skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's probably wise to consult a lawyer about this, but for my part, I say go ahead and work on your employer's time. Understand that you are taking a calculated risk. If the risk (e.g. getting fired, losing ownership of your work) isn't worth it, don't do it. But if it is, then stay as productive as you were before at work while trying to be as efficient as possible (e.g. by using methods in the Four Hour Work Week) to squeeze out extra time for your project. On your own time, work as hard as you can without skimping on your other obligations (e.g. family, bills, etc.).
On Rails and DB2
Does anyone remember IBM Data Explorer, which became OpenDX?

The program was based on the notion of mapping flows as topological bundles, thus it could (and would) attempt to automatically parallelize whatever independent operations it could. Programs could be set up as, quite literally, flowcharts, with a given box having input hooks (multiple), output hooks (usually single), and a piece of code, usually a C++ library, that would produce or consume the data flowing through the 'pipes'.

I demonstrated this to a bunch of high school kids at a national science fair (ran it on an SGI in Ithaca while presenting at the fair in DC... it was hard to compete with the UIUC Cave VR developers otherwise) and the kids seemed to understand it instantly. Hey, look at that, functional programming in a visual style. What's not to like.

Needless to say it has not set the scientific programming world on fire and the project, while still maintained and used (I believe) by a handful of groups, isn't terribly high profile. A screenshot can be seen on OpenDX.org : http://opendx.org/images/opendx-screenshot.jpg

I 'contributed' the RPM spec file, played with it for a while, but by the time it had been opensourced, I was no longer working in the type of environment where it was a major advantage. Plus I no longer had a pile of nodes to throw at arbitrary computational task nor much need.

Sometimes I miss that sort of thing. Lots of times, actually. I've been daydreaming about it lately... although these days I like to use iPython for that sort of thing, it would be nice if the self-documenting aspect of the UI and the generated programs could be retained.

Anyways.
A long time ago I came across a password protected site with a login page at something like:

www.example.com/private/login.html

I was curious so I entered:

www.example.com/private/

Sure enough I got a standard Apache directory listing, which included the password protected page...
> Non-programmers cannot think logically enough.

Or choose not to program, perhaps because there are logically more optimal uses of their time.

Be careful how far you tread down this path of discourse.
Hmmm, except they don't seem to be. I filled out the forms and got a "we've reserved a post for you when we open up to the public" message. Am I missing something?
I'm amazed that IBM isn't in trouble - their services and products seem so expensive that I wonder how anyone could ever buy them. I just came home from a dinner with somebody working for IBM, and she told me that getting a new customer into their CRM costs around $5000 and takes a week!

A month back a story ran in Denmark where IBM had bid to install an Oracle database, and wanted $30.000 for doing so. A small company made fools out of them by having an engineer do the same thing in less than half an hour. In a straitjacket, only using his nose. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHzV4LZnvHc
Hey pepeto,

Taking a long term perspective, it can only go uphill from here. If you do take a job, try to get one that's either brain-work and pays well (build up reserves) OR physical and not brain-work (work on your startup ideas at night). My company was started while I was working a minimum wage job as a movie theatre usher.

Try to stay physically active, that will help with depression.

Remember, others want you to succeed!
I'm curious - where did you get that 200 Gflops number from? Is that theoretical, or actual for large values (say 10k) of N?
I thought the rich investment banker people had cars. Like, I read an article about a new BMW dealership strategically placed near Wall Street.
This response ( http://thedailywtf.com/Comments/AddComment.aspx?ArticleId=58... )?
If the offers are similar, you should probably focus on how smart your co-workers are and what you will be working on / learning.
sorry our site wasn't protected to your standards...

-the guy from the company.

...For some reason I feel like I should respond to this, but it just doesn't seem like it would be worth it.
Build something you've built before - just do it in Lisp. Read up on what others have recommended here as you go.
An Interview with Michael Arrington
Hungarian notation, perhaps.
Sounds great. I’ll email you after work (they frown at using company email for outside business activities). I’ll even be in the area next week so we can meet if preliminary discussions go well.
'cause you need a break
That's the idea behind the Mini, but I think Apple's heart's not really fully behind it.
Yeah, that's the one. Obviously not in all-caps (I still don't think he helped himself much by posting). Maybe the name submitted in the form ("FEDERAL SUPPLIERS GUIDE CUSTOMER SUPPORT") is what created the impression in my mind that he was shouting and somehow messed with my memory. Interesting what the brain does behind its own back.

doh!
The Novelty Curve
I bet you think computing prime numbers with Church Numerals is complex too! :)
Microsoft May Buy Email Startup Xobni
Yikes. I can't say I expected the daily wtf to make the top of news.yc anytime soon.
Have you checked this one out?
http://www.dreamjournal.net
It wouldn't be worth it for two reasons.

First, that's probably not really the guy from the company. Probably neither he nor any of his friends read the sites where this got posted.

Second, he would be right. The amount of security you use depends what you're protecting. For ourdoings.com I SSL-protect passwords and salt+hash them on the server side. For the set of ads described in the article, nominal "security" of a client-side JavaScript password is probably about right. :-)
I've tried the "just do it" approach in the past and now believe its nonsense. Be calculating and methodical, not impetuous.

Do's/Dont's:
Don't work on your stuff on employer time. Make sure you have energy left after work for your project (sometimes that means not being the star performer at the day job). I work my day job from 8-5, and my startup from 6-11 EVERY WEEKDAY. Weekends its ALL DAY developement. Have a product roadmap, release dates, and work your tail off to meet them. Do your architecture design work during the week at lunchtime (off site). Cut anything from your time that isnt helping you meet your goal (ie I dont even drink beer anymore because it hinders coding).

Read this for inspiration (its short):
http://loiclemeur.com/english/2007/12/the-idea-does-n.html

Finally, only quit your day job when your startup is making your salary.
MIT professor talks about the future of personal fabrication [video]
Seems like the guy was either posting there or following the thread. The username and password changed several times and finally the page itself is down.
I love the part about "LAMP is everywhere now--these types of technologies no one heard of 18 months ago are all the sudden becoming a hot commodity."

I have an old newspaper clipping from 2000 with a full-page photo of Linus on the front page of the business section from Canada's Globe & Mail (the country's largest newspaper).

Perhaps that will inspire the clueless recruiters to only look for < 18 months of LAMP experience?
The way I've used this is saving my python repl process. Sometimes when I'm just hacking stuff out I will define things in the repl without writing out to a file. But then if you kill your process or it dies or you move to another server you lose anything that you defined. With this I can save my repl state and restart it later, move it to another box, and make pancakes.
Yes it is - but I think it's ok with a laugh every now and then. As long as it doesn't get out of hand.

Having a bit of fun is important.
Can someone who watches this comment? I covet marketing advice, but don't want to watch an hour of video if I don't have to.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Semantic Web Is Open for Business
Ah, now I get it. Referrer logs.
Hi Paul:

My father-in-law was an inventor. His one claim to fame was a cheap plastic pulley-like thing you could stick on the bottom of a telephone, and wrap the cord around it. It was called a "Cord Caddy." He made a small...no a medium fortune on this in the early 1970s.
I went to a few home trade shows in L.A. with him. The creative energy at these places was palpable. (I even got to meet Ron Popeil there once). You'd go around the booths, see all these incredibly simple....no STUPIDLY simple things all these guys were making fortunes at. I'd mutter at myself, "Heck, anybody can come up with this crap." And then a voice from above thundered down, and slapped me upside the head. My ears are ringing thirty years later. The Voice from above said, "Yes...but you DIDN'T, did you!"

That's the secret. ANYONE can come up with stuff...but almost nobody does. The real inventors in this country are a minuscule percentage of the population who actually DO something with their dumb ideas. I have unmitigated respect for Ron Popeil and his ilk, regardless of the obnoxious late night commercials.

eric
He's going to make it big in a few years.
Do you know who Jay Abraham is? LOLz!
Yeah, but seriously, it wasn't even a criticism. I just went to the page and couldn't see anything. I still don't get why that box isn't expanded in the first place.
My thoughts on his response:

"... you hackers ..."

... looking at the generated source of a webpage is hardly hacking. Your grandma could do it.

"sorry our site wasn't protected to your standards"

... or anyone else's standards for that matter.

"and one of my best clients just broke 500,000 dollars in federal sales"

So he sold a toilet seat to the White House?
Yeah. He wrote his title in all caps, and his message in all lower case. That's probably what threw you off.
"Let people do interesting work, and they stick around. Make them mindlessly monitor that Windows machine, and they'll bolt."

What a concept. Who would have thought that building good systems in competent languages was better than languishing in buggy half-capable proprietary languages running on black box Enterprisey software back-ends?
Yeah I'm upset about the page. I wanted to see who fell for their special list.

I'll be their government "agents" are happy about it. No site means they don't have to find companies to hire. No site = No work. :)
If only there was some way to publish information so that users could read it right away, then David wouldn't be in this pickle!
I don't think he was sneering at anyone... just (accurately) pointing out that this post has been lost in time since early 2005, and no one has any idea how it finally arrived here today...
I believe you can search by language on Google Code search - so you could choose javascript and that'd be basically the same
"... stable, and ever changing."

Um, what?
Modded up for that IE 6.0 gem.
In my experience, business users get frustrated trying to explain all the ways their business works to programmers.

Having to define the problem for programmers is the key.

If they can do it themselves, they don't have to make you understand what they want.

Will it be good software by programmer standards?
probably not.
But if it works.
Does anyone care?

It boils down to is it easier for me to teach a business user enough IT to solve their own problems or for a business user to teach me all the details of their problem in a way I can solve it for them.

Very few problems are worth training a developer on the details of my business.
>We recently had to buy a digital certificate ($99)

I assume you are referring to one of the MS certificate program 'discounts'. If so note that, although this is a valid class 3 authenticode certicode, you are not allowed to use it to sign your code. Whether you do or not is up to you. What a rip-off!
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=106506
Actually, for systems programming (kernels and languages) I would want a language with a strong (preferably static) type system.
Nah don't be cynical. I'm pretty sure most people had the same glowing reaction the first time they used Rails (or something like it). Heck, I still have to use Hibernate at the day job, so getting home to ActiveRecord and DataMapper just makes my day all over again every night.
Happy Leap Day (Unless You're in Debt)
If it's for splitting roommate bills, that sounds like a better app. I've seen friends' roommates that split the cost of a dozen eggs, and even mark the levels of milk.
=) The first 5 comments of that recipe are:

1. YUCK!

2. gross

3. no way i would eat this or anyone in my family

4. that sounds gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5. That spunds so nasty. This will not be something that I will be trying to make. Yuck!

but thanx, I will try it...
8 Technologies That You Must Know About When Going Into A (Technical) Startup Interview
Yeah, RSpec is better. I didn't get the fuss when I first switched from Test::Unit; it's really just nicer, more clear syntax.

After doing RSpec for a while, writing with Test::Unit seemed really clunky and annoying, especially when reading tests.

I don't use the new Story stuff in RSpec. That seems geared more toward non-programmers who spec things out to be coded by others.

Writing tests is like writing anything else: you can write shitty tests in Test::Unit or RSpec. Neither one will necessarily help you to write good, short, idempotent tests, which is the really important part.
Ask YC: Any of you use Dvorak?
I started using a dvorak keyboard about five years ago purely for nerdy fun. I enjoy it personally, but would never try to evangelize it. Anyway, I was just curious if anyone else out there used it and if you knew of any dvorak-friendly editors and such... Emacs is a nightmare in Dvorak...

Edit: A follow-up question if you do use dvorak would be: If you actually have a dvorak-in-hardware keyboard, which one?
Design details of Audiogalaxy.com’s high performance MySQL search engine
Some chick asks him how to launch a new technology product in the fifth video at around minute 8.
What if Microsoft bought Xobni and let them pursue integration with other email clients and services? Via exposing some of their key APIs and/or something un-Microsoft like (pushing open standards for email data mining, with Xobni being the first example)

If not... Consider for a few moments what would happen if Google developed some hook APIs (e.g. getTimelineOfAllContactsForPerson, maybe even in Python) in GMail to allow developers to build Gadgets and then maybe later CRM'esque applications. Labels instead of folders (which I think came from the domain of records management) is a nice start - picture being able to datamine your own information).

For example, follow-up is an important part about networking. I'd love a tell-me-who-is-overdue-for-a-once-every-three-month-what's-new-contact, without requiring me to manually set an alert. (Think hyper-personalized Google News) Imagine that as a mobile app (who around me have I lost touch with and is open to re-contacts)
Me neither. But I do not run it. ;)
Yes, I use it and I really think it has helped my wrists. I don't type much faster than I used to, but it feels much more comfortable. Another good trick is to swap your ctrl and capslock keys.

I don't have any trouble using vi with dvorak. Navigating using hjkl still makes sense.
Oh, it's so silly it might be funny again. It's a parody of a parody.
Don't Step into the Water without Reading this!
One thing people always remember if they hear the word "shark" is that sharks are vicious man eater, fearsome, sharp teeth, and a killer. But what we don't know about the sharks is they don't attack solely because of hunger.
Yeah I definitely feel like my wrists move a lot less using Dvorak, so it is more comfortable for long periods for me at least.

I'll have to try the caplocks/ctrl switching.
To the Xobni guys, I happily stand corrected on my previous predictions of doom and gloom! I hope congratulations will be in order soon.
Ah, there are Germans working on it. Will be solved soon. Obviously.
that made me laugh so hard...I'm surprised he managed to not get sued by the people he put in the "guide"

If its not a scam, I'll be darned.
Sorry, no. What's so funny about him?
he wont cause its B.S
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Everything-You-Can-Youve/dp/03...
A Day in the Life of a Blogger at her Day Job
The author of Poshdeluxe.com walks through how she keeps her blog updated by blogging from work. She also recommends posting at the end of her work day...
Before I read the article, I was assuming it was talking about how developers who are producers in the open source ecosystem deserve a premium. But, the article is about how tools/technologies that are open sourced are hot skills. I think that is a shill piece for a recruiting firm to attract potential candidates. Most of the developers I know like open source because they're free and in many instances better than what you can pay for. The article mentions AIR being one of those hot open source technologies. AIR was open sourced just recently (if you do the paternity test, Adobe gave birth to it as a proprietary and expensive technology)
eve-ry-one [ev-ree-wuhn], Pronoun.
Every person in the United States, everybody in the United States.
Speak Your Business in 30 Seconds or Less
The first sounds best. Perhaps you can improve the second by dropping 'a'.
Another "how to eat pizza" post. 1. Find a partner to eat pizza. 2. Order pizza. 3. Open the box with pizza. 4. Start chewing pizza. 5. DON'T watch Sponge Bob while eating pizza! 6. Leave nothing to your enemies!
Confirmed: Live Video On YouTube This Year
Heard someone saying....
"What's the difference between Silicon Valley and Las Vegas?"... Well, in Vegas, you get free drinks :-)
Motherboard Transforms Chip Heat into Fan Power
some people don't know how to eat pizza
Steve Yegge's post "Effective Emacs" has instructions for how to do this, plus some other emacs tips:
http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/effective-emacs
Man, Audiogalaxy was awesome.
This was on Yahoo and they just don't have the quality comments that news.yc has :)
disagree - some real valuable points here from someone that has apparently done it before - worthwhile to say the least
Ruby Waves: a new Ruby web framework
Ask YC: Lightweight Python HTTP server?
We're starting a new server-side multi-platform project which will be 100% Python, and we need a Web UI for it. The software will have to run well on Linux and Windows.

This is NOT a public website, therefore the load will be quite low, within 1-5 requests a second in most extreme cases.

I am new to Python, coming from Ruby/C++ but I know about various Python web frameworks, and I'll look into all of them, but you still need to run a web server "in front" of all those frameworks.

Since we're not hosting the product (it will be sold as an installer to enterprise customers), we'd like to provide a "boxed" solution: HTTP server + Web Framework + Python Application in one tight and easily configurable package. Again, it needs to run on Windows too.

Since hackers news is heavy on good Python hackers, I figured I'd better ask for your advice. Can I bolt on Pylons or something like this on top of built-in Python HTTP server? Or shall I look around for Python-analog of Mongrel? Or "embed" something like nginx maybe? SSL is a must-have requirement.

Thank you.
I use Dvorak too... have for about 5 years now, for no reason other than that I like it better.

I also use Emacs just fine, but then again I learned Emacs after Dvorak, so I don't really know how much different Emacs is on QWERTY.
Simonyi's idea sounds a lot like Labview or Max/MSP.
Hey.. this site has a "feature" where you email doesn't show up to the public when you enter it in the email box. You need to enter it again in your about me or in a reply.

Thanks for the offer, I think I found someone to do the translation though.
It took me a while to get used to hjkl with Dvorak, but Nethack did a good job retraining me.

(As a vim user, I've swapped Caps Lock and Esc.)
Extending Firebug, Hello World! (Part I.)
Another 200% of what? The "90%" already taken? If you work on something for 90 hours, then for another 180 hours, that 90 hours was actually "the first 33%," so I guess I don't understand why he doesn't just refer to it as such. But then we wouldn't have a blog post (with wonderful the grammar).
I also use Dvorak, but had to retrain myself on VIM. I originally used QWERTY to learn VIM, then switched to Dvorak because I totally sucked at touch typing on QWERTY. That layout never made sense to me, but Dvorak did and now I'm happy to report I can type along at about 35 WPM. Which to me, is screaming fast!

What's really odd is now I've been able to touch type on QWERTY too! It takes a few seconds for the brain to switch modes, but it'll do it. I'm not as fast as Dvorak, but I can hope on another keyboard and work.

I've used Dvorty Boards in the past, and now use TypeMatrix ZVR-2030 keyboard. On laptops, I switch using software, and just ignore the keyboard.
Sure, for about 15 years. I agree that it's more comfortable, not faster.

Coincidentally, this is about the same length of time I've used Emacs. I don't see what's nightmarish about it. The keys either have English mnemonics (C-b/C-f = back/forward), or are completely arbitrary (C-v = page-down). Its keyboard commands are not at all tied to the Sholes layout, like some editors I could mention.

I think it's less nightmarish than, say, being a native Swedish or Japanese speaker and trying to figure out what C-b and C-f mean. But then, I've found that the way keyboard shortcuts are encoded in one's brain differs greatly between people. Maybe visual learners find hjkl more natural, and auditory learners find bfpn more natural.
Those people would hardly ever get it right then.
I'm not sure they recall that I'm the same guy, but I sent an email to YC 16 months ago that I'm almost embarrassed by. I asked how to take action on good ideas while staying at a job I loved at a company likely uninterested in the ideas.

If I could go back to myself 16 months ago, I'd say: "Grow a pair and do what you want, and only that -- ohh, and short the home mortgage industry"

It's all about the focus.
Nice "comment". Thanks for taking the time to pen it. Have you thought about extending RescueTime to offline activities? I know a lot of people who work remote and they've told me disclipine/habits are the key to working effectively when you lack the peer pressure environment of the typical office.

I think some of your previous comments (e.g. virality) could be turned into their own blog posts. I think throwing a comment out into the News.YC slipstream is a good way to see if you're writing yet another echo-chamber/me-too mini essay (which is probably what you don't want to do)
I've been coding for a living for 11 years, and I've seen cool things come and go. Rails is pretty cool. It's not the first cool thing or the coolest thing I've ever seen, but all told, it is pretty good, and I use it and like it. They deserve credit for it too, it was a big leap forward compared to the other web stuff out there.
"The keys either have English mnemonics (C-b/C-f = back/forward), or are completely arbitrary (C-v = page-down)."

Bad example for a completely arbitrary key... v looks like a down arrow. Hence, page down.
You can bundle a production server using CherryPy's server:

http://www.eflorenzano.com/blog/post/hosting-django-site-pur...

Then your users can proxy requests from a certain port to CherryPy.

The guys from silver stripe bundled their django app for a windows installer (only windows) using TooFPy:

http://www.silverstripesoftware.com/blog/archives/51
http://pyds.muensterland.org/wiki/toolserver.html