skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This article made me give Zoho a try. We use Google Apps/37Signals, but wanted to kick the tires and see what's up at Zoho.

First impression is that they need UI polish, but overall the individual Zoho apps are astonishingly fast. I don't know how they'll hold up after loading data into them, but try out some of the Zoho Business apps in Chrome on OS X (use your OpenID so you don't have to sign in).

Is it just me? Performance seems so amazingly fast for just clicking around that I want to do a side-by-side benchmark with Selenium and some real data just to make sure my eyes aren't deceiving me.
Did you look at the company mentioned in the article, Rapleaf?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapleaf

http://www.rapleaf.com/offers/free_screening

While they don't come out and specifically say they offer credit screening services, it's certainly a short jump from what they do advertise.

Fake edit: In fact, I'm wrong, they do advertise it. Rapleaf directly links to a similar story from November:

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/lucas-conley/advertising-bra...
I think you're underestimating the power of an engineer to royally screw things up with excessive and inappropriate honesty! I forget the relevant Dilbert cartoon ... :-)

In any case; if you ask, the worst they can do is lie and say "it's all good." Then use the metadata surrounding their replies to the "most/least proud" questions to figure out if this sounds reasonable. Are they proud of a sizeable chunk of functionality, or just the user avatar widget indexing? Do they seem reticent about either reply? Ask them "why's that?" to each reply. Do they seem to have difficulty choosing their most/least-proud part? Is that because there're too many options, or too few? :-)

Perhaps ask them (before the "codebase state" question) about something you /know/ isn't 100% in the company. People complain about stuff they shouldn't, online: use the googles to your advantage and find out what things might be a good litmus test for their co-workers' honesty.

My 2 €-cents
"our governments have an obligation to investigate each and every threat that's made, even jokingly on Twitter."

No they don't. They have an obligation to investigate legitimate things.
Trailhead: E. O. Wilson's Short Story. About Ants.
What's another name for a manager who meticulously checks all the code that his or her charges are producing because they're still in a position to understand it? A micromanager :-)
Top 300 apps make $700-$1000/day, so what they're seeing isn't at all outside the norm for folks with reasonably popular apps. #1 Books = #260 overall, as a reference point.
You certainly should take an algorithm class (better yet, two) and/or work through -- including the homework problems -- two to three algorithm text books (I highly suggest Knuth's TAOCP, CLRS and Steve Kiena's Algorithm Design Manual). However, after that, you will:

* Become more aware of the shortcomings of your knowledge of algorithms (both directly -- algorithms which you don't yet know/understand and indirectly -- algorithms which don't yet exist). That's a huge benefit.

* Learn a bit the analysis of algorithms and how to prove an algorithm correct

* Learn a bit about algorithm design

* Most importantly, you will learn about classes of problems, classes of algorithms and several implementations of these classes of algorithms. You will be able to reason from "real world problem" to "falls under these classes of problems" to "solvable by these algorithms" and then apply an instance of an algorithm to the problem.

You will not become an algorist (that would take its own ten years), nor will you become a programmer. It will certainly help you become a programmer, but there's more to programming than algorithms.

That being said, there's a path to be crossed. At one stage one thinks that writing graphical demos in assembly or (depending on the decade) web apps backed by databases is the "golden nugget" of programming. Then there's the road through learning algorithms, data structures and non-imperative programming languages, which is culminates in writing your own compiler (or any other project which requires a great deal of coding and puts together data structures, algorithms, hardware/OS knowledge, theoretical CS knowledge e.g. automata and language theory). There's a lot more that follows until one becomes a great programmer, but I can't tell you what those "milestones" are, as I am not there yet.
The Sustainability of Paywalls
Their worlds apart though, enterprise would be bringing in a lot of the money on Office, they'd want something they can roll out and only periodically patch, they want something they can rely upon from day one.

Chrome is a free product that already achieves it's main aims, if chrome was a $200 browser or something I'd imagine it would have to conform to the big release idea to.
When intelligent people make poor decisions
"... After a year at Microsoft, around 1995, I became a program manager on the Internet Explorer web browser project. I was paid well to lead smart people in the making of software used by millions of people. ..."

The history and lineage of IE goes something like this:

- Andreessen/Bina created Mosaic in '92 at NCSA, released it with liberal licensing but publicly funded under act Al Gore introduced ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Performance_Computing_and_...

- Andreessen left to create Mozilla with jzw ~ http://www.jwz.org/hacks/ at Netscape.

- Eric Sink worked on the UI/NCSA commercially released source code ~ http://www.ericsink.com/Browser_Wars.html patched the code for Spyglass.

- Scott Berkun responsible for MS purchased Spyglass browser.

Glad Scott now makes up for the crap IE browser, MS forced it's users to dogfood for so many years.
well, it's easy in the UK, you basically accomplish it with "<h1>Yes</h1>" ;)
BTW, I didn't downvote until his comment was briefly at +2; it wasn't a bad comment, just a vague/rhetorical/possibly-paranoid comment I wouldn't want to encourage.

If he had clarified that he was wondering why it hadn't gotten more coverage, I would have pointed out I remembered a bunch of coverage a few years ago -- coverage that even yielded a Wikipedia article, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_missing_tapes>, with a 3+ year edit history.

Instead, he seemed genuinely interested in why someone would have disliked his comment, so I gave a likely answer.
neither of your points matters if you believe his assertion that (roughly) the 1000th most popular iPhone app generates 5x the revenue of the 100th most popular Mac shareware app.
He never made a threat, he made a joke.

One that you may think in poor taste but I thought it was well within the acceptable. Blow up an airport because they don't have their planes landing on time ? Sounds very realistic to me.

We've had a guy executed because of these overzealous clowns http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

I think to investigate is fine, to arrest is way across the line. If these guys can't tell the difference between a legitimate threat and a bloody joke then we have other problems than terrorism.

I'm mad enough about this to write about it in a way that I possibly shouldn't but I am seriously past caring:

http://jacquesmattheij.com/I+am+a++terrorist%2C+and+so+are+y...

Let's see who is brave enough to turn me in.
Caribbean at risk of more large earthquakes
Articles lacking a last-modified date are annoying as well—'About' pages are a classic case in point.
> It's been 9.5 years since that first programming job, and it still feels like I have a really long way to go before I'm actually a world-class programmer.

It's interesting how as we get more experience, we become a more aware of the shortcomings of our knowledge and skill. It's been ~9.5 years for me as well (took an systems/ops job that involved a great deal of programming in Nov 2000 as a junior in HS, was "writing code" before that) and I'm only now learning how much more there is for me to learn.
I wish it was even better integrated. For example all fake "short-links", gcc.exe being "<cygwin>gcc-SomeVer.exe" for example really drive me nuts. I know hard-links is not the solution, but someday I'm thinking of writing an app, that runs after Cygwin setup.exe and makes all these weird short links to NTFS hard links.

It drives me nuts, cause I can't use a lot of these apps from CMD.EXE, FAR.EXE, etc. I guess I'll end up with "gcc" "gcc.exe" "gcc-SomeVer.exe" all pointing to the same NTFS file.
Chess Intuition and Computer AI
So many visitors and still nobody who steps forward and offers to benchmark on a machine with 4+ cores...
OnPoint has some of the most interesting topics and guests of any show I've ever listened to and the discussion is notoriously civil. Also today's episode looks interesting: "Google v. China" http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/01/google-vs-china
I would think you'd have to offer 200K to get anyone any good to go.
If you don't date at work, it also sucks (romance, not time)

:D In all seriousness, people spend a ridiculous % of their lives at work, sometimes it happens, and sometimes it works out!
It depends how well glued solid it is.

Ever since I read about these a few years ago I got into the habit of pushing and trying to move around parts of the ATM, like windows, the card reader, brochure boxes, etc to see if they can come off.

Also, inspect by touch for places where a camera or stray wire could hide, that are out of view, under perhaps a display sign, brochure box, on the upper part of the keypad that might be hidden from view.

Also, use other hand to cover up fingers when entering pin.
If you don't have an online presence, it must mean you have something to hide...
Ask HN: Please review our web application (http://thecadmus.com)
Cadmus - http://thecadmus.com

What is it?

Cadmus is a real time service that manages your stream (Twitter, FriendFeed and RSS) by displaying the most relevant content since the last time you checked in. It helps you get caught up on what you have missed. We track trending conversations between your friends and so you can easily see what your friends have been talking about recently.

Who are we targeting?

People that want to get the most out social media services but don't have the time to stay on it all day.

We would love to get the thoughts of the HN community on our service. It is easy to sign in and it takes a few minutes to process your initial set of updates.

More info about how we find top content: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2009/12/cadmus-keeping-you-updated/.

And about the Trending Conversations feature: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2010/01/cadmus-gets-trendy/.
I've read programming clojure and I found it very good. I also liked the videos on http://clojure.blip.tv/ and also I bought the peepcode screencast with an intro on clojure. It's pretty good: http://peepcode.com/products/functional-programming-with-clo...

This one is free and well worth the look:
http://www.bestinclass.dk/index.php/2009/12/clojure-101-gett...
Clickable links:

Site: http://thecadmus.com

More info about how we find top content: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2009/12/cadmus-keeping-yo....

And about the Trending Conversations feature: http://blog.anomalyinnovations.com/2010/01/cadmus-gets-trend....
On a related note update the copyright date on your websites to 2010! I updated ours at JTV on Friday, Youtube is so 2009 :-)
I do the same thing, people look at me like I'm crazy.
If you look at their "products":

http://www.rapleaf.com/products

They're basically a data-mining company...
"... The revelation of the loss only came two years ago. Dr O'Brien says there is no indication as to when exactly the tapes were lost, but he guesses that it was "way, way back". When Dr O'Brien learnt of the tape loss, he was contacted by Guy Holmes from data recovery company SpectrumData, who offered to try and get hold of the information. Mr Holmes has kept the tapes in a climate-controlled room since then, and it was only when he stumbled upon a 1960s IBM729 Mark 5 tape drive at the Australian Computer Museum Society that his company had the ability to unlock the information. ..."

A more detailed article here, "Fridge-sized tape recorder could crack lunar mysteries", ABC News, Nic MacBean ~ http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/10/2415393.htm There is a point made in the article by Dr. Harrison (Jack) Schmitt - last astronaut on the moon - that the "dust detector" data collected by Dr. O'Brian is the most significant environmental problem that has to be investigated. Finding the vision tapes while historically significant isn't as important as the data for future missions.
Congrats. Looks like a great game - I look forward to giving it a spin.
Yelp takes aim at Foursquare, adds check in support.
Vote For Your Favorite RackSpace Cloud User Created Video
Well, people ARE trying. :)

Here's an article from Billboard: http://bit.ly/7qevgk

The concept was very interesting but unfortunately it had a lot going against it, which is why Jake got out of the music industry.

Jake didn't really know all that much about the music industry... he didn't know promoters, or booking agencies... having these connections are still very important, just like in any industry.

Also, Francis and the Lights are incredibly idiosyncratic and would rather not deal with the industry on any terms other than their own... which doesn't make for the best business partnership.

Independent labels still fulfill this role.. to an extent. What they are mainly lacking in is capital and a way to recoup, as bands do not sign contract for anything other recording.

It would seem that a company with the right contacts in the music industry, a good amount of capital to invest, and an all encompassing approach to the artists income would have a shot at becoming profitable.

There is most definitely money to be made from music, but understanding the intricacies of the this new marketplace are more complicated than most people are willing to admit to themselves.

Disclaimer: Jake and I have been good friends since college.
Not entirely a fair comparison. It's comparing shareware apps to the entire iPhone market. I'd venture to guess that nobody would call anything put out by Microsoft, Adobe, EA, or hundreds of other companies shareware, but those same companies are all in the same iPhone market.
Hint: I submitted WhySpam.Me
I can swear some ancient version of Cygwin did employ NTFS links. I am not sure when that changed - I haven't used Windows for a good couple years since the time I think I saw that.
The slogan of the site should be 'marketingy'. You think people who are looking for advice on "how to climb to corporate ladder" wanna watch videos of entrepreneurs? Their slogan is much more exciting than "learn how to be a better boss".

I would even drop the 'is' and change it to "MeetTheBoss TV - where future leaders learn". That way "where future leaders learn" can be a standalone.
Steam is a tough comparison, as it targets hardcore gamers who are typically insatiable for new releases. What happens with standard apps? Some Mac user or shop buys the 4 or 5 apps they need and then ... nothing. A Mac app store would be great for visibility, updates, etc. But it doesn't seem like a very profitable venture.
Solid color desktop causes 30-second delay in Windows 7 Startup Time
Compare to Eliott Madison's arrest for tweeting information about the police movements during the illegal police assault during the Pittsburgh G20 summit. His obviously unconstitutional charges were withdrawn.

Conclusion: Twitter is good for protesting in Iran, bad for protesting in the USA.

http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/united-states-v-madison
I feel the same way as the auther. It drives me nuts when I'm reading something and I don't know the time context it was written in.
Decimated: What if Napoleon hadn’t abolished decimal time?
They are still alive and in-use. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_(satellite) )
China: The monitoring of Mobile SMS
And tonight they're gonna party like it's 1984.
I wonder if there's a risk that some random bank security reviewer would consider this to be tampering.
Agreed. I had some problems long ago that may have burned me a little. It was pointed out that should be no problem most of the time.

But why did you call it "GNU Autocrap build system"?
Apple invites press to 'latest creation'
Chrome got out of beta before GMail because Chrome has a bunch of OEM deals. I don't know the terms of those deals, but I imagine there's money changing hands, and that they are of strategic importance both for the OEMs and for Google:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10106174-62.html

There's some resistance to using auto-updating software in enterprises simply because it's not the way things have traditionally been done, but IT departments are warming up to it. The huge pain of doing a major upgrade and the constant security fiascos that come from using software that's 5 years out of date are a major incentive for departments to switch to a model where individual changes can be canaried and tested in isolation before bringing down the whole enterprise. Google Docs is certainly having some measure of success in the enterprise arena, despite being a webapp with this development model. And outside of Google, Salesforce.com has revolutionized their market with a webservice-based enterprise app.
How do you get motivated?
Now I want to display a random date to each viewer of my blog, and record that date when they make a comment. Then I will see if the commentary changes based on the date they think the article was published. (The dates on the comments will also be changed randomly.)
I'd hire him. It's easy to forget now how completely IE pwned Netscape in 1995-2002. They won by being better. I was a die-hard Netscape loyalist and Microsoft hater. I finally switched in 2000 because Microsoft's offering worked and Netscape's didn't, and I couldn't ignore that anymore.

The fact that Chrome and Firefox are simply better than IE now doesn't change that. People should be evaluated by how well they did with the technology and resources available at the time they did the work, and not by how badly their employer fucked things up after they left.
It's a waste of space to have everything installed.

There is no such thing. A 1.5TB disk is around $100.
No sweat. I've just read a lot about women's issues over the years and I think it very often gets short shrift. Even if women are 'more arrogant and self aggrandizing' or 'better at overcoming impostor syndrome'...or whatever the issue is here... That whole baby-bearing thing tends to trip them up. I've been close to some women who didn't initially have any particular plans to settle down and have kids and were all too happy to pursue life in a man's world on the terms offered. They did very well -- until they had a baby. Then it all came crashing down and they wound up enormously frustrated with their lives and bewildered at their inability to escape the fate of so many women that they thought for a time they had already escaped.

In contrast, European women have generally faired better than American women. Historically, they didn't fight for "rights". Instead, they worked for support and assistance for the burden of bearing and raising their kids. Getting that has allowed women in some European countries to close the wage gap to some extent and to do a better job of balancing career and family. They also generally have more family support and lower divorce rates. The typical historical American attitude of "Don't tread on me" (and the general F... You attitude that goes with it) works okay until you have a baby and then need community support of some sort. Then bitchy positions about not needing a man (or anyone else) suddenly don't work so well.

Um, I'll just stop here. Consider it a pet topic of mine. Okay? :)
I would love to know what causes this... I guess they'll never tell.
Underestimating my project work
In Germany, a tradition falls and women rise
Why Talking to Yourself Might be The Highest Form of Intelligence
I completely agree and I can't help but think that it relates to "The Last Responsible Moment" approach to decision making where delay = more current data, so if an article has no date, its value is seriously suspect.
Yet another parallel between programming and musicianship... :)

I think any musician knows where to go to get their guitar fixed or where to find a rehearsal space. Those sorts of things are pre-requisites to having any sort of future in the industry.

By "Music 2.0" I'm referring to any number of articles related to music having to be free, being a loss-leader for t-shirt sales, etc... in these people's minds, bands form out of the ether and well-recorded albums rain from the heavens above!

Businesses involved in the digital commodification of music need to have a firm understanding of how music is made and performed in order to have any measure of success.
Same thing applies to tutorials which don't mention version numbers and such...
There are no 100% safe investments. But if you want to take the time to educate yourself on one of them, you can do well. Real estate is my preference over stocks.

But if not, an ING direct savings account is a good start.

And talk to rich people, to see what they are doing.
"China has denied any role in the hacking attacks, which began on December 15 and also targeted US defence contractors and finance and technology companies, including Google. 'Hacking in whatever form is prohibited by law in China,' said Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman."

So we can assume China will spare no effort in helping to track down the real hackers?
Not true. Why is it then ignored or overlooked in virtually all the accounts of African history written by Europeans or Arabs? The true and sad fact is that both Europeans and Arabs, in accordance with with their racist stereotypes of Black Africans, had and still have no interest in legitimizing an intellectual written traditions that is not theirs, particularly of Black Africa. I suggest that you dig deeper beyond the superficial financial issues you raised.
> Google really needs to focus on building out the user experience so that average users can pickup the phone and don't want to put it down.

I think it's pretty clear that this is what Google itself is focusing on. The built in apps are, by most accounts, pretty slick.

Additionally, while people might not be clamoring for "multitasking" by name, they do want features like "my X program keeps working while I check the web", etc., so that's a bit off. I guess what's lacking for that to be an Android strength, is the 3rd party app that you absolutely positively want running in the BG.
I'm with you on wanting the full info. Though to be fair, you also really need to know humidity and wind to make the decision.
That scared the shit out of me, because I'm a Citibank customer, and I live in Woodland Hills. In fact, I just noticed that they just put a giant opaque enclosure around their ATMs for privacy recently, wonder if this is why.

OC, luckily, I never actually use the Citi ATMs, thank god.
If you know one more trick than everyone else, the best strategy is often to explain all the common tricks to the general public...

Then you are the only magician in town with real magic.