skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There's no crime here. He followed the rules of the promotion.

Party Poker awarded points for making deposits. Matt deposited money. He would deposit so much money at a time (up to $50K) that he got bored clicking buttons, so he wrote a script to do it for him.

So, if depositing money wasn't against the rules and withdrawing the money after he got the FPPs wasn't against the rules, how can you possible claim that "this was a crime"?
I would love a more powerful right-click menu. I'd like to highlight a bunch of text, and have the word count told to me. A script for a single site isn't as useful.
children of the rich

I think it's clear that these schools are using their endowments to pick up smart, but (relatively) poor kids. To a lot of people, that's no comfort, as a cognitive aristocracy is no better than a financial aristocracy. The strategy at the ivies has been to filter for both the very smart and the very rich. This gives aptitude access to capital.

If this article was about a high-end public school that got its budget from seized money (eg property taxes), then rest assured that the private-school-educated NYTs editors would have suggested some forceful "fixes" for the "problem".
Well said. +1. I think Russ's point was that if minimum wage actually was raised high enough by the well-meaners that they thought it would institute social change, it would backfire in a most comical and epic way. Imagine if the minimum wage were set to 100/hour tomorrow...

Instead, politicians just wait till election season then realign the letter of the law to more or less match the current market value and then proclaim what a friend to the poor they've been from the doorway of their gulfstream.
How was this a crime? He just exploited their dumb system. This "hack" is kind of obvious, and whomever implemented the system should have thought of it. The only remotely criminal thing I can see in this is using an automated script to move his money.

The way I read the post, he deposited all his money ($50,000 or so?) into the account, withdrawing it again as soon as he was credited. He could have refreshed the page himself, hired a Chinese monkey to do it or create a script to log in and deposit money again and again...call me a genius, but I can't see how this is a very sophisticated or even defraud an obviously broken system.
I did read it. And there was a reason to mention that word: so people know what I'm referring to.

But, you think people didn't like quoting that word? (and w/ the quotes not even written, but clearly there) umm that sort of makes sense. thanks.
First, thanks for the great advice.
But, any ergonomic advice at all for MacBook/MBP users (aside from just don't do it)? E.g. can anyone recommend a good keyboard replacement or app or something else?
Umair Haque has some good insights here that dovetail with Watts...

(Here he is critiquing the assumed "90/10" nature of "user-generated content": that only 10% [or 1% or whatever] of people on a given web service will be active contributers [i.e. "prosumers"]:

"The point is simple: assuming only x% of people will become active prosumers blinds us to a stark reality.

"That reality is this: almost everyone is a prosumer of something.

"Everyone has just a handful of things they really love. In the very near future,everyone will prosume the things they love.

"In this world, worrying about 1% or 10% audience/prosumer ratio is to utterly miss the deeper strategic lesson.

"That lesson is to build a deep enough, powerful enough, durable enough connection - an economic relationship driven by emotion, and nurtured by trust - to ignite the latent spark of prosumption, that as recent evidence tells us, lives within every consumer - whether they're a CEO or a C-grade Myspace chav."
I'm black and I run a technology startup. It's really shocking how many conferences in the Web 2.0 space are incredibly, well, white. Moving forward, I'm going to attend more conferences and workshops, if only to do my little part to make sure that questions like the one posed in this Ask YC title become ridiculous. Speaking of which, I'm going to SXSW Film and Interactive and the Cannes Film Festival, so anyone who'd like to meet up should let me know if they're going!
There are plenty of couches to stay on if that helps a bit.
Hitting the spot: expensive things are genuinely more enjoyable, and why that might be
Which crime was it? It wasn't stealing. He didn't sneak in and take stuff. They sent it to him.

Others say fraud. But what did he lie or deceive about? He didn't hide anything.
Yeah, it pays to find out what the real requirements are. At my last job I found out that a couple of our network requirements, which would have cost us $1M to meet, were going away in the next edition of the specifications in a couple months time. Says more about how the government works than myself, though.
Owen - here's digg as well, I was there this summer but I don't think you were in at the time. http://tinyurl.com/36erzf
I love them too, but because the keys take so little force to press.
I agree. San Jose is pretty boring by the way, but while you're in the area and if you get hungry I have some recommendations here (scroll to the San Jose part):

http://lolrus.org/archives/55
Has anyone ever placed speakers or moving parts in the cadavers? I often wanted to do this at my college.
Out of curiosity, why don't you care about Asian founded startups? Or south-Asian (Indian, Pakastani, etc)? Or Middle-Eastern?

To answer your actual question, I have met exactly one (am currently a YC founder and was VERY active in the Seattle startup scene, FWIW).
"hackers with their MacBooks at Starbucks"

I was in SF late last year and went to a lot of starbucks and boy is there a lot of em and I didn't see anyone with a macbook. Maybe down in the valley you might find this but in San Fran city I didn't see any and nore in berkley either.

I wanted to go down to the valley to do the tour but the wife wouldn't have been impressed :p

have a look at upcoming.org
I enjoyed this piece, now whenever I find a loophole in a law that I can exploit for my own benefit I can blame the law! I'm not a bad person, it's a bad law! Along with the invisible hand of Adam Smith, I was basically bitchslapped into maximizing my profit at the cost of the needy, the disabled, and those damn woodpeckers. Won't someone feel bad for poor (rich) little (rotund) old me?
oh and the SJC airport sucks! It's rather small. I had to fly back to Atlanta from there and past security there is only one bathroom for several gates so there is often a line. Needless to say I barely made it on my plane waiting to use the restroom first.
YU0 suck at Photoshop, man
Lolz!
Well, you don't always have to subvert the system to take advantage of the situation. For instance, last time I was at the airport I skipped two lines because I was just more aware (probably more awake:).

As for fun hacks, during college and group of friends and I put together a raft from an old futon frame and trash bags instead of studying one night. We sailed 14 people out to a small island in a nearby pond and planted our flag.
What specific law do you think he violated?

I think it's possible he may have violated the terms of service somewhere along the line but I doubt he broke the law.
Oh, my main machine is a MacBook. The secret is to realize that laptops are for occasional use in libraries or lectures or hotel rooms, not for real work. It turns out that there really is a reason why pros work in real offices with real desks instead of at a table in the local coffeeshop.

To save yourself from your Macbook, pretend it's a desktop as much as you can. Buy an external keyboard. (I recommend the Kinesis, of course, but even a cheapo standard keyboard is better than the one on the notebook itself.) Buy the nifty Ergotron arm that lets you sit the laptop, open, on a tray and then move the tray around in space until the screen is at the proper height and distance. (http://www.provantage.com/ergotron-45-192-194~7ERGT06R.htm )

Now, since you're stuck at a desk anyway, buy a real monitor -- I have a 20" widescreen -- and another Ergotron arm (they have very nice 2-packs -- follow links from here: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000959.html) and mount that on your desk, then have the laptop drive it as a second monitor. Now you are more productive, because you have more screen space, and you also have a real desk with a real keyboard that you can mount where it needs to be: in your lap.

The problem with laptop keyboards isn't the keyboard, per se; it's the fact that the thing is attached to the screen. You either have to stare down into your lap or raise your arms almost to the level of the screen. Either of these things can eventually cripple you. Obviously, your mileage will vary depending on how old you are, how much you type, your physical condition, your genetic heritage and the phase of the moon -- but, once you even start to think that you're feeling pain, you should immediately get serious about ergonomics.

I've been thinking about how to travel and still get work done. It's not an easy problem to solve. Carrying around my Kinesis and some sort of contraption that lets me elevate the laptop and its screen would be great. A sort of clamp-on, foldable, lightweight, portable keyboard drawer that could attach to the edge of a hotel desk and hold the keyboard at lap level would be truly great... though perhaps rather difficult to implement.
> But I mean, people's life are essentially an attempt at optimizing their standing in the system, are they not?

Scary! But actually I used to think that way...
Ah, and that was exactly the machine I really wanted to buy. Sweet. Thanks for the advice.
1) ergonomics. for example, if you have a laptop, keep in mind you should put the screen at the right height (ie, on some books or something) and then use external keyboard+mouse)

2) ergonomics. type with straight wrists. if you rest your palms on the table by the keyboard and bend your wrists up, while typing, that will hurt you

3) attitude and mood are important. when i was really scared of the pain, and obsessing about it, it made it a lot worse. at some point i relaxed and it felt a lot better. obviously that won't work in all cases, and you still have to be careful, but if you're scared every little nerve impulse means you're too crippled to work and your life is ruined, you can imagine more pain than you have.

4) form habits. some ppl play with their hair while thinking, or shake their leg, or bite their tongue. when you're thinking about how to write the next piece of code, you want to be unconsciously stretching. make it something you do automatically when you aren't paying attention to what you're physically doing.

5) i don't like chair arm rests. partly they are too far apart, and they have to be unless your chair width really hugs your body. i use a pillow in my lap (and supported on the ends by the arm rests) at all times. it's from an old couch and not too hard or soft. it gives me somewhere comfortable to rest my arms whenever i'm not typing, as well. your mileage may vary, but feel free to improvise if it's comfortable.
Whenever this question comes up I recommend the Alexander Technique. That worked for me, reply with email for more info.
I was going for the uncommon social groups, and East Asian, and South Asian founded is definitely not an uncommon breeding ground for startups.

As far as middle-eastern, sure, throw them in there, but it was more reference to minority groups in the US -- Black and Latino are pretty prevalent as fars % of US population, and it does not correlate with startups
Go to as many events with open atmospheres as possible.

For example,
http://ruby.meetup.com/99/?gj=sj2 (Ruby meetup)

http://superhappydevhouse.org/ (Hacker Party, not sure when we're having our next one)

If you have a blog, ask a hacker you like if you can buy them lunch and cover him or her in an interview, or just talk. Worst they can say is no.

Also there are a lot of coworking spaces opening up in SV, so if you get stuck with nothing to do for a day, you can try one of those.
shoot me an email david.adeyalo at gmail
Yes and no. The default Emacs setup on a standard keyboard can be a problem -- the pinkies, how they ache! -- but I find that using the mouse is even worse, so if my emacs alternative involves mousing I have an even bigger problem.

You have not lived until you've used Emacs with the Kinesis keyboard. You can remap any key to any other key instantly within the keyboard itself, without mucking around in your OS. And there are bunches of thumb keys. All those wacky control and meta keys now live, in mirrored pairs, under my thumbs, and the Caps Lock function has been moved to a random, faraway key, to be replaced by my own personal prefix key that I can use to trigger stuff like snippets and abbreviations.
On the Mac I use AntiRSI: http://tech.inhelsinki.nl/antirsi/
I think it matters because it's a sign of a problem in black and latino cultures, if they create startups at a much lower rate.
Is that necessarily a problem? There are more black basketball players than white. Does that mean there is a problem in white cultures?

People do what they want to do, and what they're good at.
Overcoming Bias: Bosses Prefer Overconfident Software Managers
I think startups are a good thing, and cultures which highly value being productive are better.

Also, what do you mean about people doing what they're good at? That seems to imply white people are genetically inferior at some sports, and black people genetically inferior at startups?
I upmodded because I think the topic is interesting and was hoping it might lead to some good discussion. I agree that the advocacy part is a bit distasteful, but not that the subject is inappropriate for this forum. I certainly find it more interesting than "Ruby is gawd. Is not. Is too."
At an old job in 2003, my office mate quit and left these amazing hand rests which I began to use. I loved them so much that when they broke in 2006 I actually super glued them back together. At that time I couldn't find anyone selling them on the web. Now, they've broken again and it looks like I can get them here: http://www.ausconn.com/ - see the "Comfort glide" area - third picture from the top left (I know, amazing website). Apparently they're made in Australia. Seriously, these things are amazing.
Ask for tours. I believe Google gives a tour of their campus, and I'm not sure about CNet (it's further south of San Fran), but I'm sure other companies aren't adverse to tours.
It is statements like this that validate my post.

People do NOT always do what they want to do, and not necessarily what they're good at -- often times there are limitations and a lack of opportunity for innovation/ entrepreneurship.

I've always believed entrepreneurship is possible -- but then again I've been raised in a University town, so a startup would not be extraordinary.

But Camden, the poorest city in the US, (which also has the highest Puerto Rican concentration, at 37% of the population) and do you think a minority has the same chance of a startup?

I'm not looking for controversy though, just continued (including your comment) intelligent discussion and maybe even potential solutions.

YC News seems like a pretty smart crowd -- why not leverage that for thoughts, comments, suggestions and even complaints?
I am quite sure poker sites have rules in their player agreements that strictly forbid and scripts or automation, which may overlap here to the cashier side of things.
An addition to all the great advice: remap Caps Lock to act as Ctrl.
I missed a large part of grade 10 because of moving and travelling. When time came to register for school (in Montreal, Quebec) the public school system wanted me to repeat grade 10 because I had missed so much. I and my parents found a private school that had entrance exams,
and they let me take both the grade 10 and grade 11 exams.
Passed the grade 11 one, and went right into grade 11.
If you go into a meeting with a customer and he asks for something that you think you can deliver, but are not sure you answer yes. And then you go back to your office, work your ass off and hope for the best.

Yes, but you don't (or shouldn't) lie to your customer and claim that you have a successful track record of doing exactly what he's asking you to do.

If you're interviewing for a job and your interviewer asks if you can program in language X (which you have little or no experience with), it's one thing to say that you can learn it; it's quite another to have listed "10 years of experience with language X" on your resume when you first applied for the position.
Boo. What did Fuzzwich ever do to you? On a more serious note, I am pretty sure Paul invested in us because we are a very creative and well rounded team. While we might not be a breakout hit in our current incarnation, we know we are on to something. The Fuzzwich team is very confident that we will eventually find our niche and are determined to keep trying until we do.
That's what this does, with CSS. See my other comment.
if that were the case, there wouldn't be any problems. there wouldnt be the need for books like 7 habits or Never Eat Alone and life would be perfect... just my opinion
The most important thing for your wrists is to keep the bones in your palm relatively straight with respect to your forearm. If you bend your wrists up, bad things can happen.

I work about 8h per day while walking slowly on a treadmill:
http://rura.org/blog/2007/11/14/the-treadmill-desk-exercise-...
In that configuration, I need a keyboard tray that's angled away from me at a somewhat sharp angle, so I can keep my wrists straight and have my elbows open at about a 120 degree angle.
I can think of exactly one benefit. It means you can basically ignore the hygiene of your male genitalia. Beyond that, no, there are no benefits, other than permanently reducing sexual sensation by 40%. This was desired by antisex physicians in the 20th and 19th century, when it was believed to be a cure for masturbation, so circumcision caught on in the USA.

It doesn't compare to female circumcision in its most extreme form, but it is comparable to female circumcisions of just the clitoral hood.

I was referring specifically to the society of the USA when I said our society. Male circumcision isn't really popular anywhere else, except Israel. What dumber things are done in the USA today?
Making deposits with certain time restrictions...
google "my (hack OR crack OR scam)"?
Second the arm rest bit and stretching habits.
What was wrong here? It's not like the gambling company needed the money.
But what was the fraudulent act? Clicking the deposit button?
Because Cramer submitted it.
You're saying white people can jump? ;)

I was just saying I don't think it's a worthwhile idea to try and make everyone the same. We're not. Why aren't there as many women founders? Why should there necessarily be.
Why aren't there as many male midwives as women... is that a problem?

Sure if someone is actively preventing someone from doing something based on their race/gender/etc, then of course it should be solved if possible.

I think the main thing is for people to grow up with self belief that they can do whatever they want to.
Large space with several co-workers. That's ideal for me. If I'm ever 'in the zone', I just put on headphones even if music isn't playing.
There are less woman founders because our culture treats men and women differently. And in particular, it is more repressive of females, and cripples their ability to think more, especially in business and technical areas.

This is definitely a big problem, and the lack of woman founders is a good signal to get us to look at the area and wonder what is being done to women to prevent them from being founders.
Watch Tchernobyl's cloud propagation during the 2 weeks following the accident (flash).
Unethical yes, criminal probably not.

I'd be more sympathetic to the victim if they weren't themselves in the business of taking money from the helpless.
Facebook is clever.
I'm rather confused as to the code of ethics here. My hack was by no means fraud, I simply took advantage of a stupid system. I didn't cheat or steal, or even violate the site's Terms of Service (which said you couldn't use automated scripts to manipulate their GUI but nothing about the website).

I did not break any law in any country, or even violate a site rule. It's preposterous to call it unethical. I simply took advantage of a flawed system.
The technique described in the comic is the creation of hybridoma cells to make monoclonal antibodies.

Wikipedia has a nice introduction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclonal_antibodies

Jerne, Koehler and Milstein got the Nobel prize for this in 1984: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/
As near as I can tell here, a hack is ethical unless it makes money. It's the tortured artist ethic perhaps.
Workspace+Exercise Hack: The Treadmill Desk
For the past 3 months, I've been walking about 8 hours each workday. The benefits are not just physical: the constant exercise keeps me focused and helps avoid slumps. It's been a big boost to my quality of life and work.

See my blog post for the full story, with how-to and pictures.
Try On All The Moccasins Before Deciding: Big Co vs Small Co
We must pay respect to the people who donate their bodies for educational and scientific studies. So if the speakers or moving parts don't increase our knowledge, the keeper of the cadavers should veto their use. The excellent book "Stiff" by Mary Roach describes many interesting uses of cadavers, from crash test dummies to Death's Acre in Knoxville, TN.
Do you never wonder how other countries do it? US ranks pretty low among developped (and even developping) countries in education.

>This goal is unachievable

I completely disagree with you. It is achieveble, not easily, but neither is it so difficult. Hint: it's completely incongruent with "No Child Left Behind". Leave the important stuff to tehnocrats, not politicians.
I don't think either me or the casino were unethical. It's sort of the gambler ethic, which I guess may not be obvious to the general public. You're supposed to do anything and everything you can, within the rules, to gain an edge. Casinos do it to the players, players to casinos, players to players, etc. Anything not against the rules is considered ethical, and anyone who doesn't use every legal tool at his disposal is a sucker.

It's pure survival of the fittest.
We facilitate two "Bootstrapper Breakfasts" a month see http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/ You buy your own breakfast and take part in a serious conversation with other bootstrapping entrepreneurs from 7:30am to 9:00am. Sign up in advance to let us know you are coming and drop by when you are in town.
It strikes me as odd that this would be decided by some random immigration official at the border. Surely, you'd chip away at getting an appropriate visa at the US embassy back home? Or are there in fact two possible points of failure?
5978 High Quality Icons for Web, Apps & RSS
ASK YC: How soon and where to find the best advisors for your startup?
We're a small startup preparing for our alpha release. So far we've been self-funded and managed ourselves with the help of feedback from friends, family and fellow entrepreneurs. Now we're thinking of getting an advisory board together to help formalize our direction, but more importantly, help us with networking and introductions (generally developing our business). Any suggestions as to how to go about finding them? I'm the type that would just send out an email asking flat-out "Would you consider becoming our advisor?"... Looking for suggestions!

Shafqat (co-founder of NewsCred)