jkeisling/hacker-news-corpus-2007-2022 huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: How much are programming contests / hackathons critical for my career?
tl;dr

Can I stay employable till I'm 60 without any online coding competitions showing my name / no hackathon wins in my back pocket / and no flags from any CTF contests? Is it enough to just strive to be a good coder + keep a positive "standard" online presence (stackoverflow, github, linkedin)

Long version:

I might be considered an "oldie" enterprise Java guy (the guy you might call the "90's web developer" that did all table layout, and wrote ASP and PHP was it was just invented)

I tried to keep up, and consider myself up to date with most of the stuff "them kids" now might consider as an edge to an old school guy like me (I learned and use React/Angular/Ember, Yeoman, Node, Bootstrap, TypeScript, Rust, Scala, Spark, MongoDB etc.. even ditched my lenovo for a macbook pro, which I really like, and learned to replace notepad with VIM)

I even got a github account, and contributed to some projects (and created my own). Got a nice 5 digit reputation on stackoverflow, and I get nice recruiter spam stream coming in from cool silicon valley companies.

My question is, I never, ever did a programing contest or joined a hackathon. Is that one of those things that eventually will differentiate me, the old Java guy from the cool new kids that get that job at the YC startup / Google / Facebook? Am I missing out big time?

I mean, at first they tell you, learn to code, be good at it, and you'll get a job, then they tell you, you need to adapt, learn new paradigms (e.g. I learned FP and quite like it, also learned Rails and learned to appreciate why ya'll hate Java and enterprises), I realized that github is my resume, and that I have to keep up with this crazy pace of fast moving "Oh, you still use Angular? meh, we all moved to React, wake up". Do I also need to start worrying I never joined a coding contest? never did any CTF? only got to level 10 at euler project and stopped because I got addicted?
Kill Emails 
http://www.mailboxapp.com/
From http://www.orchestra.com/ team - App Store’s 2011 Productivity App of the Year. They want to KILL EMAILS!
SXSW Interactive Full Schedule
http://tracksuitceo.com/2008/03/05/sxsw-interactive-full-schedule/
Here is the full SXSW Interactive schedule with times, locations and descriptions.
Free web-based C# to Java Converter
http://codeporting.com/apps/csharp-2-java
CodePorting allows migrating your .NET solutions, projects and files into Java in the cloud. You can easily port your C# code directly or import from popular version control repositories like GIT, Mercurial HG and SubVersion. CodePorting also allows you to download a Microsoft Visual Studio plugin and convert C# code in the real time without leaving the development environment.
Street-Fighting Mathematics
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12156
Direct link to the PDF: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Street-Fighting_Mathematics.pdf
All U.S. Embassy Sites Down EDIT: Site Back
http://germany.usembassy.gov/
Had to check something and noticed the Frankfurt Consulate and Berlin Embassy sites were down. Checked Tel Aviv and Singapore out of curiosity and they are also down...along with any others. Any insight out there?

EDIT: Sites are back, but I found it nevertheless strange for them all to be down over an hour during prime working hours for Europe, Africa, S.America and half of N.America
A little Herbalife red-herring
http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-little-herbalife-red-herring.html
This has to be them... right?
Disrupt Audience Choice Questli Releases iOS App & Giving Away Bunch of Prizes
http://win.questli.com/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/21/questli-launches-ios-app-to-allow-users-to-take-on-virtual-and-real-world-quests/
Ask HN: Ways to search Hacker News?
I was just tweeting about how I would like recommendations for academic papers to read, and thought it would certainly have been a previous topic here at HN [1]. The problem was actually finding it.

Then it hit me. There's no real way to browse Hacker News archives. Hacker News is a great resource for entrepreneurs and people with a curious brain - every day there's brilliant insight inside these posts. Insight that will certainly be lost if ways to index/browse/search the archives aren't implemented. Google isn't a big help here either, because it doesn't index content based on relevance (which could theoretically be internally extracted from post attention data and votes).

I'm quite sure I'm not the only one missing this piece of "functionality", and I'd like to see a discussion around finding old topics. How could a HN archive be implemented? Would there be interest?

[1] - Turns out it really was a topic, for the curious: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1059478
Ask YC: what is the most draining part of your position within YCombinator?
I think it's easy as a noob-hacker-wanabe-pgfanboy to romanticize the idea of being a part of the ycombinator team.

So...

What part of your job within ycombinator just grinds on you?
Bootstrapping a Micro-ISV: Balsamiq Mockup Tool
http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/10/14/personal-whats-your-story-why-start-balsamiq/
I use this tool all the time at work. It is interesting how many of their sales come from the desktop version (which I purchased).
Should a security library log sensitive information?
I'm looking for some more input on an issue I have with an XML encryption library, Santuario. First off, love the library, but opened this issue and getting some resistance.

The library logs in DEBUG level decrypted content and I believe this should be removed and is a security concern. Can anyone give their insight?

https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SANTUARIO-413

EDIT: Here is some more clarification on a use case:

To understand the concern please read the following example (let's pretend its an app running on Android):
Security is all about layers – changing a log4j.properties file is orders of magnitude easier than reverse engineering a Java library and extracting an AES key that has been obfuscated before being placed in the code, for example. I'd prefer to stop people from seeing decrypted content just by modifying the log4j and changing it to DEBUG.
Shrinking Blob Computes Traveling Salesman Solutions
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512821/shrinking-blob-computes-traveling-salesman-solutions/
Arxiv link : http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.4969
Mobile Innovation's Greatest Threat: Greedy Providers?
http://www.techi.com/2010/07/mobile-innovations-greatest-threat-greedy-providers/
Greedy providers. The mobile industry is all about squeezing as much money from the consumer as it can. But with AT&T’s move to a tiered pricing for data — and with others sure to follow — we could bear witness to long-lasting impacts that could not only punish consumers, but could destroy potential innovation for the entire industry.
Show HN: Uggly – A TUI over-the-wire browser and protocol
http://uggly.bytester.net
Hi all, I've been working on this concept of modular Terminal User Interface components sent over the wire from a server and rendered by a "browser" in the terminal.

Check out the link for an overview, gif demos, link to download the browser, and some docs on how to write servers.

I'm interested in hearing feedback about whether this is crazy/dumb/interesting.
Ask HN: Is API scraping more common now than page scraping?
Given that many/most sites are SPA-style now that make structured http requests to retrieve their data (after initial page load), does modern scraping target underlying api's now, or is it still centered around parsing markup? If the latter, why?
3d printer at $179
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiko3d/tiko-the-unibody-3d-printer?
this is the cheapest 3d printer of seemingly good quality i've seen so far.
Ask HN: Where's that wiki/notes/knowledge management project?
Some years ago (I'm guessing about 5), I found a really cool project through HN. It was desktop software written by one person and they had put up a website with a really well edited and narrated demo video. The software was a sort of wiki/notes platform on steroids. It had semantic associations and I'm finding it difficult to describe. I believe the example document in the video was a maths or physics topic. Hoping someone else remembers this and has a link or more info, as I've tried several times to find it again without avail.

Edit: Closest thing I've found is Contextualise, but it's definitely not that. https://github.com/brettkromkamp/contextualise
Ask HN: We're spliting our team. Any advice?
Hi HN !

We had the chance to be accepted in a foreign incubator, but we can't all move there, we have to split the team.

As it will be a transcontinental split, with 6 hours of time difference, some things we took for granted will now become complicated.

How can we prepare best ? Do you have any experience/advices to share ?

Also, we are quite concerned by security issues. Any recommendations here will be also welcome.
Show HN: Cinny v2.0
https://github.com/ajbura/cinny
Cinny is a matrix client. With 2.0 comes the session verification, spaces, little bit of custom emojis and a native app made with Tauri.
Blogging Is Perfect For Independent Consultants
http://www.hunterhost.com/108/blogging-is-perfect-for-independent-consultants/
How independent consultants can build a blog using mostly material they already have. Good read.
The Economic Naturalist
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/why-do-retirees-buy-such-big-houses-and-other-riddles-from-the-economic-naturalist/
I recommend Robert H. Frank's book "The Economic Naturalist" for insight into everyday economics (extracts at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/why-do-reti... and http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/more-from-t...). As those URLs suggest, it is of the Freakonomics genre, though IMHO better than the original Freaknomics by being broader and more fundamental. Ch 3 ("Why equally talented workers often earn different salaries...") resonates with PG's articles about inequality/productivity, though unfortunately I can't find extracts from that chapter online.
Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 Released
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.0rc3/releasenotes/
Firefox 3 (Release Candidate 3) fixed this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=436575
Only relevant to Mac users.
How to start a meetup group for fun and profit: part I
http://travid.wordpress.com/
What I learned from running a 520+ members meetup group.
Data Driven Olympics Page
https://wavii.com/olympics
Because NBC's olympic site sucks
I made a dating app in my spare time that's popular, how do I sell it
If I could make at least $1M from it I'd consider selling it. It currently makes $2k profit per month (99.9% profit margins)

Is my asking price too much? It has 60K downloads per month.

Here's the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cuff-live-video-dating/id1514536428
EJDB - Embedded JSON Database engine
https://github.com/Softmotions/ejdb
The main goal of this project to create the fast MongoDB-like database engine library which can be embed into C/C++ applications under terms of LGPL license.
Ask HN: What is a reasonable salary for a teenager to have during an internship?
I won't give the exact field, but it is in the area of product design, graphic design, and programming.
Show HN: Build a Better Software Developer Resume
https://jkchu.gumroad.com/l/build-better-software-dev-resume
After about 10 years as a developer, interviewing many devs, and reviewing hundreds of resumes I decided to write a guide that I wish I had when I was first starting out.

Completely free (just enter $0 as price)

If you find it helpful, would love it if you:

- Leave a review

- Share it with a friend who might also benefit!
Ruby Matters: A Place to Put Your Stuff
http://memeagora.blogspot.com/2007/09/ruby-matters-place-to-put-your-stuff.html
Why are so many people into Ruby? I get this question a lot because I speak at a lot of Java conferences and talk about Ruby and JRuby. In this and several more blog entries, I'm going to explore this question in depth.
Comparison of data analysis packages [Feb 2009, 100+ comments]
http://anyall.org/blog/2009/02/comparison-of-data-analysis-packages-r-matlab-scipy-excel-sas-spss-stata/
Aside: since the latest comment took place just four days ago (!), I'm safer using '100+' than the exact value.
My Y Combinator Experience (Application, Interview, Decision)
http://brandonk.com/?p=219
A three part series covering my process at YC.
Application
Interview
Tips For Future Companies
Startup Idea--Need Feedback
Hello--

How feasible would it be to create a startup that allows users to seek crowdfunding for projects and requires them to pay back a percentage of their profit to each person who contributed to the fund?

Thanks
Show HN: Cadet, a jRuby wrapper for Neo4j
http://github.com/karabijavad/cadet
also, checkout https://github.com/karabijavad/congress-graph for an example of its usage.<p>congress-graph utilizes cadet's ability to do neo4j batch insert mode to insert tons of data re: legislators, committees, etc into a graph database in a matter of minutes.<p>cadet also has its own DSL which allows for easy creation of nodes via the following statement: Person_by_name("Javad").lives_in_to City_by_name("Chicago")<p>feel free to ask me any questions.<p>thanks!
Minimal FreeBSD desktop
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=35308
desktop usage on FreeBSD
Show HN: Set up internal tools directly in G sheets, Airtable and Notion
https://www.usebracket.com/
Hey HN! Vinesh, Ian, and Kunal here. We’re building Bracket (YC W22), a bidirectional ETL platform — software that syncs data two ways between your data stack and the spreadsheet tools that your business teams rely on (e.g. Google Sheets, Airtable, and Notion databases), with the ability to add transformation logic (like SQL statements or MongoDB aggregation statements) in between. (https://www.usebracket.com/)

In other words, if you want to join columns from two Postgres tables, sync the result to an Airtable table, and allow your Airtable users to edit certain fields from either table back to Postgres, you can do that with Bracket.

We built this for teams that need to spin up internal tools quickly, but prefer to keep their business teams in the tools in which they operate most efficiently. For example, here are some of the use cases among our current users:
- Turn feature flags on / off for their customers from a G Sheet
- Edit orders data in Notion
- Adjust trial periods for customers in Airtable
- Edit user info (like email) based on input sent to customer success teams
- Track and edit the status of support tickets

See a demo of a sync between Postgres and Airtable here: https://www.loom.com/share/9aa52b9f38584b2894b65bc106fba141

Transparently, we are figuring out pricing and care way more about feedback which is why we don’t have a pricing page — we don’t want that to be an impediment to getting your input and building a great product.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and use cases. Especially if you’ve been looking for a bidirectional ETL tool now or in the past, we’d love to hear what tool set you wanted it for and for what purpose!
My Weeked Project : TuneExplore (Site to suggest music you may like)
http://www.tuneexplore.com
I managed to create this site in about 4 hours on Saturday morning. I've got lots more ideas for taking it forwards but am already finding it quite useful so thought I would throw it on here and get peoples thoughts.

I plan to integrate Spotify in to the site giving you the option to play an individual suggested track or the whole playlist of suggested tracks.

Please let me know what you think. I've not yet tested it on older browsers so there will probably be some issues there.
How To Rid Debt By Becoming a Cash Money Superstar
http://tracksuitceo.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/how-to-rid-debt-by-becoming-a-cash-money-superstar/
Because of my entrepreneurial obsession I had accrued a lot of debt and was still not earning enough to stop the credit card cycle. I decided to take drastic measures. I made the transformation from a typical American Consumer into a Cash Money Superstar. I actually switched everything I did to a cash transaction and to really get myself psyched about using cash only, I closed my checking account!
Ask HN: Can someone link me to the cartoon about forgetting how to dream?
It was posted on hear a while ago, but I can't seem to find it. It was made like a children's story book; the premise was that we grow up and forget childhood dreams. I hate to use Ask HN like this, but I really want to use it as part of a presentation at school. I'll delete this immediately if anyone responds.
How to learn to program idiomatically?
What are the best ways/ resources for learning to program idiomatically? Almost every tutorial I've ever seen covers all aspects of a language's syntax equally, and doesn't talk about what's most important or what the best or most idiomatic ways are of doing things in that language (Case in point: I went into my first ever job w years ago with a comprehensive knowledge of Java, but didn't realize that these crazy things called "HashMaps" were actually important until my interview brought them up)

I'm currently learning Go, and understand most of the syntax and everything, but I fear if I just start blindly writing my own applications in it, I will take on a pythonic approach, since that is my current best language. How do I avoid this?
Writing Command Line Applications With Ruby [video]
http://launchware.com/articles/writing-command-line-applications-with-ruby-a-presentation-to-the-route-9-ruby-group/
I recently gave a presentation to the Route 9 Ruby Group on how to write comand line applications with Ruby.
Show HN: How to start a startup as a solo developer?
https://microfounder.com/solo-developer-startup
I'm facinated by the ability of so many solo developers building their own profitable internet startups.

I talked to 30 of them who are making collectively more than $200,000 per month in revenue, and their revenue == profit.

Here's a small free e-book I put together based on their answers, hoping this will be helpful for other devs looking to start their own SaaS or some other internet product. The book goes through following topics based on the comments of these "microfounders":

1) How to come up with a good idea?
2) How to find your first customers?
3) How to continue finding customers later?
4) What's their advice in general for devs wanting to build a profitable solo internet startup?

I've been talking to many many founders like these and I'd be happy to give my perspective on any questions you may have.
Computer Scientists Find New Shortcuts for Infamous Traveling Salesman Problem
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/traveling-salesman-problem/?cid=co5570974
Not long ago, a team of researchers from Stanford and McGill universities broke a 35-year record in computer science by an almost imperceptible margin — four hundredths of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a percent, to be exact. The advance — made to that poster child for hard-to-solve computer science quandaries, the “traveling salesman” problem — was too minuscule to have any immediate practical significance, but it has breathed new life into the search for improved approximate solutions.
Featuritis, Tyranny, and Web Applications
http://blog.pretheory.com/arch/2007/12/featuritis_tyranny_and_web_app_1.php
Thoughts on featuritis, forced upgrades, and the differences between desktop and web applications.
This is your brain on religion: Uncovering the science of belief
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/04/this_is_your_brain_on_religion_uncovering_the_science_of_belief/
An Israeli study showed that, in complete opposition to the researchers’ hypothesis, a religious lifestyle was associated with a doubled risk of dementia 35 years later. Moreover, there are studies showing that praying is positively correlated with psychiatric problems.
Startup Tip: Save bandwidth with Gzip (Eg: YC News can save upto 80% per page)
http://www.whatsmyip.org/mod_gzip_test/?url=aHR0cDovL25ld3MueWNvbWJpbmF0b3IuY29tL25ld3M=
The Gzip module compresses the HTML as it sends it out. It is compatible with all major web servers and all web browsers. Using Gzip can save HUGE amounts of bandwidth, and increase the overall performance of the webserver.
Is it Christmas? .... does not account for time zone..
http://isitchristmas.com/
I mean really...if this is going to be the only purpose of your site, at least tell me when it's Christmas for me, and not the valley (i'm only supposing..)
Ask HN: What do you do for fun? start-up company outings? Hobbies? Games? etc
ASK HN: What do you do for fun? start-up company outings? Hobbies? Games? etc
Ask HN: Simple ticketing system for tech support?
What support ticket system do you use to support your API? Is there an alternative to the typical zendesk/freshdesk products that is more tech oriented (code snippets, markdown, etc)?
Show HN: Regular MySQL Backup to Email
https://github.com/tariky/easy-mysql-backup
Hi, everyone. I got big flood last week. Weather was crazy and water got to my company warehouse. Luckily company local server was not in that room. Of course I was to lazy to set up any automatic off site db backup. But now I got it working. I wanna hear you thought? Is it smart to use email for db backup or should I just upload it to remote server?

For those lazy like me, try to setup this app and give it a go.
Niche Tracker
https://www.serpwoo.com
SERPWoo was created to answer the frustration traditional rank trackers pose - only tracking selected URLs. That process did not give a clear picture of what's really going on in the top SERPs for a niche; nor how to rank properly or automatically track, monitor, and analyze new competitors. We created this tool to fill in those gaps.

Since the search engines have to display all their cards on the search engine results pages (SERPs) we created this tool to allow marketers quick glances and access to the top 20+ results for any given keyword to get a better understanding of how websites are ranking, moving up & down, and generating organic traffic.

We then integrated crucial 3rd party data we utilize everyday like ahrefs, majestic, moz, semrush, social signals, and additional tools to dig deep into a website's SEO structure (on-site & off-site) allowing for a better picture of HOW and WHY the selected website is ranking.
Ask HN: How do you differentiate between Real anxiety and “Fake” anxiety
So, this is how I define two type of anxieties:

Real anxiety : My brain is telling me that I am not capable of dealing with the situation I am getting into. For example let's say the project I am given in my company is way above my skill set, so my brain is giving me fair warning and maybe I can take this warning and be prepared better (learn more on required skill?)

"Fake" anxiety : This is my brain just being lazy and always wanting to stay in its comfort zone. For example, the project I am given is not that complex but is new, so even then my brain will have anxiety and would like to get out of it. Imposter syndrome might be another reason for this anxiety.

The problem is how to classify any upcoming anxieties in these two buckets so that I can push through one and accept/backout in the other one.

Do you have some mental model for this? Also do you also face this issue?

I think this even applies to general life situations too.

PS : I asked this earlier but got no response https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26144788, hence asking again.