skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Although I've been coding for a few years, I've always been sort of a newbie because I haven't really worked on one particular platform or technology over a long period of time. I have just picked up stuff by building things.

I built this site more than four years ago - http://stp.unipune.ernet.in/zsi/ (I also did the backend data entry pages, which are not online).

When I took up the project, all I knew was HTML. I learnt to implement LAMP from scratch on the job.

I deliberately put myself in a situation where I had no choice but to learn, the same way people really learn to swim - by diving in at the deep end.

I'm pleased to see that the website is still up and running.

I haven't quite kept up with the latest web development technologies or languages, mainly because I haven't got down to building anything fun for a while. I'm itching to start doing something again and when I do, I guess I'll pick up something new.

What project are you working on? If you are looking for someone to work with, I'd be interested (I'm based in the UK too).
someone is fighting yc news!
It does make sense, and I think it was a great read. You are obviously really getting somewhere.

This is the kind of comments that really make me feel good on behalf of other people.
i absolutely agree - building an app. i would want to use has made it a much more powerful learning exercise. i found the tizag.com tutorials also useful for the basics, but once i had completed them, it was much easier to envision how i could go on to create my app.
there's a lot to be said for jumping in at the deep end - especially if you have some friends that can help you when you reach a mind block or dead end.

as for my project, it's very early days, i'll let you know when i have something more substantial to show you..
fair enough. good luck with it.
I started coding a couple of years ago with Java for a desktop app. I really didn't know where to start, so I picked it because it was available. I dabbled in web stuff to have a web site (css, xhtml, php, a little mySQL), and now I am back to that as I need a much better website in order to start marketing.

I still feel like a newbie, though.
Well, not necessarily. Those devices aren't biped specific- they're specific to thing with grasping mechanisms.

Who's to say a quadruped robot can't have 4 feet + 1 or 2 grapsing mechanisms? Or have two front feet that are also capable of grasping?
I've been coding for ages now, but I still feel like a beginner. There's always new stuff to learn. :)

I'd agree with this advice: be passionate about what you do and keep on building stuff, it's the best way to learn.. not only that, try to think about what you're doing and why. It's better (and more fun!) to actually understand how things work.

Learning from smart people is also a great way to learn.. it can be hard to find these people though.
I'm tipping this is a good place to find smart/talented people. I think you're in the right place. :)
Many people will probably disagree with me on this, but I found Head Start Java to be a good introduction to Java. I picked it up when I wanted to learn the language. I started a program that focused on drilling a user in Jeopardy questions (I have a huge fascination with Jeopardy), but I didn't really like Swing, so I have added the project to my long list of things that I have started but never finished.
I would amend that to "The biggest requirement is having encouragement from within". Without that, people around you won't make much difference.

Hacking has always been VERY alluring to me, no matter what anyone else thought. I started long ago, before it was cool.
They could name the new browser something other than IE, and make sure the code testing for older IEs sees it as just another hopefully standards-compliant browser. Then the "if IE" code wouldn't trigger because the browser is Microsoft(r) MetalDog Home Premium, or whatever. Of course they probably wouldn't want to lose the brand recognition of IE.
Did Microsoft beat Apple to dual-sided touch technology?
Remote execution DoS exploits iPhone by simply loading a Web page
Enter the socialprise
I like the point that you took away from the parable. However, most of the time someone shows me a parable like this it is to criticize the modern capitalist, consumptionist lifestyle. These critics idealize the primitive and believe that economic progress has made us corrupt and unhappy (although, strangely, you never see them moving to any of the primitive countries they idealize). Rarely do they understand the full consequences of the ideas they support. Nothing makes me angrier than the anti-materialists except maybe the legions bitching about income-inequality, which strangely often are the same people.
I'm pretty sure that the sale wasn't a done deal on friday. The problem didn't get serious until friday morning, and thursday I think that nobody even suspected a firesale.

Take a look at this timeline: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120580966534444395.html?mod=...

Unrelated: what does your username mean? Is it a greek last name, something else, or just a random sequence of letters? Just curious...

It's my first initial and last name (which, yes, is of Greek origin).

Any more questions, Mr. Ixmax? ;)
Apple sales soar to capture 14% of US PC retail sales
You can run windows on Mac then why can't you run Mac OS-X on PC? Is it the intel chips for PC not designed for Mac OS-X?
SXSW: The Ascent of Nerdcore Rising
Yes, but Google should be careful not to alienate the people that end up staying. It is necessary for the success of their company that they maintain the Google culture, but the danger is that they seem like a callous giant company who doesn't care about the new people.
Even when you're approached by a company, there is usually someone inside acting as your advocate (trying to bring you onboard and convince others why you matter). They'll need a resume to help with that, even if it isn't really a deciding factor.

Any company looking for funding will also need to demonstrate its value/potential to investors. Part of this is demonstrating/documenting team competence.
+1. Poverty is only agreeable to those who don't have to live with it.
A small pizza restaurant is valued more than Bear Stearns.
A bit of a misleading title, i expected it to be about the storage limit. Instead it's about something that yahoo itself considers a bug and causes a limit of messages _in one folder_
The Intel Macs use EFI, not BIOS. They also only have drivers for certain bits of hardware (the hardware that shows up in shipping configurations of Macs). I think there's a few other restrictions as well; google it.
The problem is that software is very cheap to develop, really only costing labor. Any sort of hardware will cost more and the wild variations would compound that cost, ie analog circuitry vs autonomous helicopters requirements.

It would be neat to see happen but I personally think you would need more time and money to get any good demo.

I think most hardware would require about double the money and maybe the time as well... Basically it would be the same as many college senior project classes. Just with more money and less slackers.
Hmmm, in that case wouldn't the elite install rules to keep them elite, and keep all others out?
It's still communicating, and that's what it's for. I mean I get what you're saying, you don't want to communicate anything that's particularly suited to a twitter sort of form, and that that form of communication therefore seems trivial. I'm just saying communication forms a fundamental need, and if something facilitates that then thats what its for.
Could it be that their slowness in introducing this feature is because it's hard to break even with online video?
Ha ha, yes I'm sure I can think of something - your record for getting answers is pretty good ;-)
Wild wild west. Works only in the US though :-).
The "mobile is different" argument is back
The Feel Good Initiative. Discover new music daily.
The result of about 20 days of exploratory programming. We didn't really know where we were going in the beginning. Things to check out: tagging (I like this song), posting your own music, the podcast (my favorite), other tidbits.

Note: I submitted The Feel Good back in February but it was a totally different site, so this is not a dupe.
You can, via a hacked OSX which emulates EFI. It is against the Apple license agreement to do so however.
6 Tips for Hiring Top Talent at Startups
Get Your Favicon on Quintura.com by Embedding Quintura Search Widget
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Throwing Out An Idea
The media industry is finding it more and more difficult to control their own content as a result of the proliferation of P2P networks. At the same time, media consumers are finding it more and more difficult to obtain quality programming (at least in my opinion; I haven't found much worth watching on television recently). I was thinking about a way to solve both the media producers' need to control their property and my want to obtain quality programming when I want it for a relatively cheap price. I had the following idea:

It would be great to have a site like YouTube that the media producers load all of their property onto (television, movies, radio, etc.) and users pay a flat fee per month to have the opportunity to view any episode, any movie, or listen to any song at anytime they want with just a few commercials spliced into the feed at points that make sense (like natural commercial breaks for a television show). The media companies get revenue from the commercials and a significant amount of demographic data. The website gets money from the media consumer. The user gets to watch anything at anytime, all problems would be solved.

I even had the idea that media producers could load scripts for the television shows and movies directly on the site so that the user could search specific quotes and immediately jump to the specific scene the quote appeared in. The same thing could go for lyrics to songs. The key would be to allow the media producers to maintain control of all of their creative assets while the user is basically paying to see what he wants rather than paying some outrageous amount for cable (I must admit that I hate cable and wish I could pay for only two or three channels a la carte).

I would be grateful for any comments regarding this idea. Is it feasible? Do you think media producers would go with it? Do you think media consumers would go with it? YouTube is great, but I want a place where I can watch whole episodes legally. I am willing to pay for good content, but I am not willing to pay the outrageous price for a DVD or CD.
Making your logo a bit prominent will make your brand more easily identifiable. As it is right now, I searched the page but couldn't really determine what was the logo.
it's called Joost (joost.com) and it's free
I actually like the way you've done the logo - meshing it with the slogan and all. You've given it a very upstream look - the logo, like the site itself, is laid out quite unconventionally. Now, I hope this was on purpose, yes? ;D
This is a rebuttal-ish article in response to this article from yesterday:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=138997

I haven't been following the HTML5 effort, but I find it very encouraging to hear that there will be reference implementations for it. This Opera developer seems to imply that the IE team are collaborating on this effort, which I find even more encouraging, although I hope MS aren't playing their old underhanded "hostile cooperation" tricks here.

I think all the outcry over IE8 is probably going to turn out to be a non-issue when the final release is out eventually. It's prerelease software. Seriously, calm down. I don't think the IE team are doing themselves any favours releasing something this early, especially given the amount of negative feelings against previous versions of IE.

Recent versions of IE have been steps in the right direction. MS might be learning to play nice after all. Let's wait and see what the software is like closer to final release. And Joel should probably do a bit more research (re: HTML5, etc.) before trying to make a point.

Possible bias: I use Opera on Linux.
I love the "instant on" feel of this app. Just press play. Very cool.

The fact that you don't instantly force a registration page on a potential user will help attract the BugMeNot types who would otherwise move on.
hulu.com and its free
damn, you beat me to it. How about a site where you can go to check if someone's already launched your idea?

Wait, I think it's google.com
The EU includes a lot of countries where laws are less rigid, and costs lower. Lithuania, Romania, etc.

I'm sure there's a pretty long list of European companies with successful exits. Skype, last.fm, jaiku, etc.
Yes, that was one of our key goals. You can even tag music and organize playlists without registering. You only need to register if you want to post music or save your favorites/tags (they are stored in cookies for guests).
>...For Their Own Jobs

I'm afraid they are not their own.
They don't have all of the media I am thinking of: Home Improvement, The Drew Carey Show, Seinfeld, MythBusters.

UPDATE:
I was basically trying to think of a way to eliminate the need to pay for all the channels on cable I don't use. I know I could easily download something on the internet, but I was trying to find a way to do it legally, basically finding a solution that is good for both consumers and producers.
Dallas, TX
I've been using VirtualBox OSE for running XP on my OpenSUSE desktop, completely unaware of this special display mode, so I'll have to give that a go. So far, I've just switched the VirtualBox window to fullscreen mode on a spare virtual KDE desktop, so it's actually quite usable even then.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with VirtualBox so far. I've had all sorts of trouble with Xen in the past, so I'm slowly phasing those VMs out in favour of VirtualBox. I prefer Xen conceptually, but it's just too damn flaky for the real world.

One VirtualBox tip: using virtualisation instructions on recent CPUs seems to be off by default, and it's worth enabling for the speedup if you've got the hardware.

As for networking, I'm using bridging, (see e.g.: [http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Advanced_Networking_Linux]) so the virtual machine is an equal peer in my LAN.
Plus, you get to pose as Stallman.
I blog in Russian, and have considered switching to English for a wider audience. A difficult choice.
IPhone Developer Program Rejections: Take 2
South African Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical Ltd., you know, that does a lot of work on Ubuntu, is registered in the Isle of Man, a UK tax haven. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_man
Atlanta GA.
Im no networking expert, but just modifying the window hosts file to point my named virtual hosts to 10.0.2.2 achieves exactly what I am after: the ability to edit my files using VIM in Ubuntu, and see the changes take effect immediately Windows side.

I didnt got the 'seamless' route suggested in the article, instead I only went as far as installing the GuestAdditions which solved a few minor nitpicks, and everything is perfect now.
it would be the entire 'web in a microcosm. Karma instead of the dollar though.
I wonder where the tipping point comes in?

That is, the point where there's a substantial enough non-Windows marketshare that ISVs can't go with Microsoft's proprietary development solutions and practises due to the need to go cross-platform or neglect a large chunk of the market.

Once you hit that point, the value of Windows (that is, it's ecosystem) starts to plummet.

Any other ideas for what could happen?

edit: I guess we've already seen the effect of the second paragraph in the proliferation of web-based applications.
Taking something that is free, (An IM client), and putting it, (wait for it)... on the web (gasp).

Seriously though, they have a pretty good number of users, massive audience share.
> Instead of having just a few people read through a script maybe it should be free for all to read through and rate. That way you will have a good selling point to Hollywood - "hey - 500.000 people read this script and rated it, they will all go see the movie when it comes out. And bring their friends and family!"

That worked for "Lord of the Rings" but would it have worked for "Sixth Sense"? How about "Blades of Glory"?

Did it work for "300"?
I'm one of those dime-a-dozen arty "ideas" guys who can design cool looking stuff but can't code himself out of a paper (or plastic?) bag. Recently I've taken up learning html/css/php an man does it make my head hurt. Absolutely love learning new things though so I think it is really good. Basically the way look at it is that I may never be good at programming but I had better be able to sit down with programmers and at least have SOME idea what the hell they are talking about.
1) Take your time and don't comapre yourself to anyone else. You are never too old or too late as long as you enjoy yourself

2) Since you are self educating, pick tools that are beside being useful are also challenging. By challenging I mean complicated and non trivial, this should intrigue you better and help keep motivated, and by useful I mean popular large nice community, lots of extension etc ...

3) Code!
Reminds me of Pandora.

I don't like the fact that the music stops when I click to go into comments

Sorry... however, I do like it, and everything seems nicely executed
WHAT? Is this title implying that Macintosh computers are PCs as well? Say it isn't so doc! What's that about Intel chips? Native windows booting? What? Sobs in the corner
How many planes have you seen in people's driveways? The mass market is not a sign of success, all products have to start somewhere.

These robots will remain the realm of military and rescue missions because they have so many damn moving parts. Quality control is what drives up prices and quality control is exponentially linked to moving parts. So my argument is more along the lines of:

"This robot is technologically amazing and promising, but is built upon a foundation of complexity which inexorably leads to limitations".
That's high on the todo list. Look for it today or tomorrow.
Why Is Simple So Hard?
Awesome. Well, it's bookmarked. I'll visit again in a month or so
Talk to the lawmakers and get them to force a la cart channels for cable. There's been talk of it for a long time, but they always have an excuse so they can keep their revenue coming.

I'm sure the 3 channels I watch shouldn't cost $30 a month.
As far as the web-based apps observation, if you are doing word-processing the online tools make the user experience pretty much OS-agnostic as it is. Personally, I'd love to see the day when bandwidth is to fat that we can start keeping the processing hardware on the other end of the pipe too. Can you imagine being able to yank extra processing cycles off the pipe from any machine you happen to be using on demand?
New Features Twitter Needs to Compete
Ooh, thanks for the post, I find this to be sexy.
A Cold War mission, deep in the Arctic
Ongoing IFrame attack proving difficult to kill
I added RescueTime to the lens with a note that says hiring soon. If you want it changed/deleted just let me know.
Tips for Web 3.0 (Semantic Web) System Builders
I've been using Meebo a lot less since gmail integrated AIM chat.
The Web in Charts—Google vs. Microsoft-Yahoo vs. China
10 tips for optimizing mysql queries
This doesn't work for me on Safari 3.1 (Mac), so it may be fixed in that update.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307467

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307563
Meebo should take this opportunity to enter the derivatives market.
The Personal Advantage of Small
I love these guys. They think of everything and they make a great product. I loved the original feel good, and I love the new one too. Congrats on the [re]launch!
I think not. The elite derive value from the masses, and they keep the masses interested with the possibility for them to become elite.
Running xp on linux with virtualbox
I’m very raw. The necessity of making a living in my non-hacker field of training slows down the learning process, too. That’s why I’m taking the summer off and then going to grad school in CS. Between the two, I should be an uber-hacker in three years and I’ll be building stuff the whole way.
Ask YC: New logo, feedback and effects.
A few days ago I asked for opinions here about a new logo design with some interesting effects.

Firstly, we got some really helpful critical advice. Thank you all.

Secondly and maybe more importantly are the effects of the logo change on the site. Originally I had no logo on the web app, wanting to restrict the app to the bare essentials and ideally no images at all, also limiting the features / text concentrating on just one core concept. (This is a sort of design challenge I wanted to experiment with.)

Eventually I relented and added a few images inc a logo which was really cheap looking. After lots of complaints, we put a day into creating a new logo, then put up some roughs here for critique, then took on board much of the advice and added the new logo.

The app is scaling quite fast and enjoys decent organic traffic, however a high percentage would bounce straight off, looking at only the landing page. Since the new logo, the stats are very interesting, there is not one hit where they just look at one page and leave, all traffic now spending considerable more time on the site.

I guess this will appear to obvious to some but still it has surprised me and been an interesting eye opener as to the effects of eye candy.

New logo: http://www.myplaylist.biz

No more critiques pls. Hehe.
The fed has long since bailed out the financial markets by pumping out dollars to the extent that most people's assets, including property and salaries, are now quite a bit closer to worthless.
Now that is press you can't buy.
Amusing Tidbits From Warren Buffet and The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report
Test your stock-picking skills with instant feedback. Most common word from my users: "addicting".
I just launched on Saturday and have already had more than 10,000 trades "executed". Your comments are much appreciated. (Note: if you think reading stock charts is a bunch of crackpot hooey, feel free to flame.)
While you can certainly have a 4 legged robot, 2 armed helping you around the house or a hospital, only using grasping mechanisms to climb the ladder to adjust the satellite dish on the roof, help you with the dishes, or get you out of bed, I think it's important to consider the reaction people have to a robot's form factor given its job.

You and I might think it's really cool to have 4 feet and two arms (like a centaur!), but if a robot reminds someone of a gigantic insect, and it's suppose to be a household companion/housekeeper, people might reject having it around the house. That's a good reason to have bipedal robots.

But on the other hand, if you get close, but not exactly with bipedal robots, people might get even more freaked out with the uncanny valley.