skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There's a small caveat though. It may have been a clearly good choice to go to Google in early to mid 2000s, but since then there's already an incredible amount of legacy code written supporting business critical functions at Google. This isn't a criticism of Google at all, but it is a limitation on the new things you could do at Google or any other company with legacy systems. Working at Google doesn't free you from the responsibility (not just to yourself, but to the people using your work), as an engineer, to learn on your own what you aren't learning at your workplace.

That being said, I have incredible respect for Google for being a few engineering/science driven Internet companies out there, which respects great hackers and beautiful, quality code. Most Internet companies (including many startups, with few great exceptions) are solving social, rather than scientific or technical problems and treat developers the same way Google treats servers (as a commodity, where the ability to replace them quickly -- and make do if they're unavailable -- is more important than their quality).
How Christian Were the Founders?
Possibly these people liked their idea enough and though they could make a lot more going it alone, now they like the idea of Google support in perusing continuing to peruse their idea.

Just a guess really, but what they are doing now make be considerably more exciting than what they were doing at Google previously.
Just out of curiosity, what is it that gives you such suspicion of Palm's motives for WebOS? A close friend of mine bought a Pre near launch and while he doesn't like the hardware much at all seven months later, he agrees the platform has a bright future ahead of it.
Or San Francisco, or Tokyo...
Mmmm.... fred steak. Ping me via email and let me know where you want it sent :)
I know I shouldn't, but this organic thing makes me worry that one day my working image could develop some kind of disease ;-)
Alexander McQueen, Designer, Is Dead at 40
I consider him as someone who hacked the fashion industry by challenging the limits and norms. This is someone who dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue an his dreams, sold a company and influenced millions. He committed suicide today.

I think his Wikipedia is worth reading.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_mcqueen

News article: http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/fashion/12mcqueen.html

Youtube video of some of his genius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reK0A1XIjKA
A generic catchall for OS level crap that multi-core requires. Interrupts / memory management / ... other stuff.... I'm only really aware that there's overhead, and not the specifics of what it ends up being.
I'm curious as to why people should feel 'conned'; certainly there's the iTunes sync issue that was never resolved but that can't really be the entirety of your complaint?

I have a Palm Pre and like it, but I may be missing something as I didn't run out to get one at launch...
This solar cell has a "conversion efficiency of 9.6 percent, which is 40 percent higher than previous attempts to create a solar cell made of similar materials."

Current solar cells have approximately 20 percent efficiency. Unless this solar cell is extremely cheap, I think this is a long way from practicality.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/PVeff%28r... - graph of best research cell efficiencies

EDIT: "The researchers estimate that if the technology can be taken beyond its basic state right now and achieve 12 percent efficiency, it could be an economically viable alternative to current products." - from CNET news http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10451641-54.html
This is so scary, and in my opinion the real problem with America's future. History tends to repeat itself. What's next the burning of our libraries, the destruction of our Science Journals?

My Father summed it best in a recent conversation when he said "Your Science." IMHO, this is the sort of mind-frame that will ultimately lead to this country's downfall.
Prius owners blame wild rides on cruise control
Keep your 20-sided dice, I have D&D on the Surface
Including Steve Jobs (although I'm not sure on the number of years for him)
Google Buzz, Social Norms and Privacy
And my point was - it's not passive income.
He's referring to Balkanization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization
Thanks for the reply, found the book.

> As far as aromatics go, cooking sous vide works on the same principal as cooking in a pouch.

Ahh, now it suddenly clicks for me. Too bad about the garlic.
The startup has received funding following its time in Y Combinator.
Interestingly (and probably somewhat obviously), this lines up very well with Moore's Crossing the Chasm. The company in the example assumed that their innovators (the friends/family and references of board members) would be representative of their early adopters, and possibly even the early majority. It seems to me that they fell into the crack between innovators and early adopters, without even reaching the chasm.
What I mean is not "physical room for people," it's "exploited versus un-exploited resources." It's not as if we're running out of room for farming -- and even if we were, it's not as if we're managing the oceans in anything that vaguely resembles a serious, competent fashion. Earth is much larger than we tend to think, and much more empty (remember how if the population of the Netherlands lived at New York density, everyone in the country would fit in the "dongle" of southern Limburg that borders on Belgium). In other words, we can afford to worry about more urgent things -- torture, for example. (Not just American; how about the Uzbek dictator who boils prisoners alive, or of course the Chinese?)

Additionally, there may be a difference in my values relative to yours: I believe that people are intrinsically valuable, and that therefore it is better to have more people in the world than fewer people in the world, all other things being equal.
One problem with Facebook for me is that I ignore it for long periods of time. I would rather be a bit more responsive there, but I forget to check it and ignore the emails I get. Putting it in my face like this might actually be a welcome thing in the end, even if it seems somewhat annoying at first.
Exactly. I was actually really offended by this aspect of Buzz. Every other social network has had to gain user trust over time with years of community building and google just decides it can skip over that process by forcing it into gmail. Really rubbed me the wrong way, I switched it off 5 mins in
Better User Experience With Storytelling
LANKansas
That is Part II of the series. You can find Part I here - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/29/better-user-exper...
It depends on the quality of speech you need and your audience. Usually, I don't, but that's because of the standards I set for myself. :) (Then again, I haven't done a major speech in a while)
How we got into the Wall Street Journal (and how you can too)
Innovators dilemma. If the banks want to adopt it then cool, if not more opportunities for innovators.

The regulators though are the real issue, but we have some ideas for dealing with them as well.
We are the premiere tech and gaming convention in the mid-west! Located in Wichita, KS we offer an event for gamers and tech enthusiasts alike! A 2 day event features a massive BYOC, PC and XBOX tournaments, and a host of exhibitors and vendors.
The best we can do is usually not the goal. Good enough is the goal.

People look at great products and say that sentiment isn't true, but you always have to release. Take the first iPhone. When it came to feature checklists, it was embarrassed by every competitor out there. It nailed the interface though, and that was Apple's definition of "good enough". The shipped, took the industry by storm, and have since added most of those checklist features that everybody thought they needed in the first place.
Oh, my goodness. I've been looking for something like this for a long time.

Thank you HN!
Is efficiency really the #1 criterion for practicality? I thought cost (per watt) was.
I'm not sure what "old school PHP" is, since I'm only 3 years in the industry. But what I can tell you, is that when I learned OOP - first in AS3, and then in PHP - I was able to pick up other languages MUCH quicker.

I'm not entirely certain, but I can't think of a single disadvantage to learning OOP. I'd actually be interested to know if there where some.

I'd also add.. Learning PHP as a first language slowed me down a bit when exploring other languages. PHP is very forgiving. If you're just learning to learn.. Maybe you should consider starting with a language that's much more strict; Python or Perl in my case. This way you focus on the concepts instead of the practices. PHP is one of those.. "more than one way to skin a cat" languages. Or at least more than most (from my experience).
He didn't say it wasn't.
On consumption of meat and fish: Americans overconsume meat anyways, IMHO, and the oceans at present are _severely_ depleted due to the use of trawler fishing and the complete disinterest of the world in responsible management of the oceans. I doubt that this would remain the case with better management -- although I neither have statistics in either direction here, nor have a lively interest in maintaining them.

On non-renewable resources: fish populations I mentioned above; forests are renewable by definition, being made up of plants capable of reproduction -- although there's a huge gulf between responsible forestry and slash-and-burn farming. If pure water was a non-renewable resource, the purity of the world's water supplies would not be capable of going up, only down; but water purity in the United States has increased since industries stopped dumping pollutants indiscriminately, and since the discontinuing of, for example, DDT use, so pure water is not a non-renewable resource.

Therefore, and continuing my point about uncultivated lands, unmanaged oceans, and starvation due to political and not economic problems, I do not see any reason to believe that we are at or close to the planet's carrying capacity.

Let me also add that oil is probably not biological in origin (otherwise, how could depleted oil reserves occasionally refill spontaneously?), and that it has no ecological role that I'm aware of to begin with, given that it's generally rather far underneath the biosphere.

And, if the Earth were already at or close to its carrying capacity, shouldn't we have begun to notice trouble with resource availability in situations other than terrible political regimes (and government-induced price bubbles like the reprehensible US maize-ethanol subsidy)?
The point isn't that it's close to being efficient as our current technology, it's that the materials are cheaper. Indium and gallium are a lot more expensive than tin and zinc.
Also, do you have anything to say about changes to brain chemistry and physical fitness as one ages?
Great job Daniel. You are a genius at this stuff!
This is another one of those articles that's hard to comment reasonably about both sides without getting into a flame war. I hate to do it, because it's an important subject, but I can see no way to have a reasonable conversation about this -- flagged.
Seth Godin says we need more risk takers like Guy #3. Let's go out on a limb and say that guys 1-3 are all stoned. What does that say about the difference between risk-taking vs. lack of inhibition? I think a lot of what is called risk taking is actually just stage fright and fear of public failure.
Once we've off-shored all of our manufacturing, our service work, and our "knowledge work" .. All that's left is mcdonalds and federal welfare programs... ie hand-outs.
How To Crowdsource a Girlfriend
I think there's a lot more surplus sunshine than surplus Ga or In.
Strong stuff!
IF they can make them cheap enough, you can basically afford to put them everywhere. Also from a manufacturing standpoint, it will be easier to get financing to build a factory, as you are not dependent on commodity swings in scarcer metals affecting your ability to make a profit.
Project's Environment, Is it worth?
Dear All,

Just I want to share some thoughts with you about the project's environment. I other word, where does the project live on?

"I think" every Project needs four main resources:
1) The seed (Idea).
2) The water (Money/Fund).
3) The cultivated soil (Environment).
4) The farmer (founder)

The Cultivated Soil, or in term of project, the environment plays an critical rule in the project's success. It may include:
1) People and their culture.
2) Media around the project.
3) Technology and how easy to get it.
4) Competitors.
5) Time.
?) and so on ..

An example of that, if the Facebook created in other country rather than US with the same team. Do you think it will be as it's now?
That's not mean the all the IT project should begin from US or it will be fail, no no. But in US there is an excellent environment for SOME of IT projects.

So, The good farmer(founder) should choose the right soil(environment) for his seed(project) based on the above points. The first(seed) & second(water) resources I think they aren't big deal to get it you are GOOD farmer(founder).

THANKS
As far as I know OO PHP has only two disadvantages, one that it is sometimes slower than the normal method. The second being that it is not recommend for projects that are just about 3-4 pages of code. OO PHP saves time when your code is gonna be really lengthy otherwise you end up writing more code if the app you are making is a very simple one.

Thanks for your inputs.
I've done presentations and speeches as short as 30 seconds, and as long as 75 minutes, and in both cases, I always memorize and rehearse the talk, but I never memorize a script. This is generally a simple concept, and I think a lot of public speakers (who are far better than I am) do this as well. The idea is that you should know what you are talking about, but it should always be fresh, new, and interesting.

When I do power point presentations, this is easy to accomplish - the points (1 to 2 at most, usually) are on the slide, and I simply expand on them in my talk. I may rehearse the slide/talk 10 times, and each time it will come out slightly different, and that is generally good. I want to make sure that I know what I am going to talk about, but I trust myself to be able to discuss the topic with some insight on the spot.

Granted, this only works for topics you are familiar with, but no amount of prep in the world will make you comfortable leading a 75 minute discussion on a topic that is not close to your heart and mind.
Were they kids though? I thought they already grew beards and some might have a tiny bit of grey hair here and there...

There may be beautiful hacks in UNIX but the building principals (UNIX Philosophies) lives on and I don't think kids these days that go straight into startup even know these things.
This is extremely heartening. I think we always over-estimate the level of threat that we face at a given time, and underestimate the possibility of finding some sort of a solution.

But on the other hand, not needing enormous quantities of rare earths means that human expansion into space no longer gets a kickstart from attempts to mine the asteroid belt... :)
Phishing With Google Wave
No..the video you have posted was from TED talk 2009 in Mysore, India...and the video mentioned here is from TED talk yesterday as Derek mentioned in his blog
I feel like Google Buzz was a knee-jerk response to Facebook's plan to implement their own mail system.
I also took some issue with the tone of your essay, which I found interesting overall. Though I agree with you (who wouldn't?) that regulations that have perverse unintended consequences need to be fixed, and I guess the question is how to make the framework more nimble and less vulnerable to capture by whoever is benefiting from the existing regulations.
Conversion rates aren't as important as with fuel driven electricity generators since the sun has unlimited fuel. Making hydrogen by burning gas however is much more crucial, why aren't we fueling cars and power plants directly instead?

Solar cells have different metrics, like cost/square meter
Email as Identity: Google Turns on WebFinger
Note on How Many Facebook Users Go About Logging into their Accounts
I felt the same way in the Imax. And to provide some context to my downvoting detractor, here's what I was using as the basis for my speculation: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=995096

It's a huge comment, so here's the relevant bit:

"What Cameron has been doing with Avatar is to shoot in deep focus (no using the aperture and focus controls to blur out the background, a favorite technique for isolating the subject from the environment) but instead create depth by altering the angle between the two lenses dynamically, creating the illusion of a large space in which attention to depth is focused stereoscopically. Until now most 3d projects have kept the stereoscopic distance fixed, which yields the feeling of watching the story take place on a stage in front of one and occasionally having one of the props or actors protrude outwards toward the audience. By varying the angle between the lenses in the same fashion as our eyes, Cameron presents a far more immersive way of experiencing the third dimension."
I think it is more probable for the mechanics to get pushed lower rather than elevated to some higher status.
Speaking about legacy code, I read somewhere (probably via twitter) that new hires were given Michael Feather's book: "Working Effectively with Legacy Code".

I have a lot respect to companies that acknowledge these kind of issues and try to fix them.

I know there are many companies that just tell the engineers to quit whining/complaining about the current system and keep patching issues (fire and extinguish).
Coming: Microsoft's New Mobile Phone Software
"I pull water out of my well at a cost of $1 per bottle." This is the same as buying a bottle of water from a supplier. Your input costs $1 per bottle. You sell it for $1 dollar. Your profit is zero and your margin is zero. (profit = revenue - cost of inputs // profit margin = profit / revenue )

"I later sell if for $5 dollars per bottle." If you were to buy from a supplier now because there is no ferry it would cost you $5 dollars per bottle. You then sell the water for $5 per bottle. Your profit is zero and your profit margin is zero. (profit = revenue - cost of inputs // profit margin = profit / revenue )

So your profit margin is still zero.

You have $400 dollars in your pocket though. Where does this come from - this comes from speculation. You "invest" in 100 bottles of water at $1 dollar. The market for water goes up so people are now willing to buy bottles of water at $5 dollars. You speculation profit = revenue - cost of inputs[where this is the prior cost for you]. The speculation profit is $400 dollars.

This is the answer to your other comment [ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1118301 ].

These are two types of profit.

profit = revenue - cost (at the same time)

profit margin = profit / revenue

speculation profit = revenue - costs from an earlier time
Doesn't the iPhone have online activation?
They're all subsidiaries of BigCorp. Once you get past a certain size (employees, sales, market cap, whatever) it's unavoidable to become BigCorp, regardless of the differences in your particular company's culture. Once you've become so capitalized that your company's stock is itself a commodity, you're BigCorp.
Very well done.
The concern is about a) false positives, b) what happens on non-internet connected machines inside secure facilities e.g. nuclear power stations, banks, police stations, hospitals &c. &c.

So the only victims will ever be valid paying customers.
Can the downvoter please explain the downvote. If it's about people working as online content producers, well let me ask you - what is the most difficult task for computers to do - I would say natural language and human emotion production (which is essentially what blogging and acting are about). Hence, it's the last large occupation to be automated (there will other niches such as politicians,scientists,programmers but the majority of the population won't even try to become one of those).
I blew a bottle up that way once. It was pretty awesome: there were little splotches everywhere in my kitchen. There are still little splotches in the corners on the ceiling.
New flaws in UK bank card chip and pin system revealed
Surely that assumes people with money are good at spotting 'worth'...
Clojure for .NET
I do like the concept of minimalism, but there is just way too much BS going on in the name of 'minimalism' these days.

Trivia:
//"I’m now the author of an e-book. It’s the Art of Being Minimalist. It’s only 9.95."

In the spirit of minimalism, why not make it 10$ instead of 9.95 ?
But the realisation that the cost has been wasted is guilt. That is how associating the cost is of benefit.

In some ways I must discourage my child from trying new things - he has to somehow, and I'll help however I can, determine before we buy the necessary equipment whether he is going to appreciate the cost in terms of joy/fulfilment/health/happiness from the activity. For those super-wealthy this is obviously a non-issue.

Suppose your child wants to try running an international diamond mining corp. You're not going to discourage them by not buying one are you, you bad bad parent you.

;0)
there's a disconnect between your last two sentences.

"we may eventually reach the point where people don't need to work at all in order to meet humanity's basic needs."

and then

"i seriously doubt it will translate to a shorter work day."

what's going on here? why will people work harder (or at least just as hard) if survival becomes easier?
You use garlic powder to make up for it, and I tend to roast garlic on the side when I really need it. Also, you're saving all the liquid for pan sauces anyways, and you throw garlic into that. I don't find myself missing it.
"I darn well know the guy with the cart doesn't have the highest health standards and I make my own choices. Some street food is not up to my standards, some is."

While that sounds good and well, how do you make that choice? What are the input data that you have that makes it possible for you to make an informed choice about this?

I suspect you can't. You just have the illusion of an informed choice, because you have no idea of knowing whether someone's food is full of salmonella or E Coli until after the fact, when you get sick.

The key question is why these regulations exist. If it's because there is a significant chance of someone dying, I see nothing wrong with it. But the key is that there needs to be some dispassionate assessment of objective risk. Since at least the US population seems to be extremely risk-averse in some ways (e.g. terrorism, child abductions) but happily accepts a vastly higher risk in other situations (e.g. driving a car) the key is to not be swayed by emotions.
I think the problem is that some people (Me included) would rather spend all energy making stuff people want, rather than schmoozing people who might buy you. But I do see your point.
Users claim XP patch causes BSOD
As a European user I feel let down that we still haven't got a paid app catalogue, and we're constantly lagging in the version updates. I think of it at present as a very promising phone that's let down by some major functionality issues (the alarm clock being unreliable for instance).
You definitely get small pockets of air. On the other hand, the week I started doing this, I fanatically probed the temperatures of the proteins I cooked, and they were invariably exactly where I set the controller to. It got boring, so I stopped checking. Also, the difference between perfect 131-133f ribeye and carefully cooked conventional ribeye is not subtle.
Get me a review unit! If it works, I will sing its praises to the heavens.
One day someone will solve the problem of data overwhelm.

Some of us have already solved this, though it is typically done through the subtraction of technology, not the addition of it.
Orkut Golden Joke