skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The challenge is to not draw the attention of your employer, even if you are "safe". Imagine for a moment that you work for Oracle, but have a side project that, legally, belongs to you.

What would happen if Oracle decided that it wanted the company? Does any startup have the resources to duke it out with Oracle for the years it will take to resolve the issue? Would any investor put money into a company that had a dispute with Oracle, even if Oracle's claim was without much merit?

--

read this for what it is like to go head-to-head with a megacorp (about the inventor of Intermittent Windshield Wipers):

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/02/25/005398.html
YConbinator
The company(s) mentioned in the book still exist, but they no longer try to 'play market'. The more incentive you give people/subgroups to compete with one another, the more incentive they have to not share information(best practices) with one another. Managers see this and reallocate resources. Groups feel alienated that their resources are taken away from their idea to fund someone else's idea and then they go back to keeping their real ideas to themselves and/or starting a separate business outside of the parent firm. Innovation in the mentioned companies increased dramatically when the 'play market' strategy was initially adopted though.
Amazon has multiple paradox resolution teams competing to negate each other's efforts.
1st i love ec2.

but here is a caveat, dynamic DNS servers do not rank as well with spam filters as static DNS.
He graduated in 06 and started there soon after, so about a year and a half so far. I think he really likes it...started out in reporting and I believe he's now on the investment associate track, so obviously he's hoping to settle in there. (He's also a foreigner though, and Bridgewater is sponsoring his visa, so I don't think he could jump ship if he wanted to...)
Great advice!
If you can afford a suit, have an idea, and can find a mentor, you're leagues ahead of the men with criminal records. This program provides a framework for people who have nothing and are likely to relapse, and it helps integrate them into normal society.

If you're already integrated (which I'll unfairly assume you are), then you probably wouldn't get much out of this program. You'd be better off joining the local rotary club.
If you live in Washington state, you can apply for Basic Health. It's state subsidized health insurance. I pay only $17 per month right now.

Before I found Basic Health, I was paying $200 per month.
There is such a thing as rehabilitation. Former criminals can lead decent, productive lives. I think the whole "once a criminal, always a criminal," view is generally unhelpful to society. There are exceptions, of course. You might want to stay away from serial recidivists.
Gas stations constantly fight for market share. Brand loyalty doesn't count for much when purchasing a commodity. Consider the area near the intersection of El Camino Real and Grant Rd. in Mountain View, CA.

http://www.sanjosegasprices.com/map_gas_prices.aspx?z=11&...

Prices per gallon of 87-octane gasoline in that small area range from $3.559 for "generic" to $3.649 for the branded product. If there was any brand loyalty then they would be able to charge more than a 2.5% premium.

Above the local station level, gasoline prices are largely driven by crude oil prices and refining capacity. Crude oil is a fungible commodity and prices are set at a variety of markets around the world in a way that can't be directly controlled by any government.

Refining capacity in the US is constrained and not really growing. There is little financial incentive to spend billions on a new refinery, plus no one wants to live near a refinery (NIMBY).

I would actually like to see much higher gasoline prices via something like a carbon tax. That would provide the revenue necessary to temporarily subsidize development of alternative energy sources. As a side effect it would also tend to reduce oil company profits. But unfortunately a carbon tax is probably not politically feasible in the US right now, plus there would serious implementation problems.
My biggest issue with Ubuntu is that I can't browse the web with firefox and edit a document with emacs at the same time on my 2.0Ghz 512 MB RAM laptop. Maybe I just need to suck it up and get a more upscale machine.
http://www.homeboygoestoharvard.com/speakers/dr_rios/article...
I Haven't Got a Myspace Because Myspace Fucking Sucks
What's your definition of 'winning'?
I did too. Stupid autoreply, "Thank you for writing to us. Your message has been received and will be forwarded to the reporter you contacted. Please note that messages are delivered once per day, at 8 a.m. (EST). Because of the high volume of responses we get from readers, not all communications can be responded to personally. But be assured that we want to hear your thoughts. (Please do not reply to this e-mail as this address is not monitored for incoming messages.)"

So much for getting leads to reporters easily in a timely manner.
"Basically, there is no indication that people with higher IQ are able to reach the top faster. We are finding people who meet the criteria for being skilled surgeons, chess masters, athletes or magicians. Once you start looking at what makes them successful, IQ doesn't make any difference."

Hogwash. While IQ is no guarantee of success, how would a city look that had "skilled" surgeons of average or below intelligence? Chess masters? Uh huh. Sure. Athletes? Sorry, I'm not aware that athletics have anything to do with intelligence. Magicians? Shall I laugh now?

Hmmm... it's not April Fools day yet.
I typed Art of Computer Programming and ball is still spinning for last 5 minutes ;(
Or you could just be profitable in multiple currencies. Anyone who's building a web startup should realize they have a global business. It's a small amount of effort to provide a Canadian, Australian, and U.K. localized version if you're an English speaker.

Even if you're not concerned about the economy, there's no reason to not take advantage of foreign markets. StudiVZ, a straight-up clone of Facebook in Germany, was acquired for $100 million. How much more would Facebook be worth(really worth) if they had made an effort to go international sooner? Friendster is actually still alive, saved by foreign markets(they're huge in Asia).

If you're interested, I've written more about going global here: http://socialstrategist.com/2007/08/20/go-global-or-lose-one...
Shouldn't that just be a $50 RAM upgrade.
heh. If you didn't go look at the presentation, you might think this was a new twist on the now old-hat 419 scam.

Watch out for emails like this:

Hello good sir, we are in the early stages of starting a company that will make millions. Because we are currently located in Nigeria, we would like to join with a co-founder from (fill-in U.S., Europe) to allow us easier access to the world financial system. If you will simply make a small investment to demonstrate your commitment, we will share a full 25% of the millions we expect to make in the coming months. Please reply soonest. This opportunity will pass soon.

(P.S. - I know this doesn't sound realistic; please excuse my good grammar and spelling)
To summarize, income determines outcome. I like the sound of that.

Although, I think they wouldn't need to figure out that monetization problem if a liquidity event occurs. :)

Whether they finally successfully monetize or simply sell for big money, good for them!
This device deserves the hype the Segway received.
many people startoff in bad situations - may be hard to believe but not everyone gets pushed along the path of grad'ing from a good school. there is no excuse for hurting and stealing from others, but we must also recognize that the odds are so stacked against poor people that there options are very slim. poverty is a major problem in the US, currently the best solution the govt has come up with is build more prisons to house the poor when they get arrested in the projects.

according to pg, it all comes down to building something people want, many people in prison don't want to come back, and want to actually do something legit with their lives, building a business is the best way I know to change your life and make something of yourself. bravo.
next step is too make sure they get a bit of tech skills with the biz classes.
Qcodo Framework: PHP5 code generator
For reference, the NYT has covered Internet-mediated locally social games like this before, including various versions Zombies vs. Humans and the now defunct nygames.net that was very popular circa 2006.

It does seem like GXC currently has more traction than KN though, although we've yet to see anything in the genre become a successful business despite at least a couple dozen attempts.
worth reading.
Computer Associates screwed up so badly in its acquisition of ASK/Ingres that all the key employees left[1]. They threw an ad-hoc party in the parking lot to cheer on everyone who split.

The Perforce[2] founders were among them.

Your situation sounds a little like theirs - they were reasonably happy. But when CA handed them the perfect opportunity, they used the money from their severence package to jumpstart the "p3" product. p3 was renamed Perforce/p4 when they discovered p3 was already trademarked.

[1] - http://www.cbronline.com/article_cg.asp?guid=A29F1ABE-CF37-4...

[2] - http://www.perforce.com/perforce/corp.html
I keep reading negative comments about this posting, but I think I'm reading a lot of defensiveness. I think it is important to keep in mind that, as I read it at least, Paul is not trying to slam people who work for others. He's really trying to inspire people, to get them to give themselves permission to work for themselves instead.

If what you hear when you read this essay is a personal criticism of the choices you've made in life, perhaps you should take a moment to evaluate whether those negative thoughts are coming from the essay, or from within?
I'm pretty sure the guy wants to get paid for his part-time work...
Facebook Fans Join Apple and Linux Boosters as most Vicious
The video of last week’s excruciatingly painful keynote between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and BusinessWeek reporter Sarah Lacy at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival shows that Facebook fans have happily joined the ranks of technology’s most venomous fans.
nice point - but just as failing does not make you a bad entrep., getting caught doesn't mean your a bad crook, repeat offenders my be the most determined.
Price-gouging during the first Iraqi-American war?

Feh.

From what I remember, gas was at 99 cents a gallon in Detroit at the time.
Picotux - the smallest Linux Computer in the World
Ask: What would you do/make if you never had to monetize it?
What crazy, wonderful ideas would you implement if your income came from a different source (such as a day job), and, as such, you simply wanted to make things people want, but didn't have the pressure to monetize?
get the free vmware player and a free ubuntu image.
As I mentioned, the gas stations don't have the margin to fight. Those guys get killed in price wars. Chevron has to fight Exxon-Mobile has to fight Shell--and that doesn't seem to happen.

So you are claiming that we don't see this fight because everyone has all the market-share their refining capacity can handle? Perhaps you're right.

The problem I have with the carbon tax is that it heavily taxes those who can least afford it: people who have to live in cheap areas and commute to expensive areas for jobs.
Truly profound advice.
I'm currently taking a course with Professor Uzi Vishkin a parallel computing visionary. His approach to programming mutli-cores is quite impressive. The system he has devised, while complex under the hood - is relatively simple to the programmer.

Essentially, in Professor Vishkin's model the program
alternates between parallel and serial mode as needed. Under the hood, it is determined what processors handle what threads etc.

Have a look at: http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~vishkin/XMT/index.shtml.

Parallel will be to serial, what the car was to the horse.
I'm fanatically opposed to mod_wsgi and any other webapp deployment method that puts the python/ruby/whatever VM in the Apache process.

But I do have to admit these new features look impressive. With luck, this should help speed adoption of WSGI in shared hosting and other environments where a mod_proxy-style deployment is unfeasible.
I created StoryMash.com
Wow, haven't been here for a while, things change I see.
It looks pretty interesting to me......And I really dont expect any such emails from them, lol. As some will remember here, they released a product a while back ago, a voc trainer I believe. It seems they are taking it to another level now. Good for them
I don't recall what where I first read about it but Zero Knowledge Proofs[1] had a huge impact.

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof
Leta Hollingworth first introduced the concept; she postulated a 'communication range' of around 30 IQ points, beyond which, the impedance mismatch would make it difficult to build friendships.
That's one way of looking at it, but I'd bet a lot of other people see it differently. All depends on your goals in life...
There was actually a study at the University of Chicago that Steven Levitt writes about in "Freakonomics." A sociology student got really close with a gang in downtown chicago - and it turned out that the local gang leader had a business degree and kept fastidious records of the gang's income and expenditures.
I read Kurzweil's book and got excited about his predictions. But two recent trips: one to my dentist and the other to my doctor, left me with a saner view.

My dentist used a new CAD/CAM system to carve a sliver of plastic to fit perfectly into a hole he'd drilled into my tooth. Total cost of that procedure: $500, uncovered by dental insurance (because it's a new procedure). This is progress, but at a cost.

My doctor diagnosed multiple cysts in a private region. His cure: multiple operations, each leaving me limping out of the hospital with a bag of ice wrapped around my nuts and two week's of painful recovery. I asked for another procedure (sclerotherapy) that involves no cutting, no pain, lower cost, and no hospital or recovery time: he declined.

So IMO the singularity may arrive if you can 1) endure the procedures, 2) have sufficient $$ to pay for them, 3) live long enough for doctors to get up to speed. It is the last that I doubt will occur.

Medicine today remains barbaric and primitive, locked into a generational struggle for control and knowledge. Medicine promises wonders but rarely delivers. We've been promised cures for everything from cancer to cavities for 30 years but all that is delivered is crude cutting and poisoning (chemotherapy) by people who are little more than glorified plumbers. We funnel millions to the kingdoms of doctors/researchers, most whom are poor scientists, and get little in return. They get their Mercedes, a third home in Florida and free medical care.

Before any singularity occurs there will have to be a social change: organized medicine needs to be knocked off it's pedestal and deregulated. The function of the doctor must be de-elevated and possibly fragmented. The current system is positively medieval, with doctors occupying the position of Catholic priests during the Middle Ages. Hell, they still write their prescriptions in Latin sometimes.

And don't get me started on HMO's.
Ask YC: Concurrent/multithreading programming books?
I would like to start getting much deeper into multithreading and concurrency issues in programming and would like to know what are good books out there? I'm not necessarily looking for OS books, but rather, generic software-engineering oriented books on multithreaded programming.

Thanks for the feedback!
Apple moves first China store down the road, opens in summer
reposted from http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3721
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[-] [new] aangel on March 21, 2008 - 11:07am | Permalink
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Also, personally I am uninterested in eliminating hierarchy. Hierarchies are very efficient ways to organize to produce results. In particular, they allow for accountability, that magical quality of something being "count-able" and thus able to be quantified. Quantification and lines of responsibility for those quantities are what make managing large endeavors possible. There is on the opposite spectrum the "open source" movement or "hive" approach to accomplishing large projects, but even in those systems often you'll find a person or persons at the top who help direct the system as a whole and frequently they have the final call for a proscribed set of decisions.

When done right (and it is done right in many places), individuals perform better when accountability is present. They are clear on their tasks and given the resources (or not, as the case may be) to accomplish them they are able to use their commitment and ingenuity and drive to accomplish them. People who are unclear on their tasks report that they are unsatisfied and frustrated with the system; anyone who has had conflicting directives from an employer will appreciate that.

It's possible to spread accountability across multiple individuals and strictly speaking accountability isn't by definition an individual phenomenon. I can be accountable for the condition of the environment — but so can anyone else and everyone else if they accept by the group the role of being accountable.

But it does take a great deal more effort to manage an endeavor when accountabilities are spread across more people simply because the communication overhead increases to make sure omissions don't occur because each accountable persons thinks that "the other person was handling that." For that reason I will always set up projects (and advise my clients to do the same) where it is quite clear who is accountable for what and for whom — in other words, a hierarchical system.
Inglingo is a simple web based foreign language vocabulary trainer. I'd also appreciate some criticsm on the site itself. It's available here: http://www.ingolingo.com
There are a couple of questions (otherwise great article). One small is right only as long as it is economically viable. Do you believe Google would still be viable as a search engine if they had remained at 50-100 people size (or whatever you think is the optimum size?)

Second, most YC companies don't yet have business models. That is not a knock on them - I am simply making a statement of fact. Given that many (or most!) are hoping for a nice "exit" from a large company, doesn't their success pre-suppose the existence of large companies to take the other side of their exit trade? In effect, does the YC model (mostly) require the continued existence of large inefficient players? What happens when the (software & internet) world were to be full of small, ultra-efficient start-ups? No exits? (the second question is totally hypothetical - large firms do exist, but just asking to clarify the argument myself).
I figured it was some sort of karmic meta-solution to my problem :)
Something blurring the lines further between Pac-Man and pie charts.
As other commenters have said, attr_accessible is a better choice IMO. I'd rather protect everything by default.
Always? I just returned from fixing a problem. A system call for UDP connection wasn't working. It worked yesterday. I could, however, ping and ssh over the network interface.

I tried an earlier branch. Same problem. After that, I replaced the NIC, rebooted, and everything worked.

Sometimes it really is the hardware/library/compiler/... There was probably a lot more investigation I could have done before going to that level (as the author suggests) but in this case it was most efficient to try replacing the card early and identify/eliminate it as the problem.
Is it nature or nurture that makes people this way? The debate on that will go on forever, however it has been demonstrated that through good education people (not all I agree) can discover that they have a true worth and can make money whilst giving back to society. Its bringing these people back into society that they probably felt outside of. According to the story, the people who have been on the program have a very low potential for re-offending. This, combined with criminal -> entrepreneur I think is a positive step. Breaking the cycle and giving people a purpose in life, embracing them, can make a difference
At the time, the jump in prices was huge. Congress conducted an investigation, led by Al D'Amato because the prices jumped a lot with seemingly little variation in the market forces. D'Amato didn't run for re-election to the Senate (something about having to face some ethics charges if he came back, as I recall). I tried to get the report from Congress, but couldn't find it (I admit, I didn't try that hard, but I was curious as to what it said).

Anyway, no matter. Interesting thread (but it cost me a ton of Karma!)

Back to work.
yea for sure there are different kinds of people out there and i do acknowledge that, i am just asking from a strictly professional sense how you should approach career and so forth?
I would do more hardware based kind of stuff.

I would want to work on life/work/web integration. Like cross referencing gallons of gas in your car, with the number of gallons expected to burn on the way home, and anticipate the next time you will need a fill up, while checking your bank account balance, and having a web interface to do ALL of this.

Making things like a webcam you pin on to your kid that is also a gps tracker that will let you see what your kid see's at pre-school.

Stuff like that.

Note: I would have to learn a lot of stuff to make these things happen.
Nice to see the first footnote in the article. However, unfortunate that it needs to be there at all. Keep up the excellent writing.
VentureHacks wants to help you get “venture-hitched.”
The assumption seems to be that only smart programmers will read these essays. That's maybe 10% of programmers or less (maybe a hit count would help estimate?).

Big companies are all about efficiency through division of labor. They want guys who will write uninteresting Java applications for 10 years without complaining. But for a few thousand dollars a year more (especially if you're talking entry-level), they can hire a top-10% person overqualified for the position, just in case they need the talent.
How Federated Media is Pushing The Conversation To Potentially Create Innovation
A network of independent, redundant, internet archives.
during my co-op with a big tech company this was one of the biggest problems i noticed. in that environment it's a lot easier to ask someone that knows the answer then to figure it out yourself.

i think it's important to push yourself as much as possible to figure things out on your own and get as much learning out of your work as possible.
a social network for fictional people. like facebook except you don't have to feel guilty when you lie about everything
A programming language. And possibly a peer-to-peer filesharing network using it.
I don't think the evolutionary analysis works here. Small human groups on the savanna only directly competed for resources with other small local groups. Imagine if a single group, only 10% "better" than others, were able to catch all the antelopes worldwide. Everyone else would have to find another niche. Similarly, I might be confident I could be the best spreadsheet writer in Peoria. I could "own" that market. But the entire spreadsheet market, worldwide, is supplied by a few startups plus a few bigcorps plus a few open source projects.

Corporations arose to enable and respond to global markets made possible by industrialization. The Internet enables global marketing by small firms, but doesn't protect them from global competition. Yes, individuals should be encouraged to take a swing at forming a startup if they have some brilliant new idea. But don't fault them for rationally choosing safety in a larger group if they realize their ideas are not competitive on a global scale.