skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Obviously you're missing the point. In google's case a server problem is a main problem. It's a software company. I didn't say only solve problems as they arrive. I said don't waste time on problem that haven't occurred yet. What that means is stop making excuses; look for reasons instead. In youtube case, it was still acquired for $1.65 billion. Youtube revolutionize the way people share and watch videos online. That $1 billion lawsuit probably will be dismissed. Worst case scenario, it still won't kill youtube. By the way, name me one succesful company that haven't been sued yet? goole, microsoft recently iphone from apple.. all them. "If you haven't been sued, you haven't made it". The point is start your project now, stop worried about employee health insurance. Deal with problems you have today, don't worry about problems you will have in 5-10 years. Stop making excuses; find reasons.
Co-founding a family, eh?
Insightful--this will actually happen. I've already been in some telecommuting relationships (professional) where we just leave the ip video phone on constantly. You don't have to call to communicate, you just talk to the phone as if the person was in the room. If they're not at their desk you can see that easily on the video screen.
I just wish Apple wasn't taking cues from Vista. http://www.tomsguide.com/us/leopard-osx-problems,review-1028... but one overview.
Unit testing should be at the absolute top of the list. My current project is thoroughly wrapped in unit tests, and it gives us the power to make deep structural changes very late in the development process. I've never felt so confident that a first release will be rock solid.
The talk was great, I was impressed. I don't know where the arrogance criticisms come from honestly..
I disagree with this distinction that it's cheating with sports but not academia.

I think what matters is whether there's a health cost to these drugs and if so how much. If a drug is quite safe, then it should be allowed -- no matter whether we are talking about sports or academia.
A keyboard without keys - Dasher
At my previous employer, we used CacheFly and were pretty happy with them. However, I know a lot of people are happy with S3.
The cost of credits is: $10.00 - 10 credits, $20.00 - 22, $30.00 - 33, $40.00 - 45, and $100.00 - 110.

So the cheapest per-credit cost is at $40. And there is no price difference between the $20, $30, and $100 options as they all give 10% more credits than dollars.
yeah, I do find it a little strange when there are dev/hacker/programmer recruiting posts on YC and an unwillingness to at least give an overview of the idea... I've since stopped upmodding these types of posts. imho they're repetitive and near worthless. It's hard to help someone without knowing more details.

ideas are cheap... and more likely than not they change overtime...
Case studies of Linux deployments in high schools around the world
Yes, and a corollary is that this doesn't necessarily mean the non doped can just go live easier lives because the doped are doing so much more work. The same thing has been said about most of technological revolutions, but do people live more leisurely, relaxed lives today because of our advances?
Hits and misses in coverage of Intel's Atom processor
A tool for recovering memory contents on cold boot attacks - msramdmp
Entirely unrelated: lest you think me rude, I must let you know I won't be responding to your email for awhile. I am currently snow bound and my house keys are in said snow.

As for messaging, I mainly use gtalk or skype. For gtalk you have my contact info, and I think I used the same address for skype.
Top 10 vulnerabilities in Web Applications in Q4 2007
They Write the Right Stuff
It sounds great on the surface, until you realize that they're doing a controlled experiment and you're going to be part of the control group.
The Real Reason Microsoft About-Faced on IE8 Standards Opt-In
Sexy clones of classic Unix tools
Text utils: TypeIt4Me (expands your codes into frequently-typed text) and JumpCut (multiple clipboard).

MenuCalendarClock replaces your menubar clock with with a menu of a simple calendar (ties in with iCal too, but i don't even use that).

As soon as Aion is updated for Leopard get it if you deal with time zones.

Alarm Clock 2 wakes you up to your selected iTunes playlist (with gradually increasing volume).

UnRarX deals with .rar files.
Why were you disappointed?
So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway?
Here's a list of commercial CDN's: http://www.web-caching.com/cdns.html

and, academic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Delivery_Network#Academ...

And, S3 is storage, not a CDN.
That's what I get for commenting in the middle of the night. I meant it was great advice and it was without the usual DHH/37 Signals arrogance.
Become one.
I think the effects must be weighed. Is it wrong for a molecular biologist to take drugs if it means he can invent a cure for cancer in 5 years instead of 20? I believe one person should be allowed to do whatever they want with their body as long as it doesn't negatively effect other people, and in said example he might die younger but he'll have saved around 114 million people from death.

We're not talking about handing someone over to some evil aliens or they'll murder 114 million innocents. We're talking about someone saying, "My death will be worth saving 114 million people from an early death." I can't fault someone choosing to do that.
Don Dodge seems so friendly!
Sports are for the entertainment for those watching. The consensus seems to be that the spectators enjoy it more when they know the athletes didn't use any performance enhancing drugs.

Academic research is not done for entertainment, it directly benefits society and mankind in general. If someone wants to risk their health to find a cure for cancer faster, more power to them.
Marketing Is Not A Department
Heh, upon review of what I said, it probably came off as too harsh. I was so terse because I didn't feel like writing a long polemic at the time I made the comment. :) Now that I have a minute, here are some of the points I disagreed with in the essay.

"Unfortunately . . . software development and engineering are, even at the most fundamental parts, completely different. Engineering is the practice to develop something touchable, something that obeys the laws of physics."

That premise is flawed and leads to misguided conclusions. Engineering is the application of technical knowledge to solve problems. There are tons of ways to say this, depending on who defines it, but no reasonable definition prima facie excludes software from being an engineering discipline.

This implies that the product produced can be evaluated with the laws of physics. You can make all kinds of statistics, strength calculations, etc on the product. . . . . Software on the other hand, doesn't obey the laws of physics, by the simple reason because it can't be touched. Sure, it has physical parts, but those physical parts are not that important.

Let's forget for a second that all software can be specified in hardware. There are still important "physical parts," constraints, and metrics applicable to the design of software. For instance, one would be hard pressed to argue that physical constraints of RAM and processor speed are completely irrelevant to software. In addition, much of software engineering actually turns out to be how to optimize output of teams with finite amounts of man-hours available. This is non-trivial and subject to a wealth of metrics, experimentation, and methodologies.

But let's go even further and put all of that aside. The argument still doesn't hold up. Even if software could not be touched, it could still can be engineered. Disciplines like process engineering and human factors engineering are examples of rigorous practices applied to seemingly abstract implementations. Useful software engineering principles such as modularity, coupling, cohesion, reuse, interfaces, specifications all come directly from other "traditional" engineering practices and have been shown to improve the quality and speed of software development.

Look, I appreciate the art of software development; that's part of what I love about it! And there's certainly a point to be made about focusing too much on process over creativity at the wrong stages. But that point wasn't made. The article seemed to suggest that we just throw up our hands and give up trying to do anything rigorous with the products we design because it's all an illusion anyway. I think we can do better than that. We need to do better than that.
My milkshake brings all the 1337 h4x0rz to the yard....
Slumming With Basic Programmers
Microsoft used to be the biggest software company in the world; not anymore. Google innovates; microsoft doesn't innovate anymore. Search is to the web what window is to the desktop. The desktop is dead, everything is on the web now. Goog controls 60% of the search market share; MSN barely controls 10%. Microsoft is doing everything possible to catch google in search; goog doesn't care about PC operating system.
IBM has a market cap of $160 biilion, and $100 billion revenue, but who cares. When was the last time IBM did something to make your life easier?
Cisco designs, manufactures and sells Internet protocol (IP). That's not software; that's IT.
Knowledge is not a zero-sum game. Academia, not so much.
Hat tip to raganwald: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/03/drive-and-determination-...

I used to program in AMOS basic in the early nineties. That was a great experience. Its 2D API and resource management were terrific. Anyway, I was surprised to hear about this. This kind of programming was completely in my blind spot.
Since no drug is safe enough for some groups, what really matters is by whom it is allowed. Major league baseball, colleges, and other groups with which people can voluntarily associate seem like reasonable arbiters for their membership's drug use. Governments do not.
Well, thanks for sharing this. It's going to make a huge difference to my life. I've now wasted a minute I'll never get back.
Would you agree that chip design, via a EE degree, is in fact an engineering discipline? It uses metrics, tolerances, correctness, etc, just like a civil engineer has when building a bridge.

Software is simply a layer of abstraction on top of this. For instance, when the USAF wants software for the F-22, you better believe there are requirements and processes just as stringent as Intel's process for designing/developing a CPU. And the people producing that code, imho, are every bit as much engineers as the EE's.
How is this a corollary? As a result of increased productivity in society, everyone becomes better off. And yes, people today live more leisurely, relaxed lives materially because of increased productivity.
Smart Image Resizer (PHP)
It would be easier if you share what your startup is going to make.
"The difference in diagnosis is success or failure. Succeed and you are a brilliant visionary. Fail and you are a delusional loser. The line between them is very fine."

I love it!
Is ycnews now "37signals news" or something? :/
A Couple of My Rules for Startups
What Are You Destined to Be?
Opera. It is fast even when I have 20 tabs open and i do have around 20 tabs open quite often.
don't worry, rather than assume the worst i just guessed you were busy and might reply next weekend (if not today). i'll try gtalk then. good luck with snow thawing.
SXSW: 7 Fake Startups Compete for 'Worst Website Ever'
Two reasonable choices.

1. Cast your ids to strings and handle them as strings everywhere.

2. Just use 64 bits. If you have a pentillion of anything it won't be you fixing the problem any more.
Major Update to [Mozilla] Prism, First Prototype of Browser Integration
I'm surprised no one's said it yet: Who says you're enhanced?

As far I know, few studies have shown actual improvement in mental or physical performance without serious side effects. I think even the military, which has studied both amphetamines and steroids, has found that the side effects far outweigh the benefits.

As a big baseball fan, I think the current PED controversy is illustrative. Many folks think they're getting a benefit and are willing to go to great lengths for that edge. But it's not clear they're getting anything other than an confidence boost. You wouldn't take the pill if you didn't think it would work or is working. So you keep taking it.

I think the same is true of neurocosmetics. It easier to believe they work. Still, I'd rather take a nap than a pill. And I'm more worried about neuroimplants - in fifty years.
I think the point is to be a successful company and not get sued.

Getting sued is patently moronic, and being proud of it is more so. Wal-Mart is being sued for 11 billion (and growing), and they make 11 billion profit. If Wal-Mart doesn't get profit for a year it will have to sacrifice 11 billion of assets and put every company around it into a better position. Thus shareholder/stock decrease and a vast loss of capital meaning it'll be harder to recover from.

Wal-Mart can suffer it, probably with some dire consiquences, but it won't disappear, now YouTube:

So far YouTube isn't worth shit. It is yet to turn a profit, and a $1 billion lawsuit means that around 60% of YouTube's capital has to go. Capital = Equipment. YouTube is gone if it loses 60% of itself, not to mention there'll likely be multiple and far larger suits on the way from Sony, Disney, News Corporation and everyone else who wants a chunk and all of those three have a much bigger grivance than $1 billion; precedent means a Judge basically stamps these approved. I'd say easily it would amount to $20 billion as Sony owns Colombia, Tristar and MGM as well as Sony Pictures; that's easily $8 billion right there.

Now you do the math on that, how can youtube even exist when it's about -$19 billion? I'm serious, where does your belief come from that worst case youtube still won't be killed. It'll be a 404 if it loses.

Whilst merely thinking about the future will get you nowhere, never thinking about the future will jeopordize your company to no end. YouTube should have thought ahead, Wal-Mart shouldn't have been sexist pigs... and perhaps you should worry your ass off about Employee Health Insurance, cause I bet Wal-Mart didn't expect a Class Action worth an entire years profit. I don't think you want to lose an entire years profit either, especially when it's your ownly take home money.

So I'm serious, and I'm not missing any point. Think or your company won't last long. The creators of YouTube likely got lucky... if they're not still with the company. And if they are with the company, well Karma is a bitch now isn't it.
I've seen more Macbook Airs than Kindles, despite the fact that the Air only came out a few weeks ago.
no tail?
I've heard food can have the similar effects, let's ban that too.
I can only speak for myself. If I'm going to work for 6 months without pay, you would have to offer me a position as a cofounder.
>The same thing has been said about most of technological revolutions, but do people live more leisurely, relaxed lives today because of our advances?

Yes. There are now more World of Warcraft players in the US than farmers, thanks to mechanized agriculture. This led to a decrease in hours worked from about 80 to 40.

Mechanized factories led to a similar reduction; service workers tend to work far less than factory workers (spending several hours/day at work, but not working).

The rest of the productivity gains went to increased consumption, which tends to mean a greater quality of leisure (I enjoy playing video games much more than I would enjoy watching Big 3 TV networks in 1950).

Doping may lead to an increase in inequality (i.e., non-doped need to work harder to have the same stuff as the doped), but that's a different matter.
Apple employees have to use different operating systems from time to time. There's a lot of software, especially in hardware design, that only runs on Windows or Linux.
Indeed, I even agree that the people that write software for the F-22 are engineers, and better use engineering practices to build their software. The requirements are probably pretty strict/well defined.

But there is plenty of software out there (maybe most software) like ERP/CRM, desktop/web applications, games, etc ... , where the technical parts are not that important, or aren't really the main problem. The main problem is to try to create the most clear representations of real life items (customers, business processes, human resources, etc.), and make them clear to other programmers in the source code, and to the customers (who most of the time aren't technical).

It's probably true that my theory doesn't make much sense for lower level/close to the hardware software development. But for high level things I still think I'm absolutely right ;).
They're both right. You need a hot product. But you need to watch expenses carefully so that you have time for your ideas to evolve and for the market to realize what you have.
Business Model Innovation
They support Internet Explorer.
Maybe because Kindle is constantly out of stock?

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device...
Thanks Jeff, I'm glad someone finally spoke up for the truth.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Path Finder yet. It's a serious file manager that makes the Finder look like it was designed by Fisher-Price.

http://www.cocoatech.com/pf4/
I'm disappointed with the waiting list, and more importantly with the fact that there is no estimate upfront for how it's going to take. I can't live with "we have no clue whatsoever when we can ship you one."

I've ordered a Kindle in December and canceled my order after two weeks since I didn't get any emails with an update on how long it's going to take during those 2 weeks. I don't care if it takes 3 months, just be honest and tell me that before I place my order (or at least within a week of placing my order).
Spectators like to see new world records.
Survivor - "Startup" Edition
(Javascript) Performance is Everything
Startup Advice Weekend
Yeah... doesn't really make my list of "great advice", although it is a great observation.
It is if there are limited spots for an academic position, papers a journal can publish, etc.
Sunk costs, quitting and the value of your brand
Cryptonomicon
Kind of off topic, but this book is fantastic hacker reading - in my opinion at least. If you don't actively dislike Stephenson for some reason (de gustibus non est disputandum), and haven't already read it, this book is worth a look.
Definitely try to write your code in self documenting form. A function name that makes it clear what the function does is better than a comment. Chances are comments start to rot very quickly as other programmers updating code are likely not to touch comments, or to copy and paste something and take a comment out context.
Etymologies are irrelevant to understanding words? That can't be right.

From your link: The genetic fallacy is a fallacy of irrelevance where a conclusion is suggested based solely on something or someone's origin rather than its current meaning or context.

Notice how it says solely? There's no solely about this. To consider a root is not to ignore current meaning; one can do both. That's, uh, what dictionaries do.

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/afonedis.html

There's another point. The genetic fallacy refers to historical origin. The root of a word is certainly that, but it's also a piece (the main piece, in fact) of the word as it is now. If your point were correct, then a botanist examining the roots of a plant would also be committing the genetic fallacy. Happily for botanists and etymologists, the genetic fallacy applies to one sense of "root" but not the other.

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/ambiguit.html
Karma Hack - Encourage the creation of interesting content
I'm honestly not much of a karma-whore, so I'm not terribly motivated by it.

However, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to roll content creation into the karma score.

Example: Paul Buchheit writes a lot of good stuff. Other people submit it. They get points. However, if you could associate Paul's blog to his YC.News account, then you could have some of that karma attach itself to him.

Now, how to reliably "claim" a blog is a challenge. And WTF you do with a site like the BBC, Wired, SFGate, etc.

for reference: (http://searchyc.com/top/domains_by_points)
Street Cred
Not very smart at all, since it allows unlimited arbitrary resizing through unencrypted URL parameters. You'll easily get 100% CPU and a full disk.
On a related note, the community's voting patterns encourage the witty one-line comments over the thoughtful 3-sentence comments. Look at any article, and you'll see the type of comments this incentive produces.
And when we find out that modafinil fucks up some useful neurological chemical pathway, or desensitizes the brain to their natural equivalents; well, that's just the price society pays for innovation.

I mean, all the other chemicals we use to regulate the brain have worked out so well. Most of them haven't even turned out to be carcinogens, yet!

Sounds awesome.
You need to go and raise some money so that you don't have to do such a hard sell. If you can't do that, and want to wait until you have a prototype then look to hire someone on a contract. If it works out then you can make them an offer to join full time.

I think you need to demonstrate what you bring to the table other than an idea. When you do that you will gain the respect of the hacker and you might be able to get a deal going. It might even be something like, when you raise some cash I'll come join you.

What are you going to do for the first 6 months, to raise the value of the business? What have you done since you thought of the idea?
The premise of this article is that, because the author doesn't like Basecamp, and 37Signals doesn't respond by catering to him, they're an "arrogant hobby" business.

Vote accordingly.
At least 8 other YC readers appear to believe that Don Norman is the first person to gripe about 37Signals.
I don't know the nitty-gritty details of what went wrong in the development of Vista, but I can't shake the feeling that they simply waited too long between OS version releases. I think they could have avoided a lot of trouble had they realised, say, 2-3 years after XP that Vista was in trouble and ported some of the new stuff over to a less ambitious upgrade to XP/2003. The remaining planned changes could then have been done in the following version.

Previously, their product cycle was around 2-3 years, except for 2000->XP (1 year), and NT 4.0->2000 (4 years). They took almost 6 years to upgrade their desktop OS with Vista, and made changes almost at every level. People hate change. That includes both end-users and developers of end-user software and hardware drivers.

I don't think you can just force large-scale changes to something as fundamental as an OS, you have to spoon-feed it to the users. Breakages in the layers on top of it won't be too catastrophic, are fixed more quickly and thus pissing users off. (I didn't really follow anything Mac-related during the time of the MacOS 9->10 switchover, so I don't know how they got away with that)

Note: I primarily use Linux; I only have Windows (XP) installed for playing games and testing, and I'm putting off the Vista upgrade for later. In contrast, I usually upgrade my Linux system shortly after a new version of my distro (OpenSUSE) is out, which is typically every 6-8 months: the changes between versions aren't massive and the inconvenience caused tends to be minor.
Wow, they must suck then! Thanks for telling me; I'm sure if I got all Magnum P.I. on your nickname, I could figure out what it was 37Signals does to alienate people like you, and thus capture the 0.0001% of the CRM and Project Management software market 37Signals has failed to address.
Sure, Microsoft today is not the force it was 10 years ago. But to say that "Microsoft doesn't innovate anymore" is a bit far-fetched.