the recent data received from the StartCounter via Phandroid, Android as out performed opera browser to become the most widely used mobile web browser.
Use the (really) minimalist Google front page.
http://lifehacker.com/5377098/make-the-minimalist-fading-google-homepage-your-default
If you think the Google front page is a little ... cluttered, try this cookie hack to see the uber-minimalist, fading front page that Google has been experimenting with.
Google earth for the Sun
http://www.jhelioviewer.org/index.html
Neat program that lets you control the sun.