skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I have no artistic talent whatsoever, but now that I've learned to use grids I can churn pretty reasonable designs. Here's a good intro: http://www.subtraction.com/pics/0703/grids_are_good.pdf
There are a number of kids in comp sci that are just in it to get a job when they graduate. I've seen so many of my peers go through school and then just give up programming. These kids fuel the JavaSchools, and when faced with a real comp sci program they are weeded out pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, the schools decided that programming students were too profitable to weed out so many of them with real curriculum. That's when they invented the MIS degree.

People are free to like what they like, but why would you clog up the schools if you know you don't have a passion for it in the first place? My wife was brave enough to switch majors after a few years of engineering school before deciding that she just didn't have her heart in it. Other kids plodded along just because they were close to a degree that they knew they would never use anyway, but the piece of paper was more important than their happiness and sanity.

P.S. This is a lot of observation from the "outside." I did 2 years of college before I realized that my own ability to learn outstripped my school's ability to teach. I got a hell of a head start on the few of my peers from high school that decided to stick with programming.
You need to implement materialized views using triggers. Not ideal but sometimes it has to be done.
Sharpen your startup skills the Harvard way
Google Likely to Get EU Approval to Buy DoubleClick
Mobile social networking: "30 or more now — in three years, there will be 5 that matter."
Interestingly, nonlocal was part of Converge before it was proposed for Python 3000 (see http://tratt.net/laurie/tech_articles/articles/designing_san...).

It doesn't seem sensible to me to imply that every programming language has to have the same syntax as what came before it: no syntax is perfect and future generations won't thank us if we don't improve things when we can. Using "=" confuses new-comers to programming who think it's some form of comparison thingy. Converge doesn't have logical "or" and "and", so the & and | operators (taken syntactically and semantically) are there to point that out (although, in general, they operate in analogous fashion to "and" and "or"). In this day and age, having special syntax for bitwise operators seems odd: they're so rarely used that moving them to functions / methods and reclaiming & and | for other purposes seems reasonable.

Converge is a full meta-circular system (based on ObjVLisp), and at the VM level is actually prototyping based (the VM doesn't really know about classes). So classes seem superficially similar to Python but are actually quite different. You can see this as new objects are created via Object.new() rather than the Python-esque Object(). The object system in Converge is simpler and more consistent than Python.
Firecookie: Put you hand in the cookie jar with Firebug
Shared Web Hosting: Who Is Good?
News.YC, all that I want is a simple LAMP stack with standard settings for my wordpress blogs that's fast, has excellent uptime, has SSH access, and will automatically adjust for traffic if I'm Dugg. I'm even happy to pay a premium (up to $50/mo) for a _good_ service that's not going to make me deal with administrivia.

I've been using Media Temple, and they suck.

Please help me. This must be useful information for others here, too.
Nobody here can gauge the fairness of the price. You (should) know your market better than anyone else.
America's 50 Richest Paydays
Maybe you are correct actually - the stats of that article certainly indicate it!
Does this mean I can start developing for IE7 soon? [A guy can dream, can't he?]

BTW, here are some links for anybody developing for IE6 (I feel your pain, brothers and sisters):

Valid fix for PNG transparency on a single image
http://www.bioneural.net/2006/08/09/valid-fix-for-png-transp...

How to apply tr border to tables in Internet Explorer 6
http://www.csarven.ca/tr-border-trick-for-ie

IE6 Peekaboo Bug
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/peekaboo.html
Old school Facebook sales presentation
"It takes me roughly a day to switch modes"

THAT is your problem.

You want to be an entrepreneur? You will have to switch modes 4,397 times per day (on good days). "Switching modes" should take seconds, not days.

Figure out how to do this and get back to work.
I'm not going to complain at all about having more competition in this space.
In a couple years this issue may very well become switching between "work mode" and "startup mode".

While it probably makes more sense to secure a degree than make sure you immediately take a job after college, the pressure of a job being the default thing to do (and perhaps the weight of your loans) make it likely that you'll always have to deal with being divided.

That said, I don't have a solution. I've had more time to hack since graduation but it's always a few hours here and there.
At which point you are still getting a crappy multiple?

If your growth is really exponential...that should be an additional 10x multiple. So, 30-40x multiple overall.
Ubuntu Linux with xterm windows, Eclipse, and emacs for those times when you just need some special behavior tied to your F1 key.
Emacs, OS X.
I propose a form of "Instant Karma." Then we can all shine on.

But beware the posters with many accounts, for these "Karma Chameleons" just come and go.
Nice reference. Thank you!
MacBook + Cinema Display 23" + emacs + vmware fusion + safari + coffee + ikea furniture + http://last.fm/user/egimenez
Rails ActiveRecord gotcha for newbies
OK, so assuming your current offer is 5-6 mil...

This months net profits - 160k
If you can sustain your 100%+ growth monthly for the next 6 months, you could hit a huge monthly profits number. Even with 50% growth, your monthly profits would be over a million with that kind of growth.

Which makes your current offer very low, this is why with that kind of growth people get huge multiples.
The Secret Life of Angels: Raising an Angel Round for Your Startup
There wasn't any encryption involved in his suggestion. :D
No that's completely wrong. ActiveRecord will initialize getter/setter methods for all fields in your db table, and when you use those methods ruby knows they aren't local variables. So all three of the code snippets will produce the same output (although they're not equivalent)
Ultimately, people have to balance costs and benefits, even when the costs are death threats and the like. Ann Coulter probably gets abused online more than any other woman, but then she make 10K+ per speaking engagement.
Optimize for now!
xandros (eee pc version) + KDE + emacs
windows + eclipse --->had to use for "other" work stuffs
fedora + Gnome + emacs ---> fave

Most important : Flash Drive, IPod, and laptop or desktop and I can code wherever and whenever I want.
Currently a Macbook + Textmate
As far as I can tell, it's probably better for your sanity to end your involvement with this project, one way or another.
I think it is hard to hide $63 or more billion.
Exactly. I'm currently in college and working on multiple startups. I've designed my schedule to where I start class at 2 or 3 PM every day, so i wake up at 6:50 and get on campus by 7:30 to work in one of the study areas on my projects.

It's easy to get overwhelmed by things. Just make sure you tackle them one at a time. Being an entrepreneur takes some hardcore dedication and passion. Switching from work mode to school should be easy for you-if it's not, you need to reassess whether you should be doing these particular projects or not. Passion is key.
Gentoo + gedit + terminal + scheme/ruby/erlang + Google.
If this is a temporary change so they can survive until Aug 2008 then this is a good strategy:

nearly a third of the first 500 Googlers have departed, and many more of the estimated 2,200 pre-IPO employees are planning an exit as their stock vests [in Aug 2008]. -- http://www.news.com/Life-after-Google%2C-with-millions/2100-...

If this is a permanent change then they're screwed:

a common problem: choosing a small, obscure niche in the hope of avoiding competition. -- http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
I’ve had a similar frustration, which is why I’m learning to code. I’ve never really wanted to code per se, but I want to be able to do things, to mock up a prototype. People seem to understand ideas better when you show them something than when you tell them something, and people want to work with other people who can add value.

And hey, I like applied math, so I’ll probably enjoy coding well enough.
Do what you can to implement your idea, even if you make less money off of it. People seldom have only one good idea in life, and then you can point to that implementation as an example of what you can do next time around.
The world appears to be on the verge of a boom in a little-known but promising type of solar power.
Development model predicts chance of software flaws
Lessons from the Skeptics Conference
this is their science correspondent???
This will be an interesting battle if Microsoft decides to go with the industry standard SQL model as Amazon goes with their Berkeley-esque model. (I hope to see at least Sun and Oracle get into the game, we need some standardization here.)

Right now, the Amazon model is so different and so unique, it is hard for developers to wrap their head around. Functionality that we take for granted, such as sorting, is missing.

The argument is that Amazon's model isn't trying to replicate SQL, it's blazing its own new trail. Amazon has some very smart people engineering their effort. (In fact, there is a rumor they poached some SQL Server developers.)
"All other considerations aside, what you seem to be asking is for companies to alter their whole way of working (plus adopt new software tools) on the promise of "10x productivity".That's going to be a very tough sell, particularly if you're just starting out and have no management experience."

I agree. Good point. My potential partner has about 15 years of experience in consulting, software engineering, and business development for his clients.

A good way to help people see the value in our product/service would be to illustrate with case studies from his past clients.

On your other point about asking clients to change too much, what I'm thinking is that people will buy our product because of the quality of our marketing. This will not require anything except a credit card and excitement from our marketing (you can sell almost anything with good marketing; in our case people will actually receive A LOT of value too, not just be sold on good value).

Most people won't actually do what we suggest, but those who do will see the results of what we've taught them. (Maybe 5% of people who buy our educational tools will actually use them)

This may not sound like very many people, but if that 5% of people really do have 10x their income as a result of the education we've provided, I will feel great! And all of their business type friends will want to know, "Hey, what do you attribute your success to?"

Then they'll say "XYZ company gave us the education and tools we needed to become successful."

Not only will that be good for marketing and goodwill purposes, but will give us new client testimonials that can be used for future marketing.

"It's good to be ambitious, but equally you need targets you can hit immediately. Reduce the thing to its bare essentials then see where you can go with it."

This is very good to keep in mind. I'll have to define a clear goal that we can hit in the next couple months.

Thanks for the feedback m0nty!
vim, screen, svn...

Don't use lisp(s) enough to enjoy Emacs anymore.
He wouldn't want to, and neither would his children or grandchildren, from what I have read.

Even donating 99% of his net worth, his family will still have over half a billion dollars, which is more than enough for down to earth people. And I'm not even sure he is donating that much.
> Once we know exactly how to solve the problem, we will map out exactly what our software will do.

You usually don't know exactly how to solve the problem until fairly late. Heck, you often don't even know exactly what the problem is until fairly late.

In other words, you're speeding up the small part of the problem.
Ubuntu ,NetBeans(for RoR), Eclipse(for Python/Django, Java)
Good questions. I'll have to think about those....

I'll go brainstorm and come back later with answers.

What do you mean by "non-engineering tasks are ... evolving more slowly"?
Guy Kawasaki’s Thoughts on Online Life
The phone needs flash support, rather its with adobe or someone else. Without flash you really can't call it a real web experience.
Dude you should so try Lua out! I love the way you can craft OOP out of the language by using meta tables.
OS X, GNU Emacs, gcc, gdb, MzScheme.
I would push on, get it done in a week and then take a break.

Then you're done, and a break will be good for you to get your thoughts clear for launch.
Meh it's got some butt ugly syntax!
I really miss Kathy Sierra. Creating Passionate Users is the best blog I've ever read.
Upmodded and done for Lua.
Try to join projects that are still young. Young projects, on average, don't have political environments that generally make it very difficult to _really_ contribute.
Here here! why isn't there any PHP support?
How many people do you think there are? You'd have to a) control vast resources or businesses, b) make sure no legit journalist in the entire world can tie you to it, and c) not care about achieving higher returns by investing in legitimate options, d) grow to that fortune without using mainstream investment options, and e) restrain your spending enough that you don't arouse suspicion. Not to mention that a huge, illicit fortune would be worth less than face value because it would be less liquid than a legitimate fortune.

Let's look at the top 3:

Buffet: started one of the most successful investment funds ever, which now owns most of Coca Cola and many insurance companies, among other giant, prominent copmanies

Helu: owns most of the telecom in Central and South America

Gates: started and ran the largest software company in the world, running on ~1B computers. Was one of the biggest business and technology success stories of the century.

You have to be prominent to get those big numbers.
7 Steps to Selling Vaporware
The NYT Magazine isn't that bad. The investigative journalism is generally on par with Salon.

NYT in general though tends to be either anti-intellectual, or propaganda, or both. The idea that a carbon tax is more efficient than cap-and-trade is laughable.
This is an interesting point. Adobe effectively owns a large (likely growing) portion of the web. And as such, can control any non-standard device that wants to offer a real web experience.
Oh just quit it. You and I both know that PHP can be made to run safely in this type of environment.
I'm in favor of a short break prior to the final push. But, to me, a short break is a pre-sprint evening of dinner and drinks to boost morale and get the team feeling good together.

I personally wouldn't break for two weeks when you can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Mac Book Pro (15) with key mappings for home and end "fixed" with a 27.5 inch hanns g monitor (good, cheap and big). Netbeans b/c debugging can be handy.
VS 2k5/2k8 while at work for The Man, emacs on OSX/linux while hacking at home.
Python Montage Code for Displaying Arrays
Ask YC:  Why does adsense try to find ads relevant to web page content rather than to the user?
Why not ask the user to specify what sorts of ads he/she would like to see while using a site?
Emacs 22 on Fedora 8 & SciTE on Windows
Gravitation: a video game about mania, melancholia, and the creative process
PHP is one of the most requested languages. Support is on the way, probably sometime in the next couple weeks.
Why is that laughable? I was under the impression that both environmentally and economically, a carbon tax was better.
Survey shows few men bothered if wife brings home more bacon
I wrote this a while ago:

http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/top-story-of-2007-...
Great post! I think there's a lot of interesting math here that applies to a lot of businesses.

Maybe Andrew is purposefully focusing entirely on the mathematical part of the viral loop-- but I think a key missing point is user value (or the lack of it).

A great viral loop can bring in the eyeballs. Facebook apps are a great example. Ning is a great example. If a friend is using something or seemingly is advocating that I use it, I'll take a look. In the case of Facebook, I'll probably install it (as that's really the only way to take a look).

At the end of the day, the viral loop gets you sales leads (nicely qualified due to the "recommendation" implicit in the viral loop), but you have to provide value/fun to make the sale (convert the "looker" into a sustained user).

IMO, best way to pursue a business is:

1) Create something people really freakin' LOVE to use and/or something that solves a painful and pervasive problem.

2) Start honing your viral loop. Hopefully, this loop is already in your product. It's not just adding a "tell a friend" feature, so early thinking on this is critical. Andrew's previous post on this is fabulous.
(http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2007/09/fund...)

Skip the first step (or make something that people kinda like) and you'll be left scratching your head. The only reason so many crappy FB apps have done so well is that FB stacked the cards very heavily in favor of the app makers-- it let 'em cheat. FB is rapidly closing the loopholes and making it pretty hard to succeed without having an actual product that you WANT to tell your friends about (imagine that!). In short, the party's over.
I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I had one class, Economic History of America, with a professor who was most likely just out of school himself, and we were bored to tears with his teaching style. He read his lectures 100% off of notes and was visibly nervous.

A friend of mine and I brought our laptops in and talked during class via IM. I used it to take notes too, if only to qualify bringing the laptop in. After a few weeks, I noticed more and more people bringing their laptops in.

Anyways, I still got an A and I don't think I missed anything too vital.
I was thinking the same thing. Boo is decidedly more Pythonic than converge: you can write more programs that run in both Boo and Python than you can for converge and Python. Boo is pretty much a statically, implicitly typed Python. I wish there was a version of Boo that was not tied to the CLR; the closest thing we have to a high-performance language with Python syntax is Pyrex, which is good, but not quite as nice as Boo.
Smart strategy, build what you while you can and scale as you need. (this falls inline with PG's launch early and often and also the cost of a startup is low with this idea)
I use NearlyFreeSpeech.net <https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/>, which I heard about from BugMeNot. It's pay-per-use, so it can be very cheap (equivalent to a few cents / month, except it's not billed monthly). If you have a spike in traffic, they'll handle that just fine, since each site isn't bound to a single physical server. That also means your site isn't slowed down if some neighbor uses a lot of resources.

Some drawbacks are that there's no FastCGI, so no Django or Rails, and you can't get your own IP address, even for money, so no TLS. Also, it's Apache 1.3, if you care. If you just need to run some Wordpresses, they do a bang-up job or running mod_php 5.
Your Product's Going To Have To Start Selling Itself . . . Eventually
just curious, what gems are you using?
I don't see them going anywhere, they are steady at #4 behind Goog, Yahoo, MSN.. and I don't see them beating any of those; now is where you get lean and profitable.
+1. Ubuntu 7.10, NetBeans 6 (Ruby), Git on my 14" laptop.
Very rarely using Eclipse (for Java). How is it for Python ? I am thinking about learning Python and Django.
A Way to Invalidate "Business Method" Patents
do you what you think your body needs. If you launch and your burnt then what is the point?
OS X, laptop, Textmate, and Emacs.

Textmate is just more approachable when it comes to extending the editor, though, so I usually use it for odds and ends over Emacs. Emacs is great for well structured projects in well supported languages.
I love it... the recommender actually works (in extreme contrast to Reddit).

I still hit reddit / digg / slashdot / other sources, but that's to find things to post here. More articles on JaaNix is a good thing.
Anyone else sick of things breaking in atleast 1 browser everytime without hacks? Why can't their be a base standard
Mac Book, OSX 10.5 , textmate (ruby,python,...) , eclipse (Lisp - cups, Java, C++)
Earth: The Sequel actually has a really good explanation of this. If you do search inside the book, pages 4-8 are available, and they have a really good summary of the history of the clean air act.

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Sequel-Reinvent-Energy-Warming/d...

Disclaimer: My dad co-authored this book.
Seriously? No Effort > Effort. Relevant to context > irrelevant to context. Or you can use adpinion.com instead of adsense.

You've been asking a lot of fundamental adsense related questions - have you seen wolf-howl.com or digitalpoint.com's forums or seobook.com?
What is the status quo that you are using to make the 10X promise? This will change in different companies and goes to the hear of your promise? What is the base for the 10X comparison?
It isn't a goal of Converge to be Pythonic as such (particularly as Python 2.x is a philosophically different beast to Python 1.4/1.5-ish).

My impression of Boo is that its macros are a very different kettle of fish to Converge's compile-time meta-programming. Boo seems much more similar to Nemerle than Converge. As far as I can tell, there's no quasi-quoting (which would mean building ASTs by hand all the time) and no support for things like hygiene. I'd be happy to be corrected though.
I personally think FB is over-valued and if they do IPO it will go high ($120-$200) but level off at ($55-$60).
If a user does not specify targeting keywords, then it could revert to content-based targeting. Giving a user control over what advertising he/she will see might make him/her more interested in those ads.
Arch Linux + KDEmod + VIM & Code::Blocks
(PHP, Ruby and C++)
Do you like ads? Do you click on ads? Do you pay attention to ads?
I dunno, haven't trillions gone missing from the Pentagon budget? Who has all that money? I think it might be easier to hide immense wealth than you suggest. Granted, to do so would require extreme political power or approval, which is why the GP's question about Putin is so insightful.
That technically does satisfy the goal of "contributing", but it's also a boring, menial job. (Which is why volunteer-driven projects have poor documentation in the first place.)

I don't know of any open-source developer who got started writing docs.
If they were more accurately targeted, I might be more interested in checking them out.
Why don't you click on ads? Why don't you like ads?
The road to clear and simple? Many iterations...
I don't like ads in their current form. However, I can't say I will never like ads in any form.

I suspect that most people don't care for ads because they are not really relevant.
Doesn’t Amazon do something similar?
Did you notice the huge CTR rate drop when Google changed the clickable area from the entire ad unit to just the link?
We started on a single server for everything when Basecamp was first launched. There was no point in growing a huge farm of machines if the thing was going to flop anyway.

It's this sort of thing that drives me nuts about the 37signals' blog. Let me rephrase it:

When I started my trucking company, it was a one-man venture. So, I only bought one truck, since that's the most I could drive myself at the same time. Buying a whole fleet of trucks would not have made sense.

Just because advice is correct doesn't mean it's useful. Something can be very correct and still very stupid.