skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I do. In the past I worked on making a small team for my game development company, but with time I realized I was a lot happier working on the technical details of development than on team management and all that stuff. So I slowly faded to solo :) and I changed the profile of my company a lot too: then I was focused on developing games and related stuff for companies, now I work on independent tech r&d for companies. Working like that, I produced RV tech for advertising for Intel, some 3d and computer vision stuff, and nowadays I'm working on developing a massive video broadcasting software, to list some examples.

Working solo has many advantages and disadvantages... you get a lot more freedom, for one, but you also miss having an interesting team around you at many times. Also, you get a lot more responsibility on what you develop, but at the same time you can better choose what to do with your time. And your costs are a lot lower, so in some projects you can really make a lot of money that, at the end of the day, is almost all yours. And so on, there are lots of pros and cons I could list here from my experience with it.
Nets made by spiders fed on drug-dosed flies
I started programming in Java almost 2 years ago, so I'm still very new to everything. I hardly ever write anything in Java now though, I have to use C and C++ in school, but for a quick project my first choice is usually Python, and lately I've been playing with Scheme.

Something I liked doing when I was first starting is to check out the source to some open source tool I was using, or just to some random project I was interested in. I used to be amazed when I would look at some piece of real code and think, hey, there actually isn't some magic quality to it that makes it so much different than something I could write!
"... An important tip, not mentioned in the article: 'blog about Web 2.0 aimed first and foremost at programmers, computer scientists, and mathematicians' ..."

Looked at the site, interesting ~ http://20bits.com/2007/04/27/facebook-job-puzzles-prime-bits... Maybe they are paid to code, but not to think "why"?
Lee Smolin's grievances are motivated by a greater concern than simply lack of funding for loop quantum gravity, his primary topic of research. The main problem is the unjustified (given the lack of falsifiable predictions, lack of proper formulation, lack of unique solutions) and unprecedented (given the proportion of string theorists in top-level research institutions) focus on string theories in the current environment. It's about the fate of a discipline, not simply about "not enough funding." See his book The Trouble with Physics for a more passionate defense.

I do agree that the answer to "why no Einsteins" is more complicated that Lee Smolin suggests, though I doubt any of (a)-(e) are true, except maybe (a).
Anything by Ian M. Banks. His Culture books are about a post-singularity universe where humans and superintelligences live in harmony. I'd recommend starting with Player of Games.
For one thing, because FreeBSD 4.11 is no longer supported by the FreeBSD Security Team (and hasn't been for over a year). Any security issues discovered won't get fixed.
It depends entirely on how much you enjoy being a bigshot. Being rich doesn't make you an alpha male, but being an executive, maybe even CEO, of a company does just that.

If it's something you're running out of your mom's basement, well...
I think one way to look at this is from an NPV (Net Present Value) perspective. If you work on a project where your cost to implement it is $x, but the reason you decide to undertake the project is because you think it's value is >$x+$1 and someone comes and offers you (exactly) $x+$1, but still less than you thought you would get, would it be a good sale? From a pure NPV perspective, if there were no other, better offers out there, the $x+$1 sale should be made.

The thing that really happens in life is that in addition to NPV, there's this little thing called pride, and when you think something is worth more that what someone else thinks its worth, it's sometimes hard to step back and say maybe they're right and I'm wrong.

Here's the thing to ask yourself: Do you think there's someone out there that will reasonably pay you more than the $x+$1 you have an offer for. If so, hold out. If not, sell.
"Physics is almost over -- there's still things still left to discover, but no surprises on the scale of relativity or quantum mechanics left."

If less than 100% of alien reports are fake/illusions/hallucinations, then we still have to discover faster-than-lightspeed travel and a bunch of other cool stuff.
Late one night some years ago, I excitedly typed off a an email to Professor Knuth, demonstrating a problem in one of his books. I was thrilled to receive a letter from him a few months later... the contents of which was a printout of my email, on which he wrote an explanation as to why I was incorrect.

Since he found a problem in my calculations, I promptly wrote him another letter (on the same paper he sent me), and mailed him a check for $2.56. And he cashed it!

While I have yet to win a prized check from Knuth, this was a fun exchange no less.
How many scientists with the capacity of Einstein have there been? Newton, maybe Aristotle and Archimedes. That's four in the last two thousand years.

Look, I admire these guys as much as anyone. But Zombie Einstein himself would come back from the dead and smack you if he heard you claim that, e.g., Maxwell wasn't as smart as he was. Einstein figured out special relativity by staring at Maxwell's equations, after all.

I also look forward to your battle with Zombie Leibniz, who will be pretty pissed off at your one-sided exaltation of Newton. Although it's understandable that you didn't choose to anger Zombie Newton. Nobody does that and lives.

Having actually met the late Hans Bethe before he died, I assure you that his zombie will pack a mean slide rule. We're talking about a guy who discovered the main sequence, wrote the book on solid state physics, and served as the theoretical lead for the Manhattan project in his spare time.

Indeed, the list of dead scientists who were arguably as capable as Einstein is awfully long. You'd better start running. I hear that the tag team of Zombie Nicola Tesla and Zombie Michael Faraday is deadly even at long range, especially if you aren't properly grounded. And that's just the physicists... can you imagine the sheer size of Zombie Charles Darwin's Army of the Extinct?
It seems to me that Arthur C. Clarke was one very thought stimulating and unique author, in line with Isaac Asimov and the like.

Thank you, Arthur Clarke.
Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune by Frank Herbert are my favorites. the sequels God Emperor, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse were good as well but I like the 1st three the most.

Dune was about how people shouldn't let supermen lead. it was complex. it was an ecological novel. they had quotable quotes like "thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of the human mind". people say it's the lord of the rings of science fiction. the characters are rich, the plot thick. i highly recommend Dune.
Colonel Sanders sold KFC cheap. After he said "If someone puts a million dollars in your hand you close your fist."
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Up for me.
"... Seek out people with different points of view and invite them to join the discussion ..."

Heretical for Science.

I read this and think of some thinkers below each who are/where persecuted in some way for having unacceptable ideas:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Kosko

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin

"... Diversity of ideas is important, and we definitely don't do enough to promote it. ..."

True. Sometimes I think working at the edges of problems and across several fields reduces the chances of recognition. But it's here good ideas & people emerge.
IPhone 2.0 SDK: How Signing Certificates Work
Matt I was hoping you would give a nice poker analogy here :)

My brother is a pretty good player, but he is quick to 'chop'. In fact I mock him all the time for it, but it really depends on what your comfort level is. At a certain point it is not desirable to take exchange risk for reward. Inevitably whenever you wish to get out of the game, you are going to have to take a discounted rate. In poker, if the final 2 guys chop due to the highly top-heavy prize structure, you are obviously going to take some sort of discount.
Heh, I'm going the other way.. Safari 3.1 -> FF3b4 and found the same (or the opposite, depending on how you look at it.)

Why the switch? Gmail doesn't work in Safari 3.1! ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6856943 ) At least, not the Gmail I have on Apps For Your Domain, and it won't let me use the fancy, new one I have on regular Gmail sigh
>Think: remote exploration of Martian mountains.

Think: Donkey in spacesuit
Summary: Rails 2 is 30-50% faster. Rails 1.2 spends lots of time in session store, so turn it off for max speed (when not using Rails 2).

On a side note, what's up with the uhh...header image on the blog?
A different kind of startup: bringing bagged ice to Germany
"... I excitedly typed off a an email to Professor Knuth, demonstrating a problem in one of his books. ..."

Hunting for bugs :)

Knuth has a standing offer of for anyone who finds defective code: From the preface of Fundamental Algorythms - "... I will cheerfully pay $2.56 to the first finder of each technical, typographical, or historical error ..."
I use one big display, and I don't have a problem with this, either. Even on my 17" widescreen laptop, I never have Firefox maximized. I simply have a standard location that it opens to, my other applications fit around that in their standard places, and I go from there. Alt+F9 minimizes in Gnome, Alt+Tab switches between applications. I rarely touch the mouse in relation to window management, so this business of wasting time manipulating windows is something that I have not experienced.
I took the Java route @ Waterloo.

I would have to defend CS 133/134 in the Java days by saying that that they always emphasized the data structures and OO components and downplayed anything language specific. The only language specific components really were how you expressed the general concepts. For this reason, I don't feel the switch will make a huge impact on a lot of students.

However, I do think it is a good thing, too many students focused on memorizing the Java aspects like what a main definition looks like (memorizing public static void main... instead of understanding what public meant, what static meant, and so on).
a few months (90 days) of grading / $2.56 = $.35 a day. You ungrateful bastard!!

JK, that is frickin' awesome. You got your money's worth.
Growing up, I read a series of "children's sci-fi" books by Louis Slobodkin, the first being "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree." These books played a significant role in my developing scientific interests.
there is only one reason to sell a business, YOU WANT OUT.

if you are profitable and you want out, you have to ask; "will this enable me to do my next activity?" if not, then don't sell yet you are much better off growing your business.

if you are not profitable and you want out, well i would ask; "Will this cover my effort on this project?"

I have a personal number in my head that covers my anticipated yearly expenses, plus has room in there to keep adding to savings. above that amount in wealth i very well may sell my first business, if i will find my next idea more desirable to pursue.
I'm not sure comparing with Google Adsense is a good idea, otherwise following your advice I'd need to charge somewhere in the $70 - $160 CPM range on one of my blogs, which ain't ever gunna happen ;-)

Anyway, just to be contrary, and because I've had success with it.. if you have a site that's visible in a particular niche, consider selling fixed rate "sponsorships" instead of advertising. I've had very good luck with this on a particular blog that totally FAILED with Adsense (as in < 1% CTRs - a few dollars a month) and it now makes about a grand a month.

The trick to doing sponsorships, I've found, is to both be prominent in a niche, and to have some sponsors already. This sounds like a Catch 22, but you can do freebie deals with friendly people in the industry until you get real sponsors. I didn't do this myself as I wasn't that smart when I started doing this.. and got the first two sponsors over the first 2 years and then all the rest came within a month after those two!
two words: computer science. All our great minds are busy learning how to program.
Social Experiment: Whats the Name of that Color?
you got voted down for the "bingo!" comment because it was substance-less. your followup comment, however, was very good. that's the one you should have written in the first place.
Probably a book of Phillip K. Dick's short stories. If you want to inspire imagination, nothing's better than sci-fi short stories for a hit of imagination-crack, and Phillip K. Dick is a master.

You've probably seen movies based on his stories, including: the Minority Report, Total Recall, Blade Runner, Screamers, A scanner Darkly and a few others.
The PDF is encrypted, and we can't convert encrypted PDFs to iPaper. In this case we just allow the original PDF to be downloaded.
Damn, I'd have hoped this would get more points.
How Ibuildings builds scalable web applications
Why are there two articles about this on the front page?
Rails and Grails comparison
Unlock And Hack Into A Windows PC With A Single Command
Adam Boileau released a utility to unlock a Windows PC in seconds bypassing the standard Login/Password requirement.
Well now I have a counterexample for when people say PHP sucks :). I think your site looks and works great and it just goes to show that great hackers can always do great things.
Dammit :-( This guy was a real hero to me :-(
I think economics caught up with reality a long time ago (in this respect). Last time I saw the end of that stupid show, I was yelling at the TV:

"Maximize your utility function, not the money, moron!"

(I'm not an economist, but I talk like one.)
Clarke was one of the true masters. He not only wrote great books but brought attention and respect to the entire genre of sci-fi. Before Clarke a government space program wouldn't have been caught dead asking for a sci-fi author's opinion.

"Clarke's most important scientific contribution may be in propagating the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He described this concept in a paper titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?", published in Wireless World in October 1945. The geostationary orbit is now sometimes known as the Clarke Orbit or the Clarke Belt in his honour."
The Mote In God's Eye, Niven & Pournelle
No, I think feeling undervalued will be a constant for anybody who's most interested in innovation. Now, if you are in it for money then sure the possibility exists for you to walk away from a deal someday thinking "Damn, I REALLY robbed 'em blind on that one!" But I don't think those of us that do things with passion because we believe in an idea will ever feel that money can every truly put a full value on our vision.
how about this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qae_TUTeGo
this is the crux. will it make your life any better?
I'd say the law of diminishing returns applies here. 1 million will make you happy because you don't have to work anymore, 2 million will make you happier, but not twice as happy.
I want to add that software developers are not building a new type of franchise on a plot of land. Often times, intuition, experimentation, logic, and luck can help discover better alternatives that one wouldn't have found out had they not been "in the game"; e.g., the peculiar idea that pricing something too low can turn users off, and then finding out you have more orders when you increase the price.
Axiom of Choice
Squeakers: Alan Kay video about kids and Squeak
Stanford's Ed Corner has a good recorded talk on negotiation : http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=181...

The rules of negotiation very much depend on the situation so I personally take "n-tips for negotiating" with a grain of salt.
(In case someone is late to the party, most of the crazy downvoting and weird crap has since been edited out)
Let me see if I can sum it up in small words.
Bear Stearns bought a lot of mortgage-backed securities over the past couple of years. These securities are currently worthless - no one will purchase them at any price. Bear Stearns has debts, but no assets = bankrupt.
JP Morgan sought to buy Bear Stearns, but is unsure just how much of Bear Stearns' portfolio is worthless, so they're not sure how much they'd be willing to pay. So they got a bailout from the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve agreed to 'loan' $30 billion to Bear Stearns, secured only by - this is important - utterly worthless mortgage securities. This means that if BS doesn't pay the money back, the Federal Reserve can ONLY take those worthless securities and can't come after any other assets of BS or JPM. In other words...... it's free money. (If I loaned you $10,000 using a single toothpick as collateral and agreed that if you didn't pay it back, I could only keep the toothpick and couldn't go after any other assets you may have, that would be a gift, right? Would you pay back the money and get your toothpick back, or keep the money?) BS will never pay back the $30 billion. It's a free gift from taxpayers to the financial industry.
Even with the free gift, JPM still didn't deem BS to be worth very much. Indeed, sinec BS's office building is worth $1 billion and JPM paid $236 million for all of BS including the office building, JPM forecasts that after the $30 billion gift, BS is worth about negative $750 million or so.
City from Clifford D. Simak
Egad. What was the attrition rate?
That's why I thought Waterloo's switch to Scheme was noteworthy. MIT's 6.001 was the prototypical Scheme class and now it's Python (w/robots).
The advantage of writing your own framework:

$ ab -c 5 -n 5000 http://thefeelgood.com/explore
[...]
Requests per second: 784.50 [#/sec] (mean)
[...]

Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 4
66% 4
75% 4
80% 5
90% 12
95% 13
98% 22
99% 40
100% 40 (longest request)

That's running on a 1/2GB Joyent accelerator.
depends on the subgenre :)

Superhuman:
Slan by A.E. Van Vogt
More Than Human by Theodore STurgeon
Odd John by Olaf Stapledon

Post Apocalyptic:
The Day of The Triffids by John Whyndham
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
A Canticle for Lebowitz by...don't remember

Space Opera/Adventure:
any of The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks
The Reality Dysfunction series by ...don't remember
Hyperion series by Dan Simmons
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer

Dystopian:
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin <---highly overlooked, predates 1984 and Brave New World

But the Absolute Best would be anything by:
Stanislaw Lem (Cyberiad, Futurological Congress, Solaris)
Alfred Bester (The STars my Destination, The Demolished Man)
or Samuel R. Delany (Babel-17, Dhalgren, Trtion, Nova)
oh and Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and This Immortal are both great.

Some of Philip K. Dick's stuff is great, but everyone recommends him. :)

almost forgot John Brunner, check out Steel Beach, The Sheep Look Up, and Stand on Zanzibar.
Creator of mailinator and currently a Google employee. He posts some more insightful stuff on the mailinator blog.
Dune is fantasy >_>
God Emperor of Dune was my favorite even though it was the most preachy. I thought the original Dune was a bit preachy being so strongly allegorical and all.

I prefer Herbert's other novels like Whipping Star/The Dosadi Experiment
If you liked 1984, then you might also like "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel) (don't follow the link. copy-paste it with the (novel) part.)

I've never read 1984 (I hope to when I make time), but I understand that they are similar. In fact, I heard that "We" was the inspiration for 1984.
forgot Time Travel
Connie Willis (To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book) both great.
anything by Ursula K LeGuin as well.
So, it's a real-life simulation of the digital approximation of a real-life phenomenon?
Plenty of people might "feel" their company is undervalued when the offer may in fact be fair. Decisions like this should be based more on the numbers rather than "your gut feeling" - assuming your goal is to maximize wealth. If your life goals are tied up with the mission of your business, then by all means follow your passion.
a) The time isn't right for the emergence of another Einstein just now

this is the big one. scientific breakthroughs move in waves, it's not just the right person but also being in the right place and time.
However I believe that with all the holes being poked in the Standard Model by dark matter/energy and the fact that we STILL have no idea what gravity actually is, we're headed for another Einstein popping up.
i like heinlein's "moon is a harsh mistress" and alfred-bester's "tiger-tiger / stars-my-destination". kinda old school though.
yes you'd profit that much on average, but with a gigantic standard deviation.
You'd be surprised how frequently people forgot both passwords and E-mail. Or more likely, forget the password to an account registered with a fake E-mail.
Todays airplanes might as well be powered gliders... one company builds the engines and another builds the airframe.

Nature measures the efficiency of the combination of the two, so why not set that combination as the design goal (instead of current sub-goals of low fuel consumption for the engine and low drag for the airframe)?

Clear like mud?
Question, are the charts simply random charts from random companies recently trading?

Where are they coming from? I see AOL is providing them, but how are they selected for use in the site? This might explain the amount of users who seem to be succeeding by clicking only the "buy" button.

Is there an algorithm that makes sure the gains and losses are evenly distributed in the charts (less realistic), or are the charts completely random (mimicking the experience a real stock trader would be presented with the charts)?
You're totally right about the phenomenon. But it is well understood in economics - it's called marginal utility and it's in any Economics 101.
The Entrepreneurship Myth: popular illusions about startups
Wow. You are doing about over $45CPM per ad unit. That sounds really good. I wish I was in that area.

But I think the principle still holds - if you are going to be replacing ad views that are automatically and reliably earning $45 CPM then you need a reason to do it. The 2 good reasons I can think of are
1. More money. 50% more to make up for your extra costs
2. You want to diversify your income so if adsense ever went bad you would be in a better position.

Maybe if you had an automated ordering system where people payed you upfront you could go lower but otherwise I just don't see how it is worth it.

I agree with the sponsorships idea though.

Let me know if you are keen to sell me some of that ad space for less than google returns :)
excellent choice.

For many years I always looked at the animation when I was defragging my windows disk and thinking about the end of Black Cloud. (Hint. The janitor looking at the screen)

"October the first is too late" is another Hoyle classic.