skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I enjoyed the article, as I enjoy most of Paul's articles.

But, I'm coming to the tech world after having worked in the health care industry for 15 years. And, I studied art for 6-7 years, thinking that I could make a career out of it. So, I guess that I have a different perspective on the geek/hacker culture. And, something about hacker culture that never really set well with me was this--the nastiness.

Paul referenced it in his article, referring to the trolls. I just don't understand why people troll like they do. I didn't understand why people were so up in arms about Paul's trying to write a new language and offer it up for public consumption. I don't understand why people have been so quick to criticize Y Combinator. I don't understand the hating that goes on in language flame wars, or OS flame wars.

I understand that people are passionate about technology, and passionate about their language of choice, or OS of choice, but... really. Do people really need to get nasty about it? Why aren't people able to have a discussion about the merits of a language, or strengths and weaknesses without getting personal or mean about it. I just don't understand.

A great doctor that I worked with, was explaining to me why he got out of teaching at a medical school. What he said struck a chord with me: The reason that there's so much back-biting and politicking in academic medicine is very simple--it's because the stakes are so low.

Which leads me to ask the question--Are the stakes really so low in the technology world, that people are so nasty? I have a hunch that for many trolls, that's really true.

I know that shortly after reddit got purchased the trolls made camp and set up a small troll swamp. There are a few cool sub-reddits, though. Why did that happen? Because the stakes became so low.
The ‘EV grin’
What city are you in?
A day when Hell was frozen
If I was put in charge; I'd start by examining each unit of the business and the leadership of each of the units. I'd make the tough calls; such as eliminating under performing managers and replacing them with my top team; and/or I'd give each marginally performing business unit a set time to reach agreed upon goals or be sold; and/or I'd help unneeded employees seek employment elsewhere.

I'd breakdown existing barriers to communication. I'd put a focus on innovation and I'd dig deep into the business to see what opportunities exist but haven't been implemented. I'd establish known business and employee performance goals and "push" the business towards those goals. Profit would be a key dimension of my "new" goals.

Without knowing anything about Yahoo - One of the mistakes I think they made was copying Google's Adwords system. I think they should examine closely the reason customers use online advertising - and then create a unique model based on their customers wants. I could go on but everything after this would be a guess since I really don't know the insides of Yahoo.
Uncertainty, noise and the art of model-data comparison
Why S3 went down
Lean Programming
pinokioze
Dr. Dobb's | Lean Programming
Am actually in Switzerland, but surely it should be location independent right? Won't most legal counsel be avilable online/via email/phone?
Dr. Dobb's | Lean Programming II
Bit torrent introduces encryption to thwart Comcast's bandwidth throttling
Agree. There is a world market for maybe five computers.

Ok, I am joking you may be right. But it is notoriously difficult to predict the market for programming languages. had you attended LL2 on [November 9, 2002](http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/01/where-were-you-on-saturd...), could you have predicted which of the languages discussed would be popular... five years later?
Interesting angle, but I really don't believe nastiness has much to do with it.

We hackers are just dying to let others know how smart we are. It's what makes us tick.

So we come here (and other forums and blogs) because most of us have trouble finding peers who even understand what we're talking about. Add in a lack of writing style and the anonymity of the internet, and our puffing and strutting APPEARS to be nastiness.

Put us in a room together to discuss the same subjects and I'm sure it would be much more civil.

Honestly ask yourself. Whenever you heard someone else getting a compliment for being smart, (Alan made the Dean's list!), (Joe is a great chess player!), (Fred wrote the best program I ever saw!), don't you get JUST A LITTLE BIT JEALOUS. You almost want to scream out, "Hey! What about me? I'm smarter than that!" We hold back in person because we're polite. But we don't hold back here, because most of us understand. Sometimes I think that if you DON'T think like that, maybe you shouldn't be a hacker.

Reminds me of an old story that Rabbi Harold Kushner told about a young man trying to temper his competitiveness, so he joined an ashram in Japan. He wrote to his father, "Dad, this environment has helped me evolve to the point of enlightenment where I no longer have to compete with others to achieve my bliss. The meditation has done it. I'm one of the top 5 meditators here, and hopefully, by next year, I'll be Number One."

[UPDATE: I just read the comments about this pg essay on Reddit, and realize that it's different over there. They ARE nasty. What's happened to Reddit? Whatever it is, I sure hope it never happens here.]
The difference is that the negative folks are the most vocal, while the positive folks are trying arc instead of whining about their perception of Paul's behaviour.

For example, I was just over on programming.reddit.com. The majority of the comments on this essay are smearing Paul's character. If you went by that, everyone hates it.

Yet the essay has +115 points. So there are 115 people who liked the essay for each person who dislikes it. Where are their comments?
"almost never a reason to write your own sort"

What about being drunk on New Year's Eve?
If you take all of the case law over the last 300 years, the ratio of your contract to the existing legal infrastructure is very small indeed.

And you're free to customize all that lower-level stuff if you really need to, under very friendly terms (it only gets expensive if you have to defend it in court).

Software 1, Lawyers 1.
Dup. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=116866
Yeah, but the laws vary greatly from state to state (in the US), and certainly from country to country.

Some of the things that might be common in the US (specifying state for trials, if any) might not apply to you, and things that are more common/stringent in your area (privacy laws for example) might not be valid or known to a US-based lawyer.

A guy that I had in mind knows a good part of the US law pretty well, and is well versed in MA, CA, NY, and DE (states) legalities, but even he would refer me to someone else if I was dealing with a customer/contract in say Arizona. I don't imagine that he would want to get involved in Swiss law :)

Switzerland, I can't help... Sorry.
Feynman on Cargo Cult Science
Does Your Code Pass The Turkey Test?
Oscilloscope Fun and Games
Yeah I've seen the Tesla Roadster, and all electric cars need to be manufactured like that. I have a Li-Ion drill, it takes 30 minutes to get a full charge yet it takes me over 4 hours to run it down with constant use, so I don't get how some electric cars can barely get you around town and take 8 hours to charge on a night.

I'd accept 2 hour charge time for in city driving, but most of my driving with work isn't in a city, and thus electrics are useless until they're as fast to charge as a petrol is to fill.
> Interesting angle, but I really don't believe nastiness has much to do with it.

My experience is that this is a limitation of communication without subtext, inflection, etc. I don't have a whole lot of time right now for details, but I have noticed a few tendencies that exacerbate emotions in online discussions:

- Deprecating humor seems especially biting without the wink and smile, and the inevitable response from others then appears like an attack

- Posters lump all critics together, and tend to forget who made which argument (but are especially sensitive to having their points glossed over, misinterpreted)

- Often those within technical circles don't realize that different people weigh evidence differently (i.e., two parties may reach separate conclusions simply because they have differing views of which facts are important). Unlike in the math world, discussions and conclusions cannot be reduced to a few simple axioms--there's always the experience of the observer necessary to interpret data.

- There's a tendency to skim critics posts and respond to individual sentences/words (rather than the sum of what was actually written).
Train-Wreck Management
I tend to be fairly techagnostic. So, even though I tend to prefer a Unixy/OSS environment for web apps. I researched MS offerings for a startup idea last summer. I'd say that if you're going with a .NET stack, you're probably better off going with MSFT if you can afford it.

Have you considered an Action Pack subscription? If not, you might want to check in to it: https://partner.microsoft.com/Indonesia/program/managemember... You get a +lot+ of MSFT software for around $300 bucks. Granted, the license is only for two years, but that should be enough to get a startup off the ground. If you don't have enough money to buy MSFT licenses after 2 years, you have bigger problems than licensing costs.

And, as long as you're willing to keep going the MSFT way, there's ways to get cheap bulk subscriptions to MSFT licenses. You just have to keep up with MSFT certification process. They actually make it pretty easy to start your own software company based on the MSFT stack.

I really can't speak to speed of SQL server vs MySQL, however. It sounds like most of the data in your DB is going to be text based. I'd be a bit more concerned about speed if you were going to be serving video or a lot of graphics out of your DB.

One option that you might consider before investing a year or two an a DB, is downloading a trial version of each RMDB and do some tests.

MSSQL Server 2005 download: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/bb498185.aspx

MySQL 5 download: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#downloads

Your schema sounds pretty simple. So, design your schema, and run some tests. Find out how quick your server will run with each DB. I bet if you spent a week or two running tests like that, the time spent would more than pay for itself in the long term. Platform and DB choices tend to lock you in for a long time, and if you hate your platform, those are headaches you'll have for quite a while.
> so I would feel like I made the correct decision

It's not just about feeling. If Google had tanked, you would be more justified (in a statistical sense) to think that you're smart and to engage into more financial transaction.
What IS Facebook's underlaying technology? I Googled, but nothing substantial.
Nanotubes debut as "last mile" interconnect in 1GHz chip
Maybe they vote because they want the story to stay on top a while, either to convince others (Ron Paul) or because they want to see the discussion. Reddit is like a reality show. You might vote for the candidate you liked best, but you might also vote for a troublemaker to ensure a good show.
That's... uh; that's hardly a reason for anything. Except hooking up with that hot little secretary you had a crush on forever.
BitTorrent and similar protocols have many legitimate uses. I believe the film and music industry plan was merely to search for matching bitstrings of the form <MP3_header><known_copyrighted_payload> and subsequent known bitstrings. Even the lamest private key encryption defeats such matching.

Regarding oversold bandwidth, it has happened since the advent of 33kb/s modems, got worse with 56kb/s modems and has become farsical with broadband.
I still wonder why RTM doesn't say anything at all. Does he read HN? I would like to know his point of view, too.
I was suspicious, but I read MySQL's page on licensing and that seems to be true. I'm quite shocked about it, I thought you were free to use MySQL in non-open products without having to buy their commercial license.
Just How Important Is A Good Domain?
I am somewhat of a domain addict. I am always buying up domains "I" think are cool and have no idea what to do with them afterwards. Eventually, they just expire off into dead domain land or some squatter picks them up and tries to sell it back to me.

Sometimes, I have a really great idea for a domain of course someone has been squatting on it since '96 and want 2.5 million for it or some craziness.

My question is this... IF / When I am lucky enough to get some funding for one of my projects, just how important is the domain? I mean is it worth dropping a large chunk of your capitol on a domain? If you get 5 million ( oh ya baby! ) is it worth it to drop a Mil on a TLD like "blue.com" for example or if you get 10K is it worth is to drop 2K on a domain or better to just go for a webby 2.0; Ziggle-Zwaggle-Mangozr-twotozr-megoezr...

brandable kinda thing? ( Don't feel bad BTW if one of those are your actual domain. I actually own quite a few wiggle-waggle-ziggle-zaggle webby2.0 domains :P )

Obviously, I know domains are important, your gonna get more traffic and better recognition with blue.com as opposed to BlUEEEEEEEE.mobi But, is it worth it? I stress a lot over the perfect domain, and I know it's fruitless ( especially since I don't have any money )But I do.

The price of a decent domains being as high as they are? is it worth it to stress over a domain? I mean if you have a real decent idea then theoretically the domain shouldn't matter...
Right?

Just Curious
Screedbot - make your own scrolling typewriter text (powered by Common Lisp)
Struggling Societies, Urban Essence, Blue Collar Blackbone,
Varying Lifestyles, Aspiring Contemporaries, Remote America,
Rural Villages and Farms, Metro Fringe, American Diversity,
Upscale America, Small-town Contentment, Affluent Suburbia

OMG? New low in PC? It's like J.Crew colors to explain geographic groups. My curiosity got the best of me and I found this explanation: http://www.tactician.com/support/mosaic_documents.asp
How difficult is it for singles to get picked up by Y Combinator?
I know that you YC guys are looking for group of like 2 or 3 super cool college hackers who been chums for like years,Hackin away at the next Digg.com... but what about guys like me... married, kids, bills ... I know it is not as ideal as the super Kool college guys but I think my ideas are awesome is my being a lone ranger really going to effect my chances of getting picked up by YC?
10 Killer Mobile Websites and Java Apps
Lazy Lists in Arc
The Xobni guys are biased towards folks that have previously started startups be it their investors(YC & Khosla Ventures) or hires -- which is a good thing.
Complete redesign of website - it looks so messy, compared to Google.
Arc is a simple solution to the overlooked problem of core language design.

http://www.paulgraham.com/core.html
I would think it would be the other way around. people with no money have slower connections and can't wait the 30 minutes for yahoo's portal to open where as you can load Google pretty fast even on a 56K ( they still make those? ) connection. I call BS on this article.
Or if you have some time to kill, listen to the author's highly-rated talk on IT Conversations:

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail135.html
I'd go with MySQL. There are better tools, it is less expensive and easier to scale. I don't have any straight-up "speed" evidence other than what is anecdotal.

If you're worried about the MySQL license, you should try PostgreSQL. I've been using it for three years and have had nothing but extremely positive results. Version 8.3 is stupidly fast.
I hear what you're saying in terms of people not being able to write well, and that people are trying to beat their geeky chests in a sort of hacker bravado.

I also don't get a really nasty vibe from Hacker news, like I do on Reddit. I was referring to the Hacker culture at large when I was referring to "nastiness". I believe that there is a lot of bravado and competition in Geek culture. But there's also a lot of nastiness, too. In fact, we are developing the English language by devising new language for people being assholes online: griefing, trolling, powning, flames, flamewars, Greater Fuckwad Theory, Godwin's law, STFU, RTFM, STFW, etc... It's only a matter of time before these terms hit the mainstream to describe asshole behavior offline.

Even though he doesn't say it, I believe that Paul has been rather hurt about this often enough several of his last essays have referred to these people as "trolls". Steve Yegge has had enough problems with this, that he's turned comments off on most of his blogs. Pmarca also thinks that this is enough of a problem, that he (to my knowledge) never turned on comments on his blog.

For instance, I went to a boarding school for a year, and was in a dorm with 45 high school boys. There's friendly competition, and then there's getting 64 wedgies like I did that year. (I was the youngest kid in the school, and quite a nerd). A lot of time, putting your work into the intarweeb slipstream of geek/hacker culture is like walking around with your fruit-o-the-looms sticking 2 inches outside of your pants at a boarding school. It's only a matter of time before some asshole gives you a wedgy. And, then you have brown streaks.

My question is this: why do we (not Hacker News, but Geek culture in general) tolerate that behaviour? There is no need for it. If you want to prove how smart you are, make something cool. Or, explain String theory in a way that mere mortals can understand. But, walking around saying that Arc sux because of this and that, or Yegge is a wind bag, or what was J Gosling thinking when he designed the turd that Java is... This isn't productive.

If people make these comments maybe it's because their stakes are so low.
Difficult but not impossible. This is from the YC funding application page

"The ideal company would have two or three founders. We'll consider those with four or five. We're reluctant to accept one-person companies, though we have funded a couple."
Works now, thanks!
instead of blocking people from playing games all day, you should just turn their daily work into a game.

Isn't that the whole point of RescueTime and 8aweek? Although I admit that the game is probably less fun if your boss is grading the high-score table.
Images from Evolving Stages of Info-Tech
Neither, pgsql
Many people are using, or planning to use, Amazon Web Services because there is very little risk of downtime and because of scalability. Its a shame this happened to them but hopefully they will learn from it
Inside Firefox 3's Latest Beta Update, Part 1
Helping Patients Wiihabilitate
Only on Thanksgiving.
If you work on overlooked problems, you're more likely to discover new things, because you have less competition.

I'd like some help interpreting this sentence.

Why does the lack of competition make it more likely you'll discover new things? (And what is things referring to?)

I assume it means you can attack a problem at a more leisurely pace, so you see solutions you would have missed if you were in a feature-copying war with competitors. But I doubt PG would advocate running your startup leisurely.
I would argue assuming its stock trading, your concern should be transactions safety so you need a database with ACID support. Beyond that, which you choose is based on your experience.

Speed is really not a concern anymore because you can use memcached or other distributed cached system when you really need that much scalability and fast access to raw data.
Of 80 startups we've funded, about 5 had one founder at the time we funded them. Maybe a third of applications are from single founders. So from the data so far it looks like it's 5x harder to get accepted as a single founder.

That probably overestimates the difficulty, though. A significant fraction of the applications are from people with perpetual motion machines, etc. Those are invariably single founders. If you discount those, maybe it's only 2 or 3x harder as a single founder.

I would encourage you to try and find a cofounder though-- not just because it makes you more likely to be funded by YC, but because it makes your startup more likely to succeed.
Blogging - a Rat Race
So far it has always been possible for the startups we've funded to find acceptable names that aren't taken. If there's some name that they really want and someone is willing to sell for under $3k, ok, but it's not really necessary.

http://instantdomainsearch.com
You are not alone ... and at first think if you really need to be "picked up" by VCs.
Thanks, Paul! I always enjoy reading your insigts. Some of the best free advice around. You might find that my companies design philosphy (for some reason...) is similiar to yours!

www.ensigntech.com
From No Contest by Alfie Kohn:

"Robert L. Helmreich [tested] the relationship between achievement, on the one hand, and such traits as the orientation toward work, mastery (preference for challenging tasks), and competitiveness, on the other. A sample of 103 Ph.D. scientists were rated on these three factors based on a questionnaire. Achievement, meanwhile, was defined in terms of the number of times their work was cited by colleagues. The result was that "the most citations were obtained by those high on the work and mastery but low on the competitiveness scale."

This startled Helmreich, who did not expect that competitiveness would have deleterious effect. Could the result be a fluke? He conducted another study, this one involving academic psychologists. The result was the same. He did two more studies, one involving male businessmen, measuring achievement by their salaries, and the other with 1300 male and female undergraduates, using grade point average as the attainment criterion. In both cases he again found a significant negative correlation between competitiveness and achievement.

...

But Helmreich did not stop there. As of 1985, he had conducted three more studies. The first compared the standardized achievement tests of fifth- and sixth-graders to their competitiveness. They were negatively correlated. The second examined the relationship between performance of airline pilots and competitiveness. The relationship between the latter and superior performance was negative. The third looked at airline reservation agents and again found a negative correlation between performance and competitiveness.

...

Consider the question of artistic creativity. The little research that has been done suggests that competition is just as unhelpful here as it is in promoting creative problem-solving. In one study, seven- to eleven-year-old girls were asked to make "silly" collages, some competing for prizes and some not. Seven artists then independently rated their works on each of 23 dimensions. The result: "Those children who competed for prizes made collages that were significantly less creative than those made by children in the control group." Children in the competitive condition produced works thought to be less spontaneous, less complex, and less varied.

...

Consider journalism, a profession that, while no more competitive than many others, is worth exploring by virtue of its unusual visibility to outsiders. The frantic race for news generates terrific levels of anxiety ... on the part of journalists. Can we at least point to better reporting as the result of this competition? Setting reports against one another in a battle for space on the front page or the first block of a television news show probably lowers the quality of journalism in the long run, and so, too, does the contest among news organizations for subscriptions or ratings."
(Completely off topic) Palo Alto - Tour of California Prologue