skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So we have been doing some exploring after another investor in the midwest told us to just move to the valley for the networking alone. he may be right.

after a few visits, i can say that living in SF, and playing in SF is just fine without a car. SF will be expensive like living in the loop in Chicago, or in some parts of Manhattan, heck thats what you pay for being in the center of it. If you are coming from the suburbs you are in for a shock if you move to SF.

if you live out of SF, you will want a car/ or even better a moped or bike. public transportation is nice, but it adds up and is time consuming waiting for stuff. what i love about it is it runs late, so a night out can be had without driving into SF.

right now in MKE i am paying $770 a month as part of a 2 bedroom that is $1540 a month. For that we have 2 bedrooms, 1800sqft, a backyard, and a garage. In the valley i expect to have much less, but it still seems like i can get a 2 bedroom for ~1500-~1800 a month, or a 3 bedroom for 2100-3000 a month. i think rent is actually fairly reasonable considering the average median incomes and the number of people with degrees.

starbucks internet will cost you $40 a month, where in MKE i get cafe wifi all over the city for $22 a month. i might have to give in and get Att uverse internet in the valley so we can roam into a starbucks for free.

As far as food goes, i found that palo alto, and just outside of san jose are craazy expensive. in MKE a quiznos sandwich and drink might cost you 8$ but in that area, we paid $12-$13 50% more. I found food in SF cheaper. I do not know about the grocery stores, but its pretty hard to meet people for lunch and or coffee in your home, so I think Food may have its larges sticker shock.

as for location, we found that 90% of the events that we want to go to are in the sunnyvale, palo alto, and north/west san jose area. so it makes more sense for us to live there, well unless we are going to date...... there seems to be a lot of lovely ladies in Downtown SF on a daily basis, in fact most of them will smile back. It's kinda rare for a city to have that quality. So I would rank SF very high on women being approachable there.

Our plan for our 4 guys (1 of which is married) is to get a 2 bedroom with a great couch for the 3rd guy, and a when the married guy is in town, he can have a hidden mattress or an inflatable one. When it makes sense, we will get 1 more apartment come fall 08 or something.
"Paul Graham is the guy who thinks Lisp is best as compared to the popular Java/C# languages."

Let's fix this:

"Paul Graham is one of the many smart guys who know Lisp is much better than the popular Java/C# languages."
As Paris would say, HOT.

Kudos for the real REST api, not a "REST Like" bullshit api. :)
How Fog Creek Saved me half a grand OR Great Customer Service
Not on average. He will make many more errors typing www.amzaon.com than he will typing something resembling amazon well enough for google to find the site.
I think your assertion that "you can't have it all" is telling. We are raised in the US being told that we can indeed have it all, if we work hard enough.

I'm not arguing that this is reality, I'm just saying our attitude is such that anything is achievable. Maybe that makes us naive, but it also makes us much more likely to take a big risk for a big payoff.

I confess I don't know France well enough to add to your views on it's economic attitudes, but I do know the US well enough to say what I just said. I think the point of the article is that since we are not taught to fear capitalism, we are more likely to do stupid things that sometimes actually pay off, and the pay off is generally worth it for society, if not for the individuals that failed en route.

And I think France was the #1 power in the world briefly... the Napoleonic Era. Either way, it has been one of the top powers for quite a while. I, as an American, am still envious of your prowess in Nuclear Energy.
NewsFireRSS is now free for OS X users
So the point of the upcoming tax relieve is to inject money into the economy via consumer spending to prevent the recession. Yet, at the same time, money is resting in the savings account of companies to protect them from the recession. These two approaches to dealing with the economy on behalf of the government and companies seem to contradict each other.

Also, isn’t the company’s goal to maximize shareholders’ return on their investments? Of course, one can make a case for storing cash to increase long-term returns, but if the company is retaining the cash for its sake, let the shareholders have it. I’d rather have the companies I invest in make me money; otherwise, I have a savings account on my own.
Electric is significantly more if you keep multiple computers on 24/7.
I grew up in Kansas, and say what you want about our science education, but these are pretty much the exact points we got in sociology/economics/politics classes, even up to University level.

Communism IS a dirty word here, but no one under the age of 30 is foaming at the mouth about it.
Jurassic Programmers
Man, I hate that type of wiki. My eyes always glaze over when I see interwiki links that AreSquishedTogetherLikeThis...

And I write C++ for a living, where RegisterFooWriterWithComponentFactory is a perfectly valid class name.

Is there something wrong with the mediawiki-type [[links]] that I'm unaware of?

/rant
8aweek and RescueTime
Here's the only answer you need: It doesn't matter.

You can make it work. You're a motivated developer/entrepreneur. You'll be fine. Work whichever variables (roommates, location, dining, etc.) you want to meet your budget, but this town is geared to you. You might spend a lot, but you'll make a lot too.
So, a naive interpretation of this state of affairs is companies are ripping off consumers by over-charging them, and are also partly responsible for the credit crunch?
I've read a few books now that are recommended for beginners to Lisp. Someone in the comments of pchristensen's blog recommended the book 'Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation'. I flicked through the first few chapters and for what it's worth it seems pretty good. Also 'Successful Lisp' is pretty good too.

Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/

Successful Lisp:
http://psg.com/~dlamkins/Site/sl.html
def a smart guy, I still think the average joe can't learn a lot from someone who can't see the world the same (too much money).. and what he does remember from being poor (20-30 years ago or longer) is now obsolete.

Still i'm sure he is a great guy.
Dan Ariely, first choices, and wealth
Dan Ariely visited Seattle to discuss Predictably Irrational, and I wrote about his talk and its connections with many subjects, including <a href="http://paulgraham.com/america.html">Why Startups Condense in America</a>.
You may want to compare the COLA (cost of living adjustments) between your current area of residence and the place you're expecting to move. I've moved a few times and that numbers seems to make sense in long term.
I would recommend east bay if you do not mind the commute / public transportation; Rents are definitely cheaper on the east side; Though if you would like to be near palo alto and do not necessarily mind a tough neighborhood, try East Palo Alto (The difference crossing over the 101 on University Ave. is pretty drastic, as are the rents)

I've lived in downtown San Jose and Berkeley - SJ is cheaper, but I prefer Berkeley because of the weather, college atmosphere and good looking women (mostly ;)

Cost of lving (I lived alone)
SJ rent for 1 bedroom: $1,350 //
Berkeley rent for 2 bedroom: $1,850
(Both included all utilities except electricity)

Food: Dont skimp on food or toilet paper! ;) I like to cook, so I prepared my own food for the most part to keep costs relatively cheap - ex: cooking a nice cut of tri-tip with veggies can last a few days, etc.
$200-250/mo

Internets: ~$70/mo for static IP

Extracurricular: $250/mo

Gas/Transportation: Variable depending on whether you drive or bus / Bart
What do you use SQS for? I am having a hard time imagining how I would use it.
# 9: Issuing founder shares without vesting.

- this makes perfect sense, What do fellow y.news people think about a (4) year plan for vesting? too long?
Please poke holes in this idea:

1. Save up some dollars

2. Move to a city in India that has good infrastructure (Coimbatore is the city I have in mind) =$1200

3. Release and iterate till you get good traction =$200/month/person

4. Move to Silicon Valley do the mating dance etc =$1200

Personal burn rate while at India would be as low as $200 per month without compromising on any comfort.

After success, I plan to buy a big house there where visiting hackers can stay for free :-)
I usually review my data structures and algorithms book before interviews. In particular, you need to be familiar with recusion and tree traversal. Interviewers love these questions.

For me, the only time I write tree traversals is during interviews, so I am a little surprised that it's such a big point for interviewers. I suppose it is a pretty good sign that someone knows how to program, but I do think that it would lead to many "false negatives" (ie., someone who can program well but doesn't have it front and center).

My advice: don't become a false negative. Just make sure you bust out the old textbook and get it fresh in your mind.

If you've never taken data structures and algorithms, then you'll probably get a lot out of this exercise. I use container classes for most of this, but it is valuable to study and learn it well once.
Does anyone still type "www" ... ever?

I think Firefox just tries several common TLDs when it can't resolve a name, i.e., when you type "ebay", it tries "ebay.com", "ebay.org", "ebay.net", etc. No integration with Google required.

That's why "ebay" gets you to "ebay.com" and "slashdot" gets you to "slashdot.org", but "del.icio" doesn't go to "del.icio.us", and "last" doesn't go to "last.fm" even though those are the #1 Google results for "del.icio" and "last".
I hope the "next HTML" has a way to do it declaratively, so I can disable Javascript.
Access Buxfer offline on your mobile device with Google gears mobile
Actually, I often find that I typed "ww." because Firefox is not responsive enough after Ctrl+T.
RegisterFooWriterWithComponentFactory should read RgstFWWCmpFctry to stay in C/C++ compliance. Since you used the word "Factory" as well as unabbreviated words, you must use Java or at least Java standards.

That c2 wiki was one of the first made (actually--I think it is a descendent of the first) and is maintained by ward cunningham. I used to go there quite a bit, and actually added the "microsoft mouse driver" bit. Oddly, the formatting is completely changed. I don't know why someone would stick a newline after "Possibly the most".
Actually a fantastic idea for the adventurous - The only thing I have issue with in the Indian sub-continent is the finicky electricity infrastructure - During my last few visits, the power went down randomly throughout the day, especially in the, very hot, summers; Granted some days are better than others, but if you can put up with it, the cost of living is a fraction of what it is here.
What was wrong with MediaWiki-style links when they got started was such syntax didn't yet exist. That wiki is the original C2 wiki, where the idea and name 'wiki' originated.

Their CamelCaseLinks predated anyone using any other kind of WikiLinks... so by the time other styles arose, there was already a habit and culture there around CamelCasing. Also, that style still nails an interesting corner point in the wiki design possibility space: dead-simple and obvious linking syntax.
Such hassles can be easily abstracted away for, say, $25 a month I suppose (example: a bank of generators far away)
Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Once you get out here, you can network pretty easily.

I've been hanging out on the rails business group: http://groups.google.com/group/rails-business?hl=en&lnk=... and I've gotten an email or two a month looking for contract developers in the area. Or you can go to some of the Rails meetups or Bay Piggies (Python users group) in the area and at least you should be able to meet some people and possibly pick up some contract work out here. You just have to make an effort to get out and meet people. Jobs don't seem to be a big problem right now.
You're missing http://www.curi.us/ , enjoy :)

And http://www.settingtheworldtorights.com/
Yeah I got your point about a tld. But I don't think the equivalent for root CAs are something like "man-in-the-middle" attacks. Seems it would be much more political in nature -- ie, something like "next year you guys have to all learn Klingon, wear the same clothes, juggle at least 4 hours a week, and then put up a million in escrow to reduce our risk"

After all, it's a trust game, right? So if you're one of the few people running root CAs, you're going to make it really, really difficult to be able to trust other people at your level -- for the benefit of the users, obviously </sarcasm>

As we both know, setting up just any old kind of CA isn't the toughest thing in the world to do. It's getting accepted by the community and making the certificates into something useful that's going to be a pain.
I tried pylons not too long ago. I liked the general idea but I ran into several problems. Building the sample didn't work out of the gate and I had to dig around the site to figure out what was wrong. I never could get the user authentication stuff (AuthKit) working with the latest version of Pylons. I finally decided that I'd rather not spend my time debugging or rewriting the framework, even if it does give me more choice.
I agree. Europe is not one country and it's pretty irksome when it is referred to like it is.

I can understand why it is though and for the same reasons it's sometimes easy to think of Africa as being one big homogeneous entity, which of course it isn't.

Of course even individual countries contain huge disparities especially in their adherence to the capitalist ideal. Take the UK for instance. It has the largest financial hub in the world, London. The UK also probably has the largest monument to socialism outside of a communist country, the National Health Service.

So trying to label a single country's political/economic stance with a single label is likely to fail and more to the point trying to summarize an entire continent's stance is worse than ridiculous.
Any of you guys in SV get a sense that that area is headed south along with the rest of the economy... or not? I recall moving back to the bay area in 2002, and it was pretty bad. I found work, but it was kind of difficult to connect to potential employers as there were a lot of .com people still milling about, looking for something to do.
Winamp 2
> "I think your assertion that "you can't have it all" is telling. We are raised in the US being told that we can indeed have it all, if we work hard enough."

But unfortunatly, not everyone can have it all. That attitude may lead to more risk taking, but it will also be a constant source of unhappiness.

60 minutes had a story about Denmark, which is the happiest country in the world. Their secret is to try to get it all, but also know that you might have to settle for less.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/14/60minutes/main3833...

Video is here:
http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/140/happiness
Should startups compete with giants?
The Roman Emperor Majorian described himself as one "who still glories in the name of senator." I glory in the name of "programmer." I would prefer nothing more, regardless of what my other responsibilities may be, because it's the most pleasing title to me.
Nah, they're just not hiring and reinvesting at the moment. They haven't jacked up prices or anything, just reining in their business.
san francisco

- rent $1000 (unheard of lofty studio thing. )

- phone: $50

- internet connection: $50

- muni pass: $45

- food, entertainment, occasional car share: $300

personally about 1500 a month. no car. I'm cheap... you can obviously spend huge amounts of money on going to expensive restaurants, electronics, concerts, booze, cocaine, etc.

you will either be sharing for $700-$1100 a month or renting a studio/1BR for $1200-$2000/m. rent is the largest expense. a car will cost at least $500/m even if the car is paid for and you hardly drive (parking: $150, insurance $50, gas $3/gallon, parking violations: $200)
RSpec is moving to git.
Biologists have mixed feelings about the emergence of the genome as a luxury item. Some worry that what they have dubbed “genomic elitism”

...

“What the heck am I doing?” Mr. Stoicescu recalls wondering. “And how many children in Africa might have been fed?”

In the early 1900s, eugenics was a popular topic among a diverse crowd of intellectuals. Then, of course, the method was primarily a matter of encouraging "lesser" people to have fewer children ("Negative eugenics") and "better" people having more. A similar recent program is described thus:

To its critics, Project Prevention or Crack - an American organisation which pays drug addicts and alcoholics to be sterilised - is a terrifying throwback to the neutering of "defectives" during the 20th Century.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3189763.stm

...and so on. Of course, all of the Equality rubbish that has been preached to a sickening degree by liberals has only one possible realization: Positive eugenics. So Mr. Stoicescu wonders if his money would be better spent on cornmeal or whatever for starving Africans. I would suggest it's egocentric people like himself who are Africa's only real hope. He blows a few 100K on vanity, but that money will advance the state of the art to the point of genetic engineering, which will allow an actual improvement in people.
MS Mouse driver? I've looked at the source long ago (in 95) and it dates from 1984 I think. There was nothing special about it...
...looks like a stoned girl with a webcam...
Actually, I think decreasing the quality of the image would make it more realistic. Looping a smile, a giggle, and a smirking peek at the webcam itself, on top of a background of a slightly messy room (something dorm-like) that doesn't need to change, set the faking lighting to look like a screen on her face, and set up a textbot like the one mentioned at "http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3503465.stm.
The Eliza Effect meets LonelyGirl15.
[edit: removed HTML. My first post here, sorry.]
So, Hacker News readers who have hired people based on resumes before: How would you feel, and what would you think, if you encountered this on an applicant's resume?
I know that Yahoo just fired 1000 people in the past few weeks, but I hear that many of them got a 3 months severance. That should be enough time for them to start a business or find another gig.

Friend was a laser engineer, just got laid off after 25 years, but had 5 offers on the table in two weeks.

GOOG's stock price has taken a tumble, but they still seem to be hiring: http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/topic.py?loc_id=1116&...

Even the "big names" out here that are VC funded web startups, that would be at risk of taking a one way to the dead pool in the event of a "bubble pop", don't really have that many employees. Digg has 50 employees, Facebook had 300 at my last count but is still hiring like crazy: http://www.facebook.com/jobs/

It seems like there are a lot of companies that are coming and going, but there aren't the huge layoffs that hit the place so hard 6-7 years ago, because web startups have kept it pretty lean and mean. For the most part, the engineers still seem to be running the valley, not the biz dev guys.

Startups have been built without a lot of money, and are used to running on a shoe string. If the economy tightens up, I don't think that it will the startup guys that hard.

Some of the big hardware companies might shed some people if capital expenditures take a nose dive across the country, so that means that Intel, HP and Sun might shed some employees. But that's about it.
The problem with dating in the bay area is there is a 10:1 male to female ratio. The women are smiling at you because your fly is open.
Click "Reply" again and include this link. Who knows, you just might make his day.

(No matter how good you get at something, positive feedback is ALWAYS appreciated.)
Ask YC: Anyone in SV get a sense the economy is headed south?
This post was by davidw, and I figured that it merited it's own thread. Here's his question:

Any of you guys in SV get a sense that that area is headed south along with the rest of the economy... or not? I recall moving back to the bay area in 2002, and it was pretty bad. I found work, but it was kind of difficult to connect to potential employers as there were a lot of .com people still milling about, looking for something to do.
One VC’s 3-Step Filter for Saying ‘No’
Do you speak Hindi? This is a great idea, I want in. YCoimbatore. I know some developers in the city.
U.S. Mobile Broadband Usage Up 154% To 2.1 Million Devices
AuthKit isn't the user authentication stuff. It's one guy's attempt at user authentication stuff. Most of us Pylons people ignore it.
Experience does not automatically make one able to learn quickly. Knowing how to learn well is a skill itself that many people are bad at.

It's not always like this. Better people exist. But I hear it's common.
Ask YC: How to get a domain name?
I am interested in getting a particular domain name for my startup, if it's not prohibitively expensive. The site at that domain doesn't seem to have been updated in years. The domain is currently registered to someone, and I found their contact info with a whois lookup. Is there a recommended way to try to get the domain, or a service that people use? Should I contact the owner directly?
I commented on da blog, but I'll repost here for good measure:

Amen to that.

I'm always blown away about how many people focus on their competition-- in 3 person startup like RescueTime, any attention we give to our competition is taking away attention from our users. That doesn't mean we don't care about differentiation-- it just means that we have an army of excited users with GREAT ideas and that's what we need to focus on... Almost exclusively, for the time being.

I think you're spot on with your compare/contrast. RT is a "knowledge" tool with a bit of behavior modification/feedback thrown in. 8aW is a "behavior modification" tool with a bit of knowledge thrown in. We're both making people more productive-- we're just taking different paths.

I would add that one of big differences I see is that RescueTime focuses on online and offline activity. We're even playing around with the idea of data from phones and calendars. 8aWeek focuses on the browser, and honestly does a much better job at shaping browsing habits (and always will).

"A rising tide raises all ships"-- I think competition raises awareness and that's a good thing.

FWIW, I've never heard anyone say, "I'm leaving 8aWeek for RescueTime" or vice versa. I think they scratch fundamentally different itches.
http://w3schools.com/ is all you need, the best way to learn is just start working and then look up anything you don't know how to do.
Yeah, but take a look at an election map and note the color of the voting district around startup centers. PG wrote about this in an essay (I forget which one)

Don't look at the country or even the state. Remember, competition takes place between cities. National or state policy can help or hinder, but it's really about the city.

Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston, Austin, Seattle. Lots of startup activity. See a pattern here?
Well obviously you should be reading my blog. :)
http://parveenkaler.com
hackety org » Shoes Is Sort Of Making Its Way Through The Linux Packaging Machines
Do your worry about mail servers being compromised? Or about people forwarding photos without your permission?
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