skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
He's right on most of the stuff he says in that article actually. Let's have a quick breakdown:

- Electronic publishing will not surpass traditional newspapers: newspapers may now be found online, but the majority of substantial content out there is still produced the out fashioned way by old fashioned reporters. Bloggers have done a pretty decent job of covering stories which are too niche for the mainstream presses (Engadget, TechCrunch etc), but have not come even remotely close to challenging traditional media. I saw a PBS documentary on the Iraq War which mentioned that traditional newspapers are both profitable and account for about 80% of new stories, with talking heads on TV mostly taking their cues from papers.

- multimedia software replaces teachers: I'd like to see someone try and argue he was wrong on this one.

- computers replace books - well, it hasn't happened yet, and it seems it won't happen until computers start to resemble books so much that there isn't any practical difference anymore. The Kindle, E-Ink, etc are all trying to make computers more like books, since no one likes reading off a screen, so I'll give him this point too.

- 'ocean of uneditted data': wikipedia and google have made a huge difference here, so he's wrong on this point

- digital networks change governance: Now that I think about it, isn't it a bit ironic that the rise of blogs, distributed networks, open discussion forums etc all took place during one of the most orwellian administrations ever? Unseen levels of secrecy, scandals too numerous to mention, a disasterous war, erosion of civil liberties, increased surveillance... one of the hubris around electronic governance made an once of difference.

- cyberbusiness: partially right on this one. The internet is great for some kinds of business and quite horrible at others.

- Online communities cannot replace real human ones: again, completely right on this one. While online communities are better than nothing, they pale in comparison with real human ones. There's a very good reason why startup hubs are as relevant as ever and YCombinator and its clones demand that you move to their location in order to partipate.

OVerall, a pretty good record of predictions and I suspect a lot of them will continue to hold for a very long time.
Mozilla CEO Takes a Bite Out of Apple’s Reputation
Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing: http://philip.greenspun.com/panda and other Greenspun writings. Yes the technical stuff in that book is dated, but what I really liked was the approach to building websites (and companies) from "first principles," rather than just trying to copy what other people were doing.

Also since I was trying to write a Ph.D. thesis, it was just a revelation to see that MIT accepted something interesting and readable for his thesis.
Apple Safari: Do you see problems with the fonts' sharpness?
I find webpage fonts on Safari kind of blurry, even after changing the smoothness from medium to light, it doesn't improve a lot .. any idea why?
That's an interesting idea. I don't really have a lot of time to do much engineering these days due to the demands of a real job. It's certainly worth some thought though. Thanks.
My brother-in-law calls his Garmin "the girlfriend"
Sometimes she is right and sometimes he has to ignore her sexy British accented commands. "Recalculating coordinates"
PHP 5 printf Integer Overflow
To paraphrase my lawyer, sometimes companies can be very creative about what the standard "Proprietary Inventions and Information" agreement covers. And any advice I give can basically be summed up as "get your own lawyer early."
Haha. Step 1 - post it on Hacker News ;-)
Why the US is collapsing
"Breaking the cycle and giving people a purpose in life, embracing them, can make a difference"

This article doesn't remind me of the gang stuff in Freakonomics so much as it reminds me of a bonus feature on the "Sicko" DVD. Michael Moore goes to a prison in Norway that allows everyone, including murderers and rapists, the opportunity to work amongst the general population doing fulfilling work. [They mention a prisoner, for example, that killed two people with a chainsaw. He was allowed to finish his sentence by working in the forest freely with a chainsaw!] Norway doesn't have a death sentence, nor even a life sentence. The maximum prison sentence is 21 years. And, by the way, Norway usually has the lowest murder rate in the world.
Are Central Banks Planning to Make Coordinated Purchases of Mortgage Backed Securities?
No. Summary?
Does this happen in any other applications? Are icons fuzzy as well on the dock or desktop? If that's the case, you might not be running at the monitor's native resolution.

If it's just the browser, try changing browsers. If THAT doesn't work, stop leeching your neighbors internet ;) (http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pete/upside-down-ternet.html)
You are right. I have the same impressions about the conservativeness of the financial institutions. This is one of the ideas I am evaluating now, counting the pros and cons. I can focus on other "messaging" areas not necessarily related to financial messaging.
uh, no. i would not do it.
What about an API for websites that want to detect links to wikipedia in their content?
Bridging Desktop And Web Applications - A Look At Mozilla Prism
the fuzziness is only on the web-pages in safari - same web-page is okay on firefox - i think firefox is the best and with ver3.0 there is no competition.
It feels a little weird saying it, but I feel exactly like the uncaged lion paul describes.

My "hack" to achieve this:

* quit the job to pursue part-time freelancing

* the idea is to work on a startup / projects the other part of the time

* moved to Bucharest where I can live for $2k / month (I only have to "work" 4 days a month)

* while experiencing a foreign culture, it helps give you perspective, because you see many of their customs/etc. to be silly, which also makes you realize your own are silly as well

* european chicks have sexy accents (if the carrot is big enough...) =)
quit?
Here's some bookmarklets to automate the very simplest strategies. Unfortunately I don't think there's an easy way to automate this guy's strategy though.

Buy only:

javascript: window.setInterval(function() { document.getElementsByTagName("button")[0].onclick(); }, 1000);

Sell only:

javascript: window.setInterval(function() { document.getElementsByTagName("button")[2].onclick(); }, 1000);

Random:

javascript: window.setInterval(function() { document.getElementsByTagName("button")[Math.floor(Math.random()*3)].onclick(); }, 1000);

Of course, these are all pretty awful strategies...
Meals I often enjoy

1. Can of chick peas + balsamic vinegar
2. Huge pile of spinach or kale wilted in a frying pan with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Cereal & milk
4. PB&J
Is that a question or advice? Either way I did quit.
I think you're living the dream - living where you want, working when you want (4-hr work week style).

How much due diligence did you do before you took the leap? I assume you did consulting before you left the States.

My half-baked plan is to move to a Latin American country, learn Spanish in the mornings, code in the afternoons, party in the evening
cocks head

I'm not sure if I see the utility in this... maybe I just don't look things up on wikipedia enough, but Firefox already has a "look <selection> up on Google" in the right-click menu, and most "important" nouns will have a wikipedia link on the front page of Google anyway.

As for promotion, in the "level of connectedness" we now have, word-of-mouth seems to promote products really well. Make something impressive, and people will tell their friends about it. At this point, I won't tell my friends about your site, I probably won't remember it in 15 minutes (unless something on-topic comes up). Do change my mind ;)

So I'd say ... keep working on the idea/implementation until it wows people, at which point users will find you.
Pretty freaking cool. Make a plugin for wordpress. Getting on people's blogs would give your great visibility and wordpress developers/designers are always talking about new and useful plugins.
why not hit sell on the ones trending down?
>Or rather, a large organization could only avoid slowing down if they avoided tree structure.

Valve, the makers of Half-Life and Portal, work like that. No one has a dedicated role, there is no hierarchy, there's just a guy with a vision and a large team of widely-talented people who work on what they want to work on. Obviously it works, too :)
Throw a scoop of protein powder in oatmeal. Microwave or (better) throw boiling water on top.

Dump a can of tuna in a strainer. Heat with hot water in sink. Dump on top of bagged salad. Top with a vinaigrette or salad dressing.
I bet a hacker news poster comes from a racist family, and another one is a racist.

Who cares?
Also, if you do this, it would be nice to only link to the first occurrence of a wikilink (tried it on some astronomy pages, and the first occurrence of 'Earth' is nice to have, but not the 10th :P)
Thanks for all of your responses so far. I guess my case is typical, which is what I was afraid of. :)

For those on visas, note that the limit on H1s goes away as long as you apply for a green card before your last visa expires. You are supposed to receive new H1s for as long as the green card takes.
Except that the first major obstacle turned out not to be another serious war (that started, sort of, in 2001) but the dot com bust

Nevertheless, it's a fun read.
English literacy, perhaps?
WTF?

I understood this post about Joel: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000679.html

And this one about DHH:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001065.html

Now it's PG. I need to start writing blog posts attacking people so I can get some more ad revenue.
I work in this industry.

The article mentioned trucks being sent into residential areas (or through tunnels/bridges that weren't meant for them). Google maps doesn't know what type of vehicle you're driving, but if you bought a vehicle with a navigation device factory-installed, then (at least for newer models), it does know, and any decent (and recent!) in-vehicle device won't send, for example, a commercial truck through a road not classed for it.

You also (again, with any sane, recent device) won't be routed through unpaved or construction roads. The device might not even be loaded with those non-routes.

Another consideration is, whether the maps were installed in the factory, or whether the device goes online to pull more recent maps (the obvious trade-offs apply), real road conditions, lane closures, detours, etc., happen faster and more ephemerally than any data provider can or will update their source data.

When driving, always use your eyes and your brain. No device, however useful as an aide to navigation, can substitute for them.
I've certainly considered that idea. There are two big questions here: 1. What does the API look like? 2. How do I promote it to that particular audience?

Right now websites could use the existing service to manually add links to new content. Certain features might make such usage quite a bit easier, for example the ability to take text markup (MediaWiki markup, MarkDown, etc.) and spit it out with links added in the appropriate syntax. This would still be manual, but it would be pretty easy to use.

A fully automatic API could be something as simple as "include this .js file". That's simple, but not very efficient (caching would help of course), and doesn't present the best user experience (there would generally be a delay where the text is visible in the browser, but links haven't been added yet.) A server-side API would certainly be better, but then you have a whole bunch of different server types to support: PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, ASP.NET, or even application specific like WordPress or Drupal, etc.

I could probably roll a client-side JavaScript inclusion API in a weekend, but it would probably take another couple of weekends to implement decent caching.

A server-side solution is ultimately the right way to go, but is there a way to get maximum bang for the buck? Just expose an XML API and let other people do the server-side integration?
I think the reason this is interesting is that it is quite possible that the current state of the Botha family would not be what it is (investors in GOOG? COME ON!) without the violent oppression of minorities.

"Behind every great fortune is a crime."
IT's Recovering Complexaholics
!HN
Are you sure about that 50% ?
Incorrect. I for one hate my day job at a large corporation and will quit soon. Many of the things that PG says about big companies resonates with me. I truly feel like a caged animal and I look around me and I see some of the things that PG describes. I feel so different from people that work here that sometimes I wonder if I'm a different breed of person. I have a rebellious inclination toward all of the rules and traditions here. From this experience I've become more inclined to work in a smaller company or as a researcher (and possibly a startup some day).

However, I found the article to assume too much about what is natural and fulfilling for programmers. I realize that there are reasons for being biased towards creating startups, but the essay really does come across as being very skewed and not very well rounded because of it. Jumping into a startup can come with huge risks and sacrifices that can be anything but natural and fulfilling for some people. Startup companies can vary widely in the actual benefit they have to their customers as well, which is an important criteria for some people's fulfillment. Is the startup just about satisfying the customers' desires for entertainment and socializing, or is it helping people in a much deeper way? Is it just about pandering to the flawed values of the audience, or is it about pushing the state of the art? For many people it can't just be about financial freedom and being bought out. There are so many different aspects of "natural" and "fulfilling" and Paul seems to ignore a lot of them, possibly even misrepresenting some.
The market seems to have already agreed that artist exposure is a fair return for online postings.

I don't think the author appreciates how valuable that world-wide, democratic exposure is. The artists may not receive any direct revenue from it, but it can greatly enhance real sources of revenue, like concerts and merchandising.
Um, it being only 2008, many of us are the grandchildren of racists.
Yeah you're right. The title is misleading. They aren't just racists in their views, they implemented racist policies with political power.
You are French and I claim my $5. ;)
Yes, I believe local functions are usually defined with flet.
So what happened to the Reddits and the Zenters?

Lions roaming free and now caged lions as well. Okay maybe a little richer than other caged lions ;).
To avoid hurting his feelings, I recommend having the freeway changed.
"Isn't equity a big deal? I was employee #2 in a just funded startup. I ended up busting my ass the whole time only to realize that my equity was a fraction of what the founders took in."

To be fair if you were an employee, i.e. you got paid well I assume? there was less risk on your part relative to the founders. So your equity should be a fraction of what the founders took in. Why would it be otherwise?
Are you implying the article might have cherry picked examples to be more sensationalist?
No, these are real issues, but the navigation device market is highly competitive, and a lot of these things have been getting fixed very fast in newer models.

I repeat the caveat to always trust your own eyes and brain over any machine.
If you have the need for such a designer, I'm open for contracts or would be more than willing to outsource the work to some of my associates in case I get tied up by then.
I think the generator uses a Stirling engine. It's been designed to require little maintenance, so the need for parts is vastly reduced. Additionally, Kamen stated that you could power it using a variety of fuels. If indeed it is a Stirling engine, then a variation could even be adapted that merely used a large parabolic reflector to generate the necessary heat to power the generator, without any other fuel requirement.

I also think it's easy for us in developed countries to underestimate the amount of effort required to bring potable water to individuals in undeveloped areas. I've been working to help send an acquaintance back to Uganda to do work on water systems there -- analyzing the water, as well as clearing the simple spring wells and teaching the locals that it's better to get water from the pipe than from the pool on the ground. In his presentation, he noted that it's not unusual for many villagers to make a four-hour hike to a water source, and then carry that water back again.

I would think that a trip like that would consume rather more than 500 watts of power.
I constantly right click on words or subjects to read their wiki entry. I wished there was a firefox extension in which I right clicked the word or subject and in doing so would bring up the entry in a box (CoolIris like) without leaving the page.

I see you have a firefox extension - does it do something similar to the above?

As for promotion, ironically this post here on Y News is a great place to start! Its a highly trafficked site with a demo that ranges from the tech influential to the next Sergey/Brin!
microsoft research is doing pretty interesting things; i don't think anyone's anti-MS-Research.

windows/msie/office are less fun, on average, than unix/firefox/tex, but don't write the whole company off.

(in much the same way, IBM is big and stodgy (and sold people-counting systems to axis powers and apartheid south africa), but its Text-to-Speech technology is amazing.)
Very interesting article, However I don't know enough about global economy to assess whether he is right or not. He does make some pretty big assertions and accusations though.

Anybody know whether this is right, total b.s. or somewhere in between?
NYT: Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade as Internet Providers Pull Out
I'm still looking for the point in these ebook readers. Isn't that why I have my laptop? Or if I'm on a short bus ride and I don't want to wait for it to boot up, press the little power button on my PDA, and navigate to the file that way?

What am I missing here? It really looks like a piece of technology that (like I've said before) was produced simply because someone wanted to make the next step before it was practical to do so.
yep, it surprised me as well. Here is a picture of the world with an indication of freedom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Democracyindex2.png This picture is a bit more pessimistic than the one I have in my book.
Wow; I think this is exactly right.

I'm always surprised by how offended people get by things I write. It seems totally unpredictable. I didn't expect people to be so offended by this one. In fact, I thought I was saying something rather smarmily ingratiating, if anything: that the famous startup founders you keep reading about in the press are not that different from you, but that they just have, in effect, a healthier work environment. See the last paragraph.

And yet somehow that message has gotten completely twisted around. It's as if people wanted to misunderstand this essay.

I've been mulling over why this happens, and one reason is certainly the one you suggest. I try to cut every unnecessary word, and I don't say things unless I'm pretty sure of them. The result sounds arrogant, because it doesn't have any of the hedging people usually surround ideas with to make them palatable.

But there's no alternative. People won't read essays if they're too long. If you want to get a lot of ideas into an essay short enough to read, you have to be so curt you sound arrogant.
Was there any sort of written contract in the beginning? Kevin first announced Digg on The Screensavers in a way like he had nothing to do with it. If there was nothing in writing between the two of you at the time Kevin announced it, wouldn't that mean Kevin split equal ownership with you?
Well, the riders in the picture don't carry the same sort of power as, say, a horsed rider. To me, the lot of them look like they're reliant on some overblown geriatric walkers.
near-total bs with a moderate grounding in fact
Yes, I was paid very well. I loved the team. And I am now at peace with the equity part as well. They earned every single bit of their equity for the risk they took.

I was responding to ojbyrne's comments that being a founder is not all hunky-dory since (s)he ended up in the same spot. I suggested at least (s)he got better equity being a founder and that is a big deal.

And I still think for a risk/reward outlook, either being a founder or playing it safe until after Series B are the two extremes and are both high in the value / risk ratio.
Got it. Good luck with your startup. I read Jessica Livingston's 'Founders at work' and the story of many co-founders is very similar to what you said.
Wondered if we have enough for a cookbook.
Scientists are trying to explain the existence of religion
That's what I thought ;-)
How to recruit co-Founders for a bootstrapping startup
Basically right. The technology of the thing is revolutionary, and it's based off the same technology that Kamen used in his wheelchair design. His wheelchair actually is revolutionary -- this is not.

They completely screwed up the application of the thing. It doesn't solve any problems for me that are worth the price tag.

If the only thing I'm transporting is me, then:

- I'd rather walk, if I have the time,
- or, ride a bike, if I'm in more of a hurry,
- or jump in the car.

So, I think human transportation is out.

What I think might have worked is if the thing were designed to be a cargo transporter. I wouldn't mind being able to ride down to the grocery store on my bike, towing a stable self-powered cart on a simple leash behind me, to carry 50 pounds of groceries (or tools, or computer hardware, or whatever) on the way back.

That would be kinda cool.

But not $4500 cool.
This functionality is built into IE 8. You can select text and look it up on Wikipedia, Facebook, etc...
Oops, didn't read the problem. Yes, as other commenters say, you should expand into a call to a recursive function, not an expression that gets expanded recursively.

If you were writing this for real you'd expand into a do, so this problem is somewhat artificially difficult.
Going off the Apple point - I remember getting my first Macintosh, booting it up and being completely blown away by the richness of the interface. Despite the analogy being a bit confusing for some, I was particularly intrigued by how you could drag an icon of disk to the trash and the disk would actually eject in the real world. That link between something as conceptually driven as software and as physical as a floppy disk all happening in a box on my desk really resonated with me. Apple as a company also always impressed me as an example of entrepreneurship.
That's it! Thanks, Nick. I haven't seen this for 15 years.
Git Magic
I didn't get the impression that the Zenters' comment meant they didn't push back. Rather, they had an objective way of testing out suggestions: "Let's try it and find out." And they sought out input whenever possible. Any startup founder should be the same.

There've been plenty of times (mostly in my volunteer projects, but occasionally in my startup too) where I implemented something I didn't agree with just to see what it'd look like when it's done. And in a majority of those cases, it turned out the other person was right, and their suggestion was better than what I had in mind.
In earlier versions of the essay I had a sentence saying that in a sufficiently pure research job, you're effectively working for yourself. I don't know about Google specifically, but I get the impression Bell Labs at its height was like that.
i'm not dismissing Microsoft, rather poking fun at some HN users that are
Ah, that brightened my evening. Funniest thing I've read all week.

EPIC FAIL.