skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Comcast adjusts way it manages internet traffic after reports of blocking BitTorrent
How to read email headers
An article I found about interpreting email header tags
people today have 100s of channels, nobody will pay you to watch your show

give it away and make money on ads

imo
No email OR plane ticket...

(remake of bad joke from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=136953)
And, for those unlucky ones that, for reasons well beyond the scope of this comment, won't be able to attend, would it be possible to have the presentations and any other materials recorded and published TED-style?
A friend of mine swears by Lispworks for its fast, easy, flawlessly multi-platform GUI builder. He says he loves the idea of the open source CLs but could never give up that GUI builder. He also says the price and license is better than Allegro's.
Some Interesting Aspects of Wikipedia Traffic
Poor simplegeek, again a victim of angry downvoters who don't understand emoticons!

I'm sure pg would love for US immigration policies to be reformed (can you imagine him licking his chops at getting access to all the world's hackers?), but that sounds like a hard problem that makes you stupid (like programming the Win32 API).
Why worry about predicting what the next major company will be? You are focusing on the wrong issue.

The thing you should be trying to identify is what are the major companies of today not doing quite right or not doing at all.

While there are a few examples of billion dollar companies being built upon already existing ideas, the market awards billions of dollars to those who destroy the reliance upon already existing technology.

A company that radically changes the way people do things for the better has a much higher probability of attaining billions in market cap than a company that comes along an provides perhaps a better user interface to an already existing service.
No problem about the downvotes ;) But I'm wondering how do they call themselves hackers if they don't understand emoticons ;)
Have you seen the less advanced version of those teleporters in the movie 'The Prestige'? Where you shocked about that?
Some good points there. When it comes to source code, I believe that it all boils down to how detail-oriented the programmer is, and the source code will be a reflection of that. Everything from formatting, white-spacing to method/variable names counts

I have come across places where a programmer chooses to name a variable "temp" rather than giving it a descriptive name, and that annoys the snot out of me. Even if it a temp (and which local variable isn't, in a language like Java) take the time to think about it and name it appropriately!

Some pointers that I use for maintaining source code readability -

1. Impose a formatting standard on the team (tools like Eclipse have built in formatters, and if that does not work, use a third party tool like Jalopy)

2. Code reviews should include code presentation style. This involves method/variable naming, ordering of arguments in methods [I swear, I have come across overloaded methods that have different ordering of arguments]. One trick I use a lot came out of Martin Fowler's Refactoring books, and its "Do not be afraid of one-line methods".

Going back to the example the article shows,

if (some_really_longgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg_condition &&
another_really_longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg_condition) {
handleIt();
}

I would rather do

if(isAppropriateInThisSituation()){
handleIt();
}

and encapsulate the long if inside isAppropriateInThisSituation. Self documenting, yes?

3. Small methods, please! Another rule of mine, try and keep the method short. I agree sometimes this is possible, but a lot of people write code as they think it out, and never go back to leverage reuse and improve readability. 9 of 10 times, you can and should.

4. Finally, use the tools that are provided. Eclipse has an optimize imports, format and cleanup source code functionality. Train yourself to run these before checking in files. You can even set up triggers within CI (like CruiceControl) to automatically format the code base on every delivery.

Again, a lot of this rant comes from the Java world. YMMV
Lost in the mail - A new postal probe can pinpoint hold-ups
That's cool and all, but now that they've achieved that I hope they focus on security. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/27/Gone-in-2-minutes-...)
_________ industry revenues will be a set size, regardless of the quality or type of _______ they release. Incentives to innovate will evaporate.

Yes. Fill in the blank - public education, health care, etc.
Vista SP1 fails to spark migration
Thanks for creating the wiki. Is there any plan to actually record this year’s event and add the video into this wiki?
I think that characterizing a company as a "C++ Startup" is a mistake.

The language doesn't matter.

Do they have crazy smart people? Are the problems interesting?

That's what matters.
Irish Confession and Nookie Green (CNSFW)
It took pressure from the FCC to get them to stop.

Their new plan does seem a nice one though. At the busier times of web traffic those using the most bandwidth will be throttled, not just the bittorrenters.
Is Apple good or evil?
How Are We Going To Make Money?
Table top scanning electron microscope
wow! i learned on an old-school Phillips 505 (piccy http://www.clf.bas.bg/sem505.htm) and boy, that thing sucked - but this? 60k down, no LN2, 40k mag, EDAX, stereo... sweeeeeet ;-)
given the US dollar - it's practically free! ;-)
I'm truly not trying to bail out SAP here, but doesn't WM have a little bit of accountability here? How could they purchase something that supposedly is designed for the Waste & Recycling industry and be so far off on their analysis of its fit? If I'm a talent scout for Playboy and I pay Judge Judy $20 million to pose because her husband said she was hot, shouldn't I question my decision capabilities?
TechCrunch DeadPooled My Company And All I Got Was This Lousy iPod Shuffle
The situation that you mentioned with the cod fits the "tragedy of the commons" scenario. Where property rights are hard to define, resources are over-extracted because there is no owner with the incentive to conserve.

I challenge you to name one resource with normal property rights that fits the "diagonal line/cliff" scenario. I know of none, although it appears to be the common wisdom of the internet at the moment.
Glass Bead Network launches (finally)
http://glassbead.net/

This is a social game played (for free) in a flash client. It's been 5+ years of nights-and-weekends bootstrapping (we did receive a few thousand dollars from one of our dads a couple of years ago, but that's all the funding we've got).

We (three founders) are mid-thirty-somethings with families. We feel pretty confident in the game itself--people who play it enjoy it and come back to play again.

What we're trying to figure out now is three-fold: a) how to get the "critical mass" of users we need so that something is always going on so when new users come to visit, there's someone for them to play, or at least a few games they can watch (and what is that number?). We've pretty much milked our family and friend connections at this point.

b) we'd love to have money so we could do it full time, market it, etc. but because we're so far along already (i.e., it's working) we're not sure whom to turn to (VCs, for example, aren't really interested because we don't need very much money). Do we just keep bootstrapping, or are there groups that fund people like us?

c) any feedback (we're looking for feedback mostly from anyone who's actually played it, but we'll consider anything really)?

We hope to be able to take subscriptions soon ("premium service" which would give you some minor advantages in the game, or at least a few more options, cash tournaments, blog, etc.) and we're considering having "sponsored" beads (beads are our playing pieces, which represent everything in the known universe--from Oreo cookies to apples to Darth Vader) as the primary revenue source someday.

We're holding a tournament tomorrow (Saturday, March 29) at 6p MDT if anyone wants to just come and watch (or play, of course).
SwellJoe, I checked your website and I like your web server administration tool. I think you need to partner with web hosting companies. I like to see http://slicehost.com offering this tool for their cutomers.
I really hate the music labels. Here's hoping online publishing (thefeelgood.com, amiestreet.com) puts them out of business before they can do too much damage to the legal institutions of this country.
I can see how having something industrial packaged for home or desktop use can change things. It happened with computing, desktop publishing, photography, and it's on it way with 3D printing. They're all things that allowed people to create things with a lower cost.

However, I'm currently having a hard time seeing how a desktop microscope will change things, because it's an observation tool, rather than a creation tool. Anyone else got a different perspective?

It'd be fun and interesting to explore, that's for sure. It certainly wouldn't be a creation tool, but maybe educational and inspirational to see the world of the very small, just as it's inspirational to see the world of the very big with microsoft's telescope.
Problem is we're way off being able to prescribe these things knowing with certainty that they'll work to our advantage. I'm saying that as a one-time biochemist and long-time pill pusher myself. Take selenium and prostate cancer. The picture is cloudy. A researcher in the field whose earlier work offered support for Se supplementation now wonders if it's such a good idea. Whatever Kurtzweil's taking, I hope it works for him.
I don’t know the details of the compiler, but the negation operator on int objects also has a corresponding method: `__neg__`

-1 == (1).__neg__()
good article, but I think it's already been posted.
This posting is a great example of something I should be able to vote down and delete from showing up next time I click on "new". What exactly does this have to do with startups? Absolutely nothing.
Well, did you buy Yahoo or Google stock in time and became an internet millionaire? If not, why not? Perhaps because you didn't predict their success? So why should we listen to you?

if you put your thoughts on the line, you risk being wrong sometimes. It doesn't invalidate all your other thoughts.
Dennis Howlett Bets $500 With Robert Scoble On Google’s Failure
Yes, I think Kurzweil's response would be that these things will be replaced in people with a condition that would be fatal if the original organs were left intact. Over time, people would be come more and more "cybernetic" as their natural parts failed and technology came up with "improved" replacements.
Go for Cisco. I did a part-time internship with them last semester and I had a blast. Lots of smart people - you'll definitely learn a lot.
I didn't even read this whole post all the way through, but I'll tell you that I have several friends who have interned at Cisco, and more who have taken full time jobs there for a time, and based on those sources, go to the startup.

Rogue Wave isn't a startup; they've been around since the early 90's.
I think it's obvious that the music industry is headed towards an "all you can eat" model to generate the bulk of revenue related to its recorded properties. Either this (doubtful) or a premium on your MP3 player (likely), or something else. What will be interesting is how this changes the way music gets marketed.

I actually don't see anything changing. Labels will simply push all their artists into 360 deals where the labels get money for not only their record sales but also everything else, touring, merchandise, etc. The incentive is still going to be there to promote acts that classically "sell" even if "sell" no longer includes record sales.
My choice would be RogueWave. There are truly C++ experts there - the kind you will have a tough time finding (in person) in other places. Also, there's a good chance (I suppose) that you'll get to work on core products at RogueWave. They make money on their C++ software; that's probably what you'll get to work on. That's very, very good.

Case in point about experts - I work for a huge defense contractor. I suspect that in terms of C++ expertise, I am in the top 5 or so out of at least 2000 engineers at my site. It's not that I'm so awesome, but just that C++ is just not what we do here. There are plenty of experts here on other topics, but there aren't many people I can really learn from here on the topics I care most about (not limited to C++, obviously). There are a few, and I latch onto them as fast as possible.

Ask yourself: are you going to be exposed to the rare experts in a field that interests you at Cisco? Possibly, but "web-based deployment Q/A system thing" sounds like internal IT-crud to me - and that's not Cisco's business. Also, ask yourself, "Self, will I be working on essential business products at Cisco"? Remember that Cisco is based in San Jose.

In other words, the two things to consider:

1. will you have unique access to experts in fields/topcis that you care about?

2. will you be working on the thing that the business is about? (i.e., if you work at a router company, you better be working on routers. If you work at a software company, you better be working on their prime software. if you work at Ford, you better be working on designing vehicles...you get the idea).

In response to a couple other comments:

Don't worry too terribly much if the problems seem interesting. Pay attention, of course - have a basic filter - but you're a student looking for an internship. Students looking for internships have no earthly idea what is truly interesting and what is not - learning what's interesting and what's not is part of what internship experience is about (e.g., my experience as a Microsoft intern in testing - SDET - clued me in to the fact that I don't want to be a "tester").

Good luck.
I'm curious about the number of applicants vs number accepted. Has the number of applicants gone up dramatically each year?
Fierce competition or world of opportunities?
Should life be easy? On the one hand it seems to me the world is an incredibly interesting place, and there are countless opportunities to explore. On the other hand, it turns out to be rather hard to make a living.

I just wonder if I am doing something wrong. Should life be more straightforward, in the sense that you just do what you enjoy and are successful with it? Do other people have a better instinct (inner guide)? Or am I completely mistaken, because news about success stories travels faster than the failures?
And as an extra bonus it's racist.
That was a great and interesting read. The more I read up on these guys like Shannon, Von Neumann, etc., the more I find they do all sorts of weird ass things, even if they're only really known for one thing.

I had heard of Shannon's juggling theorem, but never really knew he dabbled in wearable computers. Interestingly enough, he knew about degrees of separation in '60 before Milgram in '67.

How did you come across this? Were you looking for it in particular, or did you stumble across it looking for something else?
When a whole industry starts suing their customers on a regular basis you know they are in serious trouble.

There are so many alternative ways of making money, and I'm frankly amazed that the music industry hasn't even managed to implement one single money-making scheme. Apple clearly shows that it is possible - so they really have no excuse.

They should stop sobbing and get out there and compete in a market that is always changing and often brutal. That's what the rest of us have to do.
This post makes the good point that companies would have far better return if they look for ways to collect better input data rather than poring all the effort into getting minuscule improvements from the generic recommendation algorithms.
Has anyone not read most or parts of this yet?
Go Cisco, and seek out smart people to work with and learn from.

Guaranteed to find some, which is not the case with the startup.
AAPL experienced significant growth during that 2005-2008 stretch. Volatility comes with the growth. Anyone investing in AAPL during that time should have been buying with the intention to hold and realize the returns on the grwoth. My biggest regret with AAPL was not buying more of it when I got my first Powerbook is late 2003.

The 2008 decline was a factor of questions exponentially raised into panic (by the current economic conditions) about the iPod's sales growth as well as the iPhones ability to gain market share. Even with those questions, it's still a stock worth holding onto and buying more of. That stock dropping to 119 recently was an absolute joke. Once the stimulus checks start going out, iPhone apps take it to the next level, and the the 2nd gen. iPhone with 3G hits shelves, AAPL will be back around 200 -- probably sometime in July.
Naming them is at a minimum bad form.
Justin.tv will be streaming the whole event live (which means everything will also be archived).
I think of this similarly to cloning.

Anyone egocentric and arrogant enough to think "what the world really needs is another, identical copy of me" should be prohibited from doing so on principle.

For the case of AI/robotic duplicates, make that "what the world really needs is another, identical, immortal copy of me."
He mentioned that you can find it by finding the online archive of This American Life and playing an early episode... perhaps even Episode 1.

Don't let me make you feel guilty for being too lazy to do this... because I haven't bothered to do it myself yet. :)

I doubt that it matters too much what he did. What one chooses to do is intensely personal. I think that "getting you thinking" really is the whole point.
I'll throw in a good word here for AmieStreet.com. I've been on there for about 3 months and I'm loving it.
Hackers target online porn ban
I got the invite this morning!
It's certainly a lot better than the result I got when I was told by KeyBank that I was being laid off: "Here's your HR rep. She will work with you to help you find placement within another department."

Little did I know that "She will work with you," means she will never contact you and thus you will be forced to move halfway across the country to find a job that is nowhere near what you used to do. She sure did manage to help me find work in another department, albeit at a different company.
I'm curious - has YC ever thought about doing startup school in other locations? I'd love to do startup school (just like I'd love to apply to YC), but a startup school here in Dallas would be more beneficial to me because it would attract others like me from my area. Maybe YC could incubate an incubator for DFW :-)
6 Tips for affiliate managers
Affiliate behavior is one of the most important elements in affiliate business according to this article. An article about affiliate typology, control panels, add-ons for performance.
Loopt Embraced by Verizon; Starts to Spread Its Mobile Wings
Meeting frustration, chaos and despair head on. And loving it.
life is hard and success stories travel faster than failure. failure is common, success is not. most people don't enjoy what they do. most people aren't successful.

however, making life successful/enjoyable/etc. isn't terribly difficult, it just requires time, smarts, and effort to make it happen. most people don't want to, don't realize they can, or are stuck in situations where they can't devote any of those things to improving their life.

edited to add:
i never really answered the "question". due to the things that i mentioned previously, life is in fact full of opportunity. most people don't rise up to take or make a lot of the opportunities that are out there floating around.
"Success is the process of living your life working toward worthy goals. And here is the brain tweak: once you reach your goals, you are no longer a success! You must set new goals!...Success is not being debt-free, having cars, going on vacations or buying expensive toys.

Success is living your life working toward worthy goals. If you are sincerely and diligently working your business on a consistent weekly basis, and you have your reasons for doing the business in front of you daily, then you are a success!"

It is very easy to default to a routine of doing the same thing every day (same route to work, same post-work routine). I think that is the challenge - to make more use of your time, to not confuse activity/being busy with productivity/effectiveness
Craigslist has long failed to properly implement international sites. In the TOKYO JAPAN site any search returns results all over both Japan and the US, suggesting their backend doesn't have any concept of the various regions as being separate.
It sounds like this year's Startup School is going to be active beyond the main event (the speakers) and going to be more of a Startup School Weekend. Excellent!
Europe's largest venture capital investor, 3i Group, has pulled out of venture capital investing
Dojo 1.1 Released
Composing DSLs in JavaScript
I tried profiling these two functions:

import cProfile

def flipbits():
c=0
for i in range(1,400000):
b=~i
c=c+b
print c

def negnums():
c=0
for i in range(1,400000):
b=-i
c=c+b
print c

cProfile.run("flipbits()")

140 function calls in 0.175 CPU seconds

cProfile.run("negnums()")

140 function calls in 0.176 CPU seconds

---

Summary:

Flipping bits is tiny bit faster actually.To make negnums function produce the same result as flipbits, we need to change b=-i to b=-i-1 and this is even slower. Poke holes in my experiment please.
I was under the impression that Python will do constant folding when it compiles to bytecode. In that case, shouldn't "~0" be exactly as fast as "-1" at runtime?
Life at a Silicon Valley Startup: PBwiki
Optimizing Page Loading in Safari
I wonder if bootstrapping a game community can be accomplished with Amazon's mechanical turk?

You'd probably want a tiny game change to keep the turks from playing each other, and to only bring in a turk if there is not a suitable real player.
jwz on how X11 does copy/paste: X Selections, X Cut Buffers, and Emacs Kill Rings
It would be fine for them to argue that it's implausible, just as it would almost make sense to say "I don't see how smallpox could be cured. So I intend to rot to death." But the argument I was responding to was, basically, "I accept that it could be possible to cure smallpox, but the idea of not dying that way is repulsive to me."
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html

All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax

Kids today never know who they are criticizing.
FEI also has created one of these:

http://www.phenomworld.com/
Steve Jobs brings unimaginable joy to one MacBook Pro owner
Jed Code
Parallelism: The New New Thing
Doing the Right Thing Sometimes Has Measurable Business Benefit
your have to improve your website design.

when i go to http://glassbead.net, i must see the game board.
also, you should not require the player to register before playing.
It worked. Received my email at 6:02 a.m. Pacific Time. Now if only they could add time of day to the request.
Yes, the Omnisios are doing this.
Innovation Works Launches AlphaLab: Pittsburgh based Y Combinator like funding
I wouldn't call your first point a problem. There are plenty of voracious newshounds out there that are collectively scraping all available news sites clean and originating these link posts and chain emails. That's why the phenomenon exists.

As for the echo chamber, this problem is nothing new. Traditional media copy ideas from each other with less self-examination than the blogosphere, which is unabashedly divided into two camps carefully scrutinizing each other for any inaccuracy to pounce on, and they (Reuters and AP especially) frequently screw up stories that are outside the core competencies of the vast majority of journalists, like science.

It's the responsibility of Obama and his supporters to dispel misconceptions about him, as it ever was, and I'm sure he and they know full well how to do it.