skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Sometimes, while 'creating', it's less like trying to cast my visions onto some medium and more like an exploration. Sometimes it's more fruitful just to let myself be guided by my impulses, my abilities, and the medium. I don't know if it works for everyone, but it works for me. One might worry that I'm being commanded by the medium, but what I make seems to be original, anyway.

I actually prefer writing by pen. It's more fluid. And since things can't be easily rewritten, you give a bit of thought before you commit something, and are always driven forward.

Knuth et al. notes, in an article on technical writing (http://tex.loria.fr/typographie/mathwriting.pdf):

"Towards the end of the editing process you will need to ensure that you don't have a page break in the middle of a displayed formula. Often you'll simply have to think up something
else to say to fill up the page, thus pushing the displayed formula entirely onto the next page. Try to think of this as a stimulus to research!"

A pen sometimes functions in the same way. And if I find it's results undesirable, then I'll try not to think of it as a problem to fix, and rather as looking for a new medium to explore.
The thought that I might've misunderstood what you were trying to say did cross my mind while I was writing that second comment. :)

I agree with what you are saying. Erlang has some ugly corners, but all-in-all it's awesome, and it turned out awesome because its designers had practicality as the major design goal, and have used the language themselves extensively to solve real problems. Erlang's not even functional merely because Joe Armstrong liked FP; he made it functional because it made the language better suited to solve the problems it was meant to solve.
Ah, OK. I agree. So I guess his madness drove him to work instead.

Actually I live quite close to were Cantor worked. According to Google-Earth I would have to drive for 1h.
You can usually come up with a clever picture only after you understood the problem - not before.
Unfortunately, repeating an ill meme, particularly in a way that seems as if you are falling into the trap isn't particularly ironic or clever, it's just socially awkward.

I understand what you're going for, but it doesn't accomplish your goal, and it just continues a stereotype rather than working to create an environment that's conducive for discussion.
Well, imagine this rant where "RoR" would be replaced by "java", wouldn't you imagine being the author of the pamphlet ?

I'm frightened by such an uniform behavior in the YC community. By dismissing any dissenting point of view you kill diversity. I remind you that the next fad you (and I) will be trying to catch will be created by a guy bothered by the current state of things. Bothered enough to act (and reunite the "Tipping point" conditions).

This guy attack RoR, he's attacked personally as trying to sound smart. Have you ever criticized anything ?

(my karma will follow the Dow Jones today I think ....)
You don't sound like you have much to lose, but don't forget that most the people here have a bias towards starting startups vs keeping a steady comfortable position. Even if you do have a good idea, I think you should only really do your own startup if you think you are the type of person who can get it done without a lot of help or if you have confidence that you'll be able to get the help you need. You might want to try and find people who can help you (potential customers, investors, partners, etc) before making a final decision. If you find yourself having trouble getting people to help you early on, that should tell you something.
(Only) Hundreds of Layoffs Expected at Yahoo
Uhm... I actually wrote my programming language, Hecl, in Java. While there is a lot I don't like about Java, I still don't like the tone of these kinds of articles. I think after a while you can sniff them out - when they're really trying to point out some deficiencies, and when they're just going for a boost by putting stuff down.

At least that's my take on it. Slinging numbers like 100 and 0 is generally a sign of hyperbole.
yes, I think you should.
The Future of Science...Is Art?
Maybe there's a good reason why so many computer programmers are antisocial. Maybe it takes an antisocial person to devote the enormous amounts of time and effort required to write non-trivial programs.

Also, computer technology may make most people anti-social. Consider for example flamewars that would never take place off-line.
Another way of looking at it: "If a little is not enough for you, nothing is."

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/12/hedonist-philosopher-epicur...
While limitations of the medium may help you be more creative, it doesn't mean that the same holds for me or most other people for that matter.

If, for example, you can find a scientific study that demonstrates that people are more creative with a pen than a word processor, then I would be interested.

For me, one should strive for ideas that transcend the particulars of existing mediums. Such ideas are more likely to be influential in the long term.
20GB is too small. Make it more like 400GB after compression.
The Pirate Bay, Guilty Before Trial
Getting Rid of RDBMs
wow, didn't expect that to be good but it was. I like the bit where you are flying in the air with the mountain in the background :)
I don't know. I've had to take a lot of rigorous math, theory, and algorithms classes while trying to get a CS degree. Talking to friends at other universities, it seems to be the same story. I don't get the feeling like I'm a special case. Does this mean I'm a shitty programmer, or are there just a lot of crappy software developers? I just couldn't imagine getting a CS degree without knowing what a compiler was.
I agree instead of bitching about Rails, the guy should be writing about why Weblocks is so great - with more detail than: "because they actually stopped and thought about the whole thing for a moment, and try things that will address the problem as a whole"
Ask YC: Best languages/tools to use for graphics development?
I'm in pursuit of a CS degree and I'd like to go into graphics development after I graduate. Unfortunately my university only offers one graphics class (taught in java, learning openGL) and I get the feeling that I'm not learning as much as I can. What kind of languages, tools, technologies and etc should I be looking at to boost my experience?
Are you talking about subsidies in the US or in Europe?
yes because they cause consumers to stop spending and therefore these hedgefunds etc go with it. would you invest in a retailer if you were being told that there was a recession?
Hourly Rate calculator
I am came across this and found it really useful and I am already in business. Could help someone trying to work out how much they need to make per hour etc.
I understand that, and I normally am not the kind of person to say such things, but I thought it was rather meta-ironic, considering the xkcd comic...

edit: unless, of course, you were trying to be meta-ironic too...
The guide to a (mostly) paperless life
I don't get it. I don't design systems including databases, so I may not be qualified to speak (I've studied information system design a bit, though). What's wrong with relational theory and Codd normalization rules? It looks like a good way to organize data and keep it coherent. Just because it's 30+ years old isn't a reason to reject it!
What is yours?
I'm skiing at SnowBird at the moment and let me tell you: this is one of the true antidepressants. I sense even reading the RTFA could potentially be depressing. :-)

Take care of yourselves boys and girls.
Justin.tv is alllll python. Not Ruby. Python baby.
The older worker suggested that the young engineer check the core stack to see about a problem, but unfortunately, "he'd never heard of a core stack."

And when you're done with that check the bit overflow on the accumulator register.

"They taught Pascal because it seemed to be pedagogically the best choice," Dewar says.

Err, "seemed" to whom? Say what you want about Java, but the tendency of schools to use Pascal was pure brain-damage. And I find it hard to believe that NYU went straight from Pascal to Java with no C/C++ in between. That's scary.
I think it matters. A more diverse group of people will make the conversations more interesting. The same way that it is good to have hackers from many countries.
Browser bookmarks and their limitations
Nice. Seems to be a bit of a genre on youtube, here's a nicely done one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pxCUlvEkQDg&feature=related
My hypothesis: Happiness is a response your body gives you when you do something right. Because it's somewhat outdated, it rewards hunting, eating and mating than studying or doing a desk job. It's basically a way your genes judge how well you're doing their bidding, and it is often way off. I see it as a byproduct of achieving other, more worthwhile goals, and not something worth pursuing for its own sake. Your nucleus accumbens is an outdated, selfish judge of success that has too much control over your brain. It's a bad judge.

I ignore it as much as I can. Obviously, I run the risk of being unhappy. It's probably a bad decision, and I might have to give in eventually. I'll see how it goes.
What a terrible article. Leaving aside the grammar and spelling mistakes, the quote from Stonebraker is taken completely out of context (in the interview, he is talking about the architecture of systems for doing algorithmic trading, not relational databases in general: latency is indeed critical for algorithmic trading, but far less so for typical database applications and web apps). Then there are content-free statements like:

"This means you should be paying attention to your code quality, optimization ... There are built in limitations as dictated by clear and proven underlying mechanisms that prohibit current modern database and application technology from scaling much further."

More broadly, I don't agree with the idea that if something makes sense for the Amazons and Googles of the world, it should be adopted for run-of-the-mill web applications. Amazon and Google can afford to write tons of infrastructure from scratch and hand-tune it to match their performance and scalability requirements; the typical web app developer cannot, but then again, the typical web app has totally different requirements. Simply generalizing from the top end of the cost vs. scalability tradeoff downward doesn't make a lot of sense. Doing joins and referential integrity in the application layer has real costs -- discarding 30 years of technology overnight has real tradeoffs that the article doesn't even bother considering.

The article does have one redeeming feature: the linked-to interview with Stonebraker and Margo Seltzer is worth reading. http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1260000/1255430/p16-stanik.h...
This guy is trying to apply rails as a solution to the wrong problem space. No wonder he finds it wanting. Typical.

Rails is not a solution for: "create the most well engineered product possible."

Rails is a solution for: "solve this business problem with these limited resourced in this limited time frame as inexpensively as possible. Oh and we're not sure exactly what the business problem is, we'll need to see a few prototypes before we are able to figure it out."

The amazing thing about rails is not how good it is. The amazing thing is how much better it is than most solutions in spite of how bad it is.

Rails is a success because it was created by someone who has a real understanding of economics, business value, and resource limitations. Not because it's a brilliant piece of engineering.
I was expecting this to be a lot funnier. Optical disks? Is that the best they could come up with? Who uses optical disks on a daily basis?
Haha, VA on news.yc...

Most people who make generalizations about most people make mostly bad generalizations. {yes, the irony}. I agree that widespread depression is a social problem, but those anecdotes about "reason" amount to little. Mental disorders are overdiagnosed in USA, but "their lives suck"? Not that I dispute this entirely, but it's still quite a preposterous assumption.

If one can readily identify a reason for depression then they already fall into a different group of people than those who get depressed for no apparent reason. And this is the depression that induces one to think one's life sucks ,when it seemed fine the day, or hour, ago.
1) RailsSpace by Hartl and The Rails Way by Fernandez are the best books out there right now.

2) Right time, right place. Rails came out around the same time the second wave of web startups picked up.

Also the argument is that Rails allows a smaller team (or even just one person) to write more functionality in less time. Whether that's true or not for you may vary.
I'd say it does. Maybe not specifically to yc, but overall for the industry. Not that the prevalence of women is directly proportional to a given field's success, but it's like money: having more than someone else doesn't mean you're better, but if you don't have any at all, you're probably fucking up somewhere.
I plan to do this in June (moving home to SF after graduation). My video will show me getting laid in every state I visit. We'll see who gets more views.
And when you're done with that check the bit overflow on the accumulator register.

Hell, why stop there? Make sure he checks the dielectric breakdown voltages on the microprocessor mosfet gates the machine code is executing on. These youngins have it too easy these days.
(looking across my browser toolbar)

RescueTime! (Okay, I'm biased)
Versionate has really grown on me.
Wufoo is pretty neat, though I think the inability to have ranking questions ("rank the following features") is pretty painful.
Joost is pretty cool.

There are a couple of cool YC08 companies that I'm jazzed about but I can't talk about 'em yet!
cool, but I was really hoping for a cannonball run attempt...
I started to write a comment, but it got too long so I just blogged it.

How to quit your job and build a startup.

http://shelfmade.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/how-to-quit-your-j...
If you think a reality show sucks after watching most of an episode, would you watch the ending?

The child analogy isn't perfect. You can't just dump a child like you can dump a bad startup. I agree that many people underestimate how much you have to commit to your startup, but you there probably is a scenario in which it would be wise to give up. It's a lot easier to think of a scenario like this for a startup (pets.com) than it is for a kid (...?...).

The timeframes are different. 2 years is not that much time compared to the time it takes to raise a kid. But 2 years is a long time for a startup.
How to quit your job and build a startup
Dude, quit your job.
I think the implicit question is, do you care about your startup like it's your child or like it's an amusing reality show? Two years is a long time to watch a crappy reality show, but not a long time to nurture your child.
function DepressionDefined('name') {

//Lets make some equations!

//First lets define depression

var Depression = sad state of mind;

var Super = 10000000000000;

Super + Depression = "super sad state of mind";

//Now geek, special classification

var Geek = obsessive state of mind;

//Add them up...

var Suicide;

Depression + Geek = Super + Depression = Suicide;

//Call advanced functions

Suicide = Permanent solution to temporary problem('name');

//And that returns

Return Suicide;
}

Lets see the output

"NAME has committed suicide. SUICIDE is FAIL."
Excellent! Way better than mine.
amen, if you are coming at it with no other coding experience then I would think its a breaze. my main problem is when you start to dig you feel like alice in wonderland going down the rabit hole.
Early alpha version hacked - what do you think? - help fellow hackers
Hi,

We've just launched an early alpha version of our product.

http://www.endorseyou.com

The long term goal is to create an online trust and credibility network for people to find other credible people. This is just the very first cut of where we could go. So you could potentially ask for referrals for a home improvement person that your trust network has used or check references for someone who applied to a job position at your company or endorse your caterer who did a great job at your event using this tool.

Thoughts to help fellow hackers - what do you like or dislike about the idea, implementation and what would you add to this to make something like this useful? How do you find other credible people in real life?

Thank you.
I am looking forward to the next release, this one ain't great. MS MVC should go further than rails and will no doubt scale without much hassle. I wish they would just do a standard release of ruby.net in visual studio. yeah there is Ironruby but not the same as a fully supported release like C sharp, vb.net and J sharp.
i use them on a weekly basis: netflix
From Avi Bryant http://www.avibryant.com/2008/01/dont-panic.html: It's not perfect yet - there's no images, just text, and the parser is pretty basic and doesn't know about tables and stuff
TuneCore.com
Me wanna rail, HELP
Hey dudes, well im a huge tech, strartup fan, and wanna get in it, programming and all im interested in learning rails but dont have a lick of knowledge bout programing (none) any tips where i should start (books,sites,bla.)
Its the same with the news, comedy, movies, etc. Negativeness is edgier and seems more relevant. I think we are addicted to stress:
http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/the-dreaded-jungian-b...

When debating with people online, I have to be caustic and biting (although not too much) to be taken seriously.
I don't know if I buy that, either...is jwz anti-social? pmarca? pg? Joel (of on-software fame)?

My personal experience has been that the best programmers have a large personality overlap with the best visual artists and musicians. That's not necessarily well-adjusted (crazy intensity and burnout often go along for the ride), but it's not anti-social either...certainly, you can't very well argue that artistic careers are unappealing to women!

In any case, my gut instinct is that computer programmers tend to be anti-social, because anti-social people are drawn to careers that involve minimal human interaction. The computer gives anti-social tendencies room to grow, but I don't think it causes the problem.
www.gamedev.net - best graphics/game coding site on the net by far imo

Here is an outline of stuff you should know. It is game centric. I assume by graphics development you mean games, but this list applies to both anyways

- the class is good, the math learned will be important

+ your school most likely has a graduate graphics class as well. take it even though it might not count on your gpa

- know c++

- opengl is fine, make some sample apps in d3d also to get a feel for it

- Learn about engines. Most game programmers dont deal with the low level stuff anymore. Make a couple demo games using a popular engine. Torque is good.

- learn about shaders

- read siggraph papers and try to implement some of the techniques described therein

- The key thing that game companies want is experience making games. Make your own games and release them or contribute to existing open source games. This is by far the most important
Modded up for truthiness.

Funnily enough, I was reading my school report card the other day, and it was full of "inattentive", "lacks zest", "work patchy", and I thought, "Wow, I must have been really depressed."

And then I realized, I was 16 at the time, with bad acne, crappy grades, and a severe popularity problem.

No shit sherlock, my life really did suck. ;-)
When I finally did meet [Arrington], I was surprised. He was polite and complimented Uncov. I think he realizes that it's just the internet, [etc]

Yeah, he probably "realizes". Or, he doesn't think it's very smart to argue with a troll who is widely read by other trolls. Could be either way.
y dont you do a google cite search on yc for books and rails. all been covered already.
Kudos for trying hard to be even handed with a "you can't talk about it" subject. Difficult even on hacker news.
Do it. Dude, you're 23, have skills, qualifications and are presumably smart. If things don't pan out, you've got the rest of your life to sort yourself out (just don't take on too much debt!).

Now if you were nearing retirement, had no money and financial support, that'd be a different story.
In Europe. Any similarities to the situation in the US are accidental.
There is evidence that suggests otherwise. Specifically, people's happiness levels don't change much over their lives. After a major life event (death of someone close, marriage) happiness levels return back to normal after a year.
It would be nicer alright, but having used it for a while, I've found it doesn't make much difference. A Britannica edition used to last a decade; I can survive a few months without update.
Strong words based on little details about my assignments. Actually, I had them do both (hand code algorithms and solve problems much more substantial than sorting random floating numbers). You should find out more before you call me stupid.
Anyone read CS Lewis' Great Divorce?
Ask YC: Study theory, or keep coding?
So, I've been learning how to program, with Python last summer, and Django up until now, and I'm actually in the process of coding my first app in Django. One thing always comes to mind, though. Being a beginner without any academic education on CS, I feel that there are many theories and facets to CS to learn other than programming languages and their syntaxes, which will ultimately make me a much more skilled programmer.

I want to ultimately be a proficient web app coder, and at times I think about whether my attempts at creeping closer to this goal are futile without the proper launch pad. Are there any resources I should look into to give me a stronger foothold in CS and its theoretical foundations? Am I just talking gibberish? Or will continued practice in programming be sufficient?

Thanks.
Rare Snowfall in Silicon Valley
Lua has been on my "todo" list for a while. Looks like there's already a framework out there:

http://www.keplerproject.org
Is this Hacker News or Re-reddit?
Just curious.
It was something my boss did and I wasn't really involved in. As I understand it, though, it involved looking at NASDAQ Level 3 quotes (Level 3 basically gives you the full orderbook, so you have access to all limit orders placed on a certain security) and figuring out which stocks had the largest quantity for sale at a price near the current quote. It may also have had a statistical part to it too - that liquidity technically isn't hidden because it's visible for anyone who pays for L3 quotes, but you can then compare that to actual price movements after a certain quantity is traded, and then estimate what fraction of shares are visible in the order book as limit orders vs. what's sitting in computer algorithms ready to be placed as market orders if the price changes.
Much Funnier Macbook Air Parody
umm, thanks ill try it.
bug.gd -- big fan of 'collective wisdom' endeavors.
Some books to read:

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Object-Oriented-Addiso...

http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Existing-Addison...

http://www.artima.com/shop/forsale