skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I suppose it really depends on how you define 'open'. Has windows ever been open in the open source sense? Of course not. However, the difference in the early days of windows vs. Mac was pretty stark. Microsoft did have a platform that was open in the sense that any developer could easily write software for it. The documentation was widely available. There where no hoops to jump through to actually sell the software. The whole thing was easy.

That 'openess' gave Microsoft a huge advantage. It provided it with a bevy of applications that simply didn't exist for the Mac. In addition Microsoft was hardware neutral, meaning that the collective marketing machines of thousands of companies worked to push Windows over the Mac.

It's the same thing here. As a developer, the release process is simpler and cleaner. The OS itself affords you more flexibility particularly with background apps. There are an entire classification of apps that you simply can't write for the iPhone that you can for Android. Over time, those become increasingly important. As Android devices proliferate, you'll begin to hear more and more about apps that are awesome... and they simply don't exist for the iPhone. That's when Android wins.

In addition there are a lot of manufacturers and carriers wedded to Android. That collective marketing muscle is far greater than even the greatest marketing company since Barnum and Bailey (Apple). We already hear a lot of noise about Android, and that's only going to increase in intensity.

Again, this is all for naught if Google doesn't fix those fragmentation issues. If the weight of supporting all of those phones individually becomes to heavy, the whole thing collapses. It's hard to innovate when your simply scrambling to keep up with the differences in hardware. If they're able to unify these things and come up with a sane way for developers to deal with it, well then I just don't think there is any contest.
The problem is, in the US even jobs where you will actually be maintaining legacy enterprise systems are advertised like this these days. Having seen so many job ads in this style recently, some cooked up as job-bait by recruiters, I tend to trust ads with more grounded language.
I believe in my bones that most large tasks are just arbitrarily long collections of small tasks which are measurable, and since I know I can keep going for years as long as I get frequent small packets of success, I structure things to look like that.

This is the WoWification of life for me: the thing about dragonslaying is that you're not spending 720 hours to be able to slay the dragon. You spent 30 minutes rescuing this one village and then 2 hours pillaging this one dungeon and then 5 minutes finding this one slipper and... whoa, you just killed a dragon. And then it turns out that killing the dragon was, itself, just one more small goal.

Your business, or your other arbitrary goal with real meaning to it, is a lot like WoW. It has projects rather than raids, milestones rather than achievements, and A/B tests rather than quests, but you can break it down into arbitrarily fine units and conquer them one at a time.

I don't completely WoWify my business just because I think it would be frighteningly successful at manipulating my monkey brain, to the exclusion of other things of importance to me.

Other things that help me: having routines, social support via HN & etc (here we go with WoW again: sure, you could quit, but what would your guildmates say?), structuring my business such that almost all deadlines are flexible (I know that shouldn't work, but it does for me), and having a life away from the computer.
For me, it is all about tricking myself into getting the work done. Into creating systems to follow for various tasks.

For example, the dishes. I hate doing them. And I don't mind a few days of accumulation of dirty dished. So, I don't beat myself up trying to wash them every day. It takes time to wash dishes. Time I could better spend doing something else.

My solution. Wait until there are enough dishes to take a couple of hours to wash them, then I listen to an audio book while washing the dishes. I call this consolidating the work-load, which allots me time to listen to audio books. Saves water, too.

I have a lot of systems for various things. It's kind of fun, refining these tricks.
This is a great point. In this case, we mean C or C++, as long as you know your language of choice well.
The Best Fast Food Receipt
This is what I follow -

1. I create "Today's list". This is little different than "To-do" list. Today's list contains tasks that I want to finish today - with each task assigned some deadline. Tasks are quite detail tasks - which takes 1-2 hrs. Like breakdown to features, bugs, reading chapter, etc.

2. I don't sit for long in front of computer in one stretch. I drink lot of water, so generally have to take breaks quite often. During that break (from computer) I talk to myself 2 things - "1. You're doing good - push more. 2. Now the next thing I want to do is _______."

3. Keep the browser/chat window closed if it's not required.

4. Even if I start reading HN/Twitter - I don't read everything. I know my time limits, I know things I want to build, so I know I cannot spend lot of time in consuming information. So just browse headlines, don't click every link. If headline is compelling, or source is trusted, then click it.

5. Keep deadlines - have pressure, and tell your deadlines to someone - friend, wife, colleague. Be answerable to someone. This trick worked quite often for me.
Sure, but this is a YC funded startup (iirc) and I have a fair idea what they are doing and I am fairly certain that the ad describes what they actually do/want. What is wrong with the Indian sw "scene" is the almost complete absence of such companies .

Who cares about professional recruiters pitches anyway? :-) .Most of them are liars and cheats (or so it is safer to assume, at least hereabouts), but yes, fair point!
PERSPECTIVES AND MODES OF TREATMENT
We really are doing what the ad says. It's unfortunate that many people use bait-and-switch. We specifically tried to choose the wording to be as forthcoming as possible.
Yes! Often when faced with a few large tasks, I will create a new Google Tasks list and then successively "yak shave" them down to a few dozen smaller/quicker tasks. The list gets quite long, but being able to check off several items rather quickly is satisfying. Then it becomes, as you point out, a game to see how quickly I can blow away the list.
Although this talk is mostly slanted towards language APIs, I thought I'd share some tips for writing Web APIs:

- Don't roll your own auth.
Use HTTPS and include username/password in POST parameters.
- Avoid Sessions.
- Strict REST is overrated:
Browser support is universal for GET and POST, and patchy for everything else.
- Make URLs easy to construct
- Use GET requests to read data from your server.
Use POST requests when changing data on your server.
- Requests: URLencoded parameters
- Response: URLencoded parameters, CSV, or JSON. Avoid XML.
- Asynchronous responses:
Let the user set a POST url to their web service in the request.
- JSONP for browser based APIs
People feel more comfortable giving out simple work in something like PHP to cheaper countries which in some cases can come back to bite you with more complex stuff as a decent size C++ project can be.
Creative demo of HTML5 canvas
You get what you pay for, just in terms of what the freelancer perceives to be decent money. Paying someone from a cheaper country $5 an hour will probably give the same kind of hacky late rush job that giving someone local $10 an hour.
And if you know C++ and would like to beat these guys for world domination in a co-founder role, contact me. My email is in my profile.
The job boards hereabouts are full of the outsourced "maintain legacy enterprise systems" crap jobs.

As someone who has both done Big Freaking Enterprise for the last three years and managed outsourcing of the same (to India, actually): please, find a way to fill my customer's needs in a manner which doesn't require custom development and put us all out of work. I think there are many, many opportunities for eating the enterprise elephant from within. (You also have to be able to sell them, obviously.)
I read somewhere the hardest part is starting tasks, so a combo of breaking tasks into bit size pieces and starting each piece is probably the best approach.
I dream of the day when someone properly ports Portage (from Gentoo, the "emerge" thing) to Mac OS X.

I use MacPorts, and I've used a bunch of various package management systems, and portage is the only one that lets me maintain servers for > 5 years without reinstalling the whole thing, just upgrading the packages.
" I think there are many, many opportunities for eating the enterprise elephant from within. "

Yes I agree. I guess systems can be lucrative and soul killing at the same time.

I worked in enterprise dev for many years, last at ThoughtWorks (which is a fine company in that space - If I ever had to outsource enterprise software, I'd probably use TW (being somewhat selective about team composition) or a team of ex TW ers. I would never outsource to Wipro Infosys et al).

I grew bored of enterprise dev and dropped it completely almost 8 years ago.

Enterprise systems are interesting when you own the enterprise! When you have to work on outsourced crap codebases, life sucks.
I believe you - I was just addressing plinkplonk's broader point about ads in this style and offering my own recent experience in the job market as a counterexample.
There's an amazing set of charts available here too:
http://www.fusioncharts.com/free/

Very easy to set up, and attractive too. The free library has a stack of different types.
I don't spend my spare time posting 'Ask HN' questions.

No, seriously: I have more important things to do, like figuring out how to pay my rent (and hopefully make 6-7 figures) without having to take a soul-crushing job at a gigantic company, again.

Maybe you need a better job. Maybe you need a better reason to do the important things. Maybe the 'important things' really aren't, in which case you need to come up with a list of genuinely important things to do.

Maybe you should see a therapist. I dunno; at least those people are theoretically well-qualified to talk about this stuff. Ask me about about beer, F/stops, Objective C or Ruby on Rails, and I'm your guy. The rest of it is a big mystery to me.

Good luck, though.
I find the best method is to just jump in. Once you make a solid effort to dive into something, your drive to complete the task at hand will snowball as you get more work done.

YMMV, especially with really difficult or irritating tasks. It's all about overcoming the barrier of entry, be it due to a lack of experience, interest, or value.
No. I don't need one and I'm not going to develop for the platform.

Same reason I didn't get an iPhone or Droid.

I am pretty low-tech for a geek/programmer. Still, I'm nowhere near as low-tech as this dude: http://jason.rohrer.usesthis.com/
It is pretty impressive what he is able to accomplish.
Dear reddit, can you order me a pizza?
Was posted here a few days ago.
I've found that pair programming for a bit can help me get past that initial resistance. It doesn't have to be anything special or official - just a shared screen with a friend over skype can be enough to get going.
I think I got this idea from HN somewhere but I cannot remember: when you are running good, and the ideas are coming easily, stop before you get stuck. That way when you come back to something you know exactly what to do next and its easier to find the thread.

Also, learning how to suffer through really painful exercise has improved my ability to focus at work.
Only thing that works for me is to do stuff I actually want to be doing. Right now staring at my declining Google Analytics stats is enough to inspire me to hack the code to reverse the trend.
I find it more surprising that HN people read Mashable.
Hack Into Windows XP's Admin Account Without Entering Any Password
Recent related thread on LW, with reviews and aggregate scores for suggestions:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/1sm/akrasia_tactics_review/
I have to ask: Did you completely skip the part about zombies? Because, to me, that was far more interesting then how Wolfram keeps track of things.

I think what I'm really trying to say here is: There are many funny/interesting anecdotes in this post and singling one out doesn't do the rest of them justice.
Nice job guys. This is off-topic but do you guys know of a good library to convert HTML to PDF (Python)? I'm wondering how did guys at pdfmyurl.com did it? Any ideas
Regular Expression Matching can be Ugly and Slow
Yes it means something ... it shows good will, it shows they are probably not going to sue, and their developers are also contributing/helping out Mono.

> Cocoa is a direct descendent of NEXTStep

Oh please, take any Cocoa app and try running it in Gnustep.
Logitech webcam
For offline version I had been using this application for some time now...

WebKit HTML to PDF
http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/

This is a PDF generator which uses WebKit engine to render the HTML page and then converts to PDF. Has command line advanced options, like this site.
org-mode for emacs is great.

Prioritize your list of things to do. That way you only have 1 thing to do next. It may seem daunting to have a pile, but if you line everything up in a neat row, you can only see 1 thing to do until it is finished.

A good way to eliminate things from your immediate workload is to only do things that will make your life more efficient. Some projects are fun but will not make it easier to get more things done later.

If you have a unifying reason for completing a series of projects, that can help inspire you- especially, if it is a great reason. I think I read somewhere that Stravinsky said you have to force yourself to be inspired. . .
Happy Pi Day
I think its all about the right environment which puts you in the mindset to get things done. I've noticed that being in my dorm room is usu. not super productive, so my co-founder and I most work in group study rooms in our student union or coffee shop hop. Part of it is fewer distractions, but part of it is also just a nice change in scenery/environment. I think every company should have lots of rooms/other spaces for people to work besides their desk, including nearby coffee shops =)
Secret Solution To Web Content: GoArticles.com
This is the author: http://twitter.com/markjames
China demand Google to Censor
I had the same problem myself. Yet again I would suggest to read the book Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. This book teaches you a set of methods to improve your ability to get the right things done. It's available on O'Reilly Safari (where I read it) and from Amazon.

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9781576754221/ch00
http://www.amazon.com/That-Frog-Great-Ways-Procrastinating/d...
Load Testing Relational Databases With JMeter
I don't mean an explanation of the form "men have been hunters for 1000s of years, therefore they communicate love in five different ways". I mean an explanation why this trait is more probable to be passed on into further generations, and why they provide an evolutionary stable equilibrium.

I hate those pseudo evolutionary reasons you read in women's magazines as well.

Even if you provide evidence, it would still be interesting to discover a reason for the things being like they are. At least I think so.

Have you read Jared Diamond "Why is sex fun" or "The Third Chimpanzee"? I didn't have the impression that what he said about the competitions of the sexes were just-so stories, although in some cases there were several different theories.

I would be interested in examples of what you mean by "just-so-stories", too.
I'm pretty sure that this feature is standard on every modern car that doesn't suck (i.e. everything we have here in the States). I've yet to drive a car that didn't have it.
Programming the Commodore 64: The Definitive Guide
I'd do it
Or you could put "affording a bigger apartment with space for a dish washer" on your list of things for "why am I doing this again?".
I recall a sentence (cruelly) stating (paraphrasing):

"The problem with country X is stupidity. Let's remove all safety labels from everything and let the problem get solved by itself."

Well-prepared individuals who can stay cool in tense situations will always have an advantage.
> _the_ source for political information for the people and now can work further on controlling the rest.

It never got control. Chinese people love gossip and rumors. The govn't just do not want anyone to discuss stuff 'publicly'.
REPL also helps me stay focused. Maybe for some people TDD does, but not for me.
You forgot to add his time spent on HN and writing all those awesome comments. 11 comments in the last 4 hours.
Project Cybersyn: real-time computer control of a planned economy (1970-1973)
How to Celebrate Your Baby's First Birthday
Fair call I guess; the Wolfram anecdote just resonated with me personally! I thought that it had several interesting snippets, but wasn't sure that "Wil's overview of TED" would be that interesting so it needed something else.

But yeah: Zombies, damn interesting!
I have a dishwasher and I live in a house. . . .

Great advice though.
"I mean an explanation why this trait is more probable to be passed on into further generations, and why they provide an evolutionary stable equilibrium."

My point is that there's no real sign that any pattern of human behavior adheres to any kind of adaptive genetic trait at all. Less than 1% of hominid evolution has occurred in civilizations, and there's no sign evolution has caught up to the environments we're living in now. The sexual behaviors of urbanized book-reading humans today probably have something to do with evolution, but they aren't necessarily adaptive to our place and time and are dictated so much by environment, including but not limited to culture, that asking for an evolutionary explanation gets you almost no understanding of the process at all.
Ajustable Reading Valet
See also the attempt at the world's biggest mathematical magic trick, happening on Pi day:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1189470
Ask HN: Good, lightweight bug tracking system for small team?
Hey everyone,
My cofounder and I have been using a google doc + lots of dropbox documents to keep track of to-dos, feature roadmap, and bugs, but it's gotten to the point where we do need a real bug tracking system since our google doc spreadsheets are just a mess to sort through.

What's a good, lightweight bug tracking system for a small team (< 5 people)? I've used Bugzilla in the past, but that seems to be overkill and it's definitely not lightweight. Trac seems to be decent although I haven't really used it for projects. Anyone have good experiences with Mantis?

Thanks
For anyone else like me who wanted to know what emotion contagion is (#6 Cultivate emotion contagion), from Wikipedia:

--
Emotional contagion is the tendency to catch and feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others. One view developed by John Cacioppo of the underlying mechanism is that it represents a tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally.[1] A broader definition of the phenomenon was suggested by Sigal G. Barsade—"a process in which a person or group influences the emotions or behavior of another person or group through the conscious or unconscious induction of emotion states and behavioral attitudes".
--

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_contagion
Mind Reading Moves Closer to Reality
Post-its on a whiteboard.
I think I might be somewhat representative of the target audience for interns (maybe), so here's my two cents

- Really cool stuff. Anything heavily concurrent in C is just cool.
Highlighting that even more is going to get you more of the right
kinds of candidates IMHO.
- Call for interns in the fall. Offers start going out for
internships in the late fall and early winter.
- The world domination stuff is hokey. Every company is feeding
us this stuff.
- Do interns get free housing? What are the perks?
- Your pay for interns is very standard (which is a good thing).

But seriously, very cool ad.
You probably meant this as a joke, but I have a friend who is hyper-organized with all of her to-dos on a whiteboard... different sections are different things/different priority levels. Maybe we will hack together a Wii whiteboard Johnny Chung Lee style and use virtual post-its! (http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/)
Try Pivotal Tracker. It's more geared for todos / feature stuff (and does it really well), but you can use it for bugs, too. If you're tracking more than 50 or so bugs, I could see wanting to use something else, though.
In my experience, when I am working with others or for a customer, I have no problem taking the actions needed to deliver on my commitments to them.

But when I am working on my own thing, setting my own goals, with little interaction, I tend to get easily distracted and start my things I don't finish.

So from now on, unless I'm working on something I'm passionate about, I'll find the right team first, before even deciding what to work on.
Nope. People who screwed me over in the past were smiling and saying my name with very pleasant and respectful voice with intention to genuinely make me happy.

On the other hand my friends use my name only when they talk with each other about me in my presence or when they call me to get my attention.
Anatomy of a Technical Interview
After Digg, now is reddit who says yes to Cassandra DB
While building web apps, one thing I preach (and mostly stick to) is: build the API first and use it to build your app. This API could be simply the core code for it (say a set of functions), with error checking and everything, that you use to build your app.

Later, you wrapit in a thin I/O layer for use over HTTP for external use.
It didn't work last time on Chrome Dev 5.0.307.1 (r37331)

Today I found out it was because an extension called Kill Evil

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/epieehnpcepgfiil...
Thanks for the suggestion. I just had a funny experience - went there to register... said that my email was already registered... turns out I made an account on pivotal a while back but never used it haha. Will give it a shot. Thanks!
Intel's "Tick Tock" Model for Innovation
- Strict REST is overrated:
Browser support is universal for GET and POST, and patchy
for everything else.

Don't assume your resources will be consumed by browsers only. I still think it makes a good idea to have proper verbs and work around current browser limitations by passing hidden "method" field.
I am impressed by the inclusion of the salary chart right there in the job posting, as an engineer who dislikes the salary negotiation game (I am inevitably at a strategic disadvantage, playing against managers who have far more experience at the game than I).
At least this way, the engineer knows where he/she stands.
How lightweight are you talking? Are you looking for a hosted tool (like fogbugz) or are you definitely going to manage/host it yourself?

I've been using Jira, and there's a $10 version for small groups.

Whatever you chose, make sure of one thing: every tracked bug or task has a unique URL.
Trac is great and plugs in really easily to SVN. It's at least worth playing around with since so many open source projects use it.

I wrote a Django middleware that uses Trac's xmlrpc plugin to automatically create Trac tickets for errors. I'm sure it's just as simple to do for whatever you're using.
Have a look at http://pdfcrowd.com - it is a service providing an html to pdf online API and it has bindings for python. It is in private beta now, so if you are interested please just contact me and I will send you an invitation key.
Machine learning tends to need specialized datastore infrastructure as well (look at DirectedEdge or the full text search indices). I'm curious, what is your project about?