skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Finding a freemium model that works for you
If you're worried about browser security, there's a command-line reimplementation in python that a friend and I wrote:

http://github.com/gfxmonk/supergenpass

Less convenient, but much less likely to leak your passwords via the browser...
By volume, yes, but perhaps that's not the best metric. See http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?sto... for a more meaningful comparison, although I agree that rumors of the manufacturing sector's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
hu? i don't see why i would create that impression. if my comment was too short, i apologize. the article just expressed my thoughts on the topic and i wanted to state that.
You're right. You've also helped me observe weaknesses in my character that should be addressed. Thanks.
(Aw, so cool you came to this site!)
And also cool this involved Arduino.
Maybe a better lesson is - screw YC, who needs them? Honestly, if you need the money to bootstrap, freelance. If you need the connections, go network.

Think of it positively - this way you get to keep 100% of your equity.
That's a good idea. I can subscribe; however, it seems like it would be beneficial to HN to keep the links clickable. I still don't really understand the need to kill them though.
Sorry Daniel, but I'm going to have to agree with Brice. Strikes me a bit as a solution in need of a problem -- someone might think "I guess it could be useful to have" but I don't know if many would think "I can see this being a core thing I really need to use every day" or would pay for.

I think there could be room for single-use publishing ("I want to store and share something easily, but not make a habit of it like a blog"), but I don't think saving quotes and inspiration in the way you've described will take you places.
Why No Jobs
It's great, I admit, but it's just a clone of a program that's done roughly as well in C already several times over.

A "killer" would have to be something that hasn't been, and perhaps cannot be, reasonably implemented in other platforms.
"I've said it before and will say it again: Repeating yourself is what effective teaching is all about."

I see what you did there.
Tools that don't have difficulties computing large numbers maybe?
I think you may be overestimating just how much exercise your average husky requires.

Yes, I'm aware that huskies in the Iditarod do that much running. But frankly, those dogs are athletes, burn ~11,000 calories per day [1] and would break very quickly if you expected them to do that indefinitely.

[1] Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iditarod_Trail_Sled_Dog_Race
Trite self-contradictory chicken-little-ism. Corporations are greedy! Globalization is bad! OMG socializm! Will you LOOK at that debt (notice how it flattens in the 1990s and then goes stratospheric starting in 200)?! But it's all the Democrats' fault (even though we had a GOP White house, House, and Senate from 2000-2006)!

Normally I'd do a more substantive rebuttal, but after looking at the front page of businessinsider.com, it seems pretty plain that it's the investment equivalent of a supermarket tabloid. Although the article touches on many real economic problems it does so in a very shallow fashion, tossing worst-case scenarios together almost at random.
Things like this are what make me wish I worked at Google; they're a company that does the software equivalent of megastructure engineering, building bridges, dams, and nuclear power plants, while everyone else is building Furbys and Slap-Chops.
yeah, and in china all trains have such checks - but no passport control.

However, the eurostar is nicer compared to many airports. Airports are shopping centers, where they want people to stay and buy things. The longer you stay at airports the more you spend. That is an incentive to have you at airports longer. Whereas many train stations do not have that set-up (although that is changing!). The eurostar used to be easier, because the station at the london end did not have a long way to walk past lots of shops. Now, at the new station there are lots of shops to walk past before you can leave. Still quite nice though in comparison to flying out of gatwick on easy jet ;)

I love trains. Been on them from 30 hour trips across Australia, to the bullet trains in Japan, ones across Germany, France, the Netherlands, China and ones across the UK. Always wanted to do some long trips across china, russia and india... guess I better hurry up before those trains are replaced!

It will be great when the fast networks of europe are joined to the fast networks of asia.
As a nice bonus, Lilypond is also usable via a graphical interface, Denemo [1]. I've never used Sibelius or Finale so I can't comment on how they compare.

What I really wish were available, however, is the IMSLP catalog [2] in digital form (not PDF scans). Is there an app out there to OCR sheet music?

[1] http://www.denemo.org/index.php/Main_Page

[2] http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
Design, yes and no. Used an existing template as a base and heavily customized it. Built it, yes (completely by myself).

Uses FlourishLib (http://flourishlib.com/) as programming framework, jQuery for front-end magic and iconfinder.net for the cute icons all around.

BTW, This particular app has been in development for last 5 months. Since Jan 2009, I was prototyping few different things (see http://www.wingify.com/labs.php) and finally built Visual Website Optimizer.
i hadn't thought at look at the orignal - your fingers move differently! i prefer your movement, although i think the original has a slightly more balanced look (fatter fingers). you seem to be using a regular pattern of movement - have you considered choosing which finger to move at random, so that the movement varies more?

[edit obviously i don't mean that the fingers move at random, but since you have two fingers on a hinge you have a choice when it comes to changing how they are arranged]
You think his girlfriend left him?
The guys from MyFit are doing well, (by well I mean raised a series A) and they were rejected from YC. But, In my opinion, if you get rejected by YC, it doesn't mean your idea is awful. From my experience, it seems PG likes ideas that with a ton of hard work in 3 months can go from concept to market. Some ideas, such as MyFit, were going to to take too long to get a proof of concept ready and thus it's not exemplary of the program.

If you are thinking about applying, or re-applying, keep your idea simple and concise. Let PG and all the amazing YC contacts help you figure out what the killer feature is of your app that will turn it into the multi-million dollar idea.
except to the extent that the ex-Soviet republics tended to be even more of an economic shambles.

Exactly. Thats it. The economic position of the state prior to their transition away from communism absolutely has an effect on how they managed after the transition.

I'd be willing to guess that while part of the Soviet Union and under a planned economy, whatever the Estonian state was responsible for was closer to being services-based and processing raw materials after they were obtained. Not a lot of agriculture or mining.

After 1990, everyone was in the same boat, and the countries that were able to push through "shock therapy" reforms prospered, while the rest did not.

But, why did shock therapy fail in the countries that it didn't work in? I highly doubt it was as simple as "Ukraine wanted it while Croatia didn't."

Why did Estonia (a former Soviet state) not end up with looting as well?
It is, but for how much longer? When I was in the auto industry it certainly looked very bleak - I've since lost touch with most of the people from that time, but I doubt it's looking up now either.

One of our chief problems when I was working in the auto supplier industry was relentless cost cutting on the part of the major manufacturers (GM was especially bad in this department) - and from what we knew GM certainly wasn't pocketing the difference, all of the cost cutting went directly into hyper-competitive consumer pricing.

As a result our cars are dirt, dirt cheap, unsustainably so, especially if your goal is to keep manufacturing jobs on this side of the ocean. But it's not as if people know this - especially the type like the author of the article, who like to play the victim constantly by making vague straw-man references to the greedy corporation.

I cannot count the number of times I've heard people make the point that some product "probably costs nothing to make anyways" - and it bothers me greatly. For just about everything except the high fashion industry, manufacturing costs are not that far divorced from their retail cost... but consumers who believe this hogwash are also liable to believe that outsourcing is due to rampant greed, as opposed to their unquenchable desire for cheap crap.
You didn't find the graph that showed "Democrats take control of Congress" to be biased?

There's also the puzzling choice of an Obama picture under the point "corporate taxes are down".
I wouldn't blame Russians - this is a simple adaptation that was required to survive in Russia/USSR for so long. People adapt, and Americans would, too. You were just lucky to have no tzars, no WW on your territory, and, the most important point - no communism.

Communism degrades social trust, in Poland before the WWII we had very cultured and organised population, people were helping each other, etc. We had regained independence after over 100 years.

Even 5 years into the WWII, there were uprising in Warsaw, many young people died for Poland, others were fighting in the England, Italy, on the far east.

In the first 10 years of communism everybody that were active as partisant during the war were either in the jail, killed, has escaped from the country, or vere hiding in the forests. Then, communistic gov said if the remains of Armia Krajowa uncover, there will be now more killing. And of course they lied, like many times before and after that.

After 45 years of communism people in Poland still don't trust each other. People are still gaming the system, current gov aren't helping, at least they are elected in honest elections. Regaining the trust of the people is work for many years, and without the trust gov can do anything with the people.

I think in Russia it has to be even worse - they had communism for much longer, and before that they had just as corrupt system, only less deadly.
I'm having trouble finding the chart, but we're also the largest in terms of percentage of GDP. That's a measurement I strongly prefer.
Wireframe or interactive prototype?
Wow, I sure could've used sliceapp about a week ago :P Bookmarked!
It wouldn't be wise, or kind, to judge based on hearsay, even pg's hearsay.
I remember a similar website from a few years ago, but I can't remember the name.
"Those three countries - along with Romania (and sometimes Slovenia) are the case studies for Eastern Europe. They're where the transition from communism went remarkably well and lacked any sort of violence"

The Romanian revolution was extremely violent: over 1,000 people died and over 3,000 were wounded, and the former dictator and his wife were found guilty in a hasty show trial and executed on the spot. Their former allies then former a post-Communist clique that looted the country for most of the 90s and stole several elections. Romania continues to have one of the highest corruption rates in Eastern Europe.

But yes, aside from that, it went "remarkably well."

This isn't random conspiratorial nonsense, it's well-documented and NPOVed five ways from Sunday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Revolution_of_1989#Aft...
Lilypond is neat. I'm using its output (and a buncha tools I built around it) in my iPhone app launching Tuesday: http://wonderwarp.com/etude
That's a pretty narrow view of Twitter. He doesn't use the word "search" once. If you are not using Twitter search on specific key terms then you are not using Twitter effectively.

He doesn't mention hashtags. A great example is back channel discussion for an event, meetup, or conference. For example, you should be following the #leanstartup hashtag.

He doesn't mention breaking news. I heard about the Chinese earthquake, Iran revolution, and Michael Jackson's death on Twitter.

RescueTime says I spent 2 hours in Tweetie last week. I easily derive value out of that time. (A chunk of that time was following the #Canucks hashtag while watching hockey.)
Programming is not. Scripting is.
It depends whether you are more concerned with how often they pass on someone who then goes on to be successful or how often they pick someone who then fails.

I suspect for most investors passing on someone who goes on to be wildly successful hurts a lot more than investing in multiple failed ventures. Given that, having a longer more thorough process may not be beneficial. At best a long process can reduce the number of failures by refusing to invest in them but it will never increase the number of successes which is limited by the number of people who ask you funding.

I'm kind of surprised that no well funded VC funds have come up with the idea of just handing out 5-10k to every single not obviously doomed startup they come across in exchange for a few percent of each company. They could call it shotgun investing.
Russian Man Dies After Viagra Overdose and 12-Hour Sex Session
Yeah, I generally agree. And the evolutionary standpoint makes sense, and is the logical counter to this. My main focus there isn't that we equate the two, it's that there's such a strong connection. At least, as far as I can see. It could've grown from "that sells better, what if we do this", but it's still kinda strange, and I wonder if it's at least partly intentional.

'Tis just speculation, though. There are plenty of weird / weirder things in the world.
> "Mr. Bernanke has a lot of money, as do the other bankers on the committee and the people who selected them. So they’ve decided to let millions and millions of people be unemployed and the rest of us experience the resulting recession rather than risk the chance that some of their money might be worth a little less."

Okay, I was with you until this part - that's a pretty serious claim to make without any substantiating evidence, or even something that kind of looks like evidence.

This seems like a gross oversimplification of a complex problem to me, and like most other gross oversimplifications of the recession, seems to just pin the blame on "greedy bankers".
Good question. I wrote the blog post for myself mostly, so I could document my experiences and reactions, but with the hope that someone else might find it useful. I intended the tldr summary as an experiment, and to provide some benefit to anyone who doesn't read the full post.
The key flaw in the article is buried in a parenthetical: the author provides no compelling argument to support his contention that programming will become easier. Programming anything sophisticated by plugging pre-built components into each other with little or no understanding of their innards has been a pipe dream for years.
I agree that the author is a little confused, seeming to think that using media creation/editing tools involves programming. He calls Java and C++ "logical" programming languages, etc. I also agree with you that programmers will continue to specialize. However, I am a bit mystified by your reference to "true AI" and why we no longer get to have our fun.
Point. Its late for me and I got slightly jumbled up. You're absolutely right that Romania was the most violent of the revolutions and that I shouldn't have included them in the lacking violence part. I've edited the original post to mention this.

Even still, it could have been much worse; the revolution could have failed. And it lead to a stable government that successfully transitioned between parties afterwards. And the Romanian economy is doing fairly well. I'd call that a pretty remarkable success, given how spectacular the failures in Eastern Europe are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Their former allies then former a post-Communist clique that looted the country for most of the 90s and stole several elections.

I haven't really read much about this, Romanian elections being fraudulent. Don't suppose you could recommend a few good news articles or other data (books or papers, perhaps) on the subject (Romania after 1989, not just elections specifically)? The Wikipedia article doesn't have any citation for it either.
No Im currently seeing someone. Sorry.
Someone please build this: Anti-shelving filter for GMail
It would be good/fun to see a little competition develop between YC funded companies and the YC rejects. The empire Vs the rebellion if you will. I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which.
How to reach students w/ offline marketing
Trains (when they work) are a much more pleasurable experience than flying. I prefer trains whenever reasonable because airports are simply nasty and annoying. I spend much more time at airports than I do flying. The security theatre is frustrating and volume and type of stuff one may transport is very limited. The economical argument is volume. Once you have a train line running, it is extremely cheap to transport large volumes of people and goods. Having a train connection would make a lot of travel possible that currently just does not happen due to prices or volume/weight limits. Also, a two day train trip is much less stressing physically than a one day flight. On a train, you can reasonably walk around, interact with people. On a flight, you are mostly bound to your seat except for bathroom breaks.
YC is so 1999. pg thinks he can replicate his success from before dot.com bubble burst. Really, of the startups hes funded, besides dropbox, who really needs that shit?
Z day
I don't think that's the author's fault. The truth is "Socialism" has always been ill defined. By the definition I was originally taught (a society where Government intervenes in the private industry to mitigate inequality) the U.S. has been socialist for my entire life time.

That said, you took that quote out of context. The real focus of it was on "welfare state" and it was presented with the fact that the Food Stamp program is adding 20,000 new people each day. If that's true than he's right about us quickly becoming a welfare state.
"It all worked great for a while, until one day they found they had too few pieces of scrip. Every couple had only a couple hours left and, having so little, they didn’t want to waste it."

Wait... where did the old pieces of scrip go?
The Death of the R.S.V.P
It is, but impossible-to-police fraud, as long as you actually are delivering a reasonable amount of work for the claimed hours. It's essentially using a fixed-price-per-project model disguised as an hourly rate: promising to do it in 5 hours at $50/hr is equivalent to charging $250 for the project, and the purchaser can decide in either case if $250 is worth it.
Sure, just use Gentoo Prefix.
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/
Keeping inflation under control isn't just something done to protect "wealthy bankers". The stability of the financial system as a whole is predicated upon the fact that money that I earn today will be worth something tomorrow.
Im hoping to get funded by YC by having the highest karma (in absolute value)
Mr. and Mrs. Jones from down the street were saving them all in the hopes of getting rid of the kids for good?
To me it seems like he's ranting against "those in power" and that just happens to be the Democrats. But if you read the facts he attacks Republican ideas just as much (Outsourcing for example)
But what is a systems engineer? When I was an undergrad in Mech Eng, a systems engineer was the person who integrated a project's mechanical, electrical, software etc parts to make a complete working system. You'd find this person plumbing an aircraft's engine into its avionics for example, or hitting an aircraft with simulated lightning to see what happened. Nowadays it's a fancy way of saying "windows sysadmin". Which do you suppose he's talking about?
He's getting the story a bit wrong. One or two of the couples will have a whole lot more scrip than the others that they've saved up.
I'm not suggesting the Russians are to blame, or that there is some genetic aspect to it, or any nonsense like that. I'm merely pointing out that it's not racism, it's a valid phenomenon. Mentality matters a whole lot.
I wish there was more than that baby-sitting co-op to support those ideas. One story doesn't make a proof. Krugman brings it up all the time - so the hopes of the nation apparently rest on a single baby-sitting co-op.

It's been too long since I thought about it, but back then I felt there were some aspects missing from the story. Must think about it again, but overall, it is a very limited experiment, hardly the same as a full economy.

Also, doesn't the co-op story show that people can also create their own money? If lack of money was the problem, why don't they just exchange services and products (I mow your lawn and you clean my car)? Money is just a tool to make exchanges more efficient, but it's not that without money they become impossible.

Of course, it is always appealing to blame everything on some rich elite.
Where was it taken? On top of St Sulplice?
For that kind of project it would make sense to develop robotics and other technology that could lower the cost dramatically.

Also, you can't just take the minimum wage from China and multiply with the number of workers, there are many costs added to having that many people in different countries. Food and housing in Germany, for example, are expensive.
Amazes me so much how the more popular college clubs can be based on how frequently they serve free food.

"All you have to do is sponsor some food, or send them some free products and they will love you."
And, what is the difference between programming and scripting? I don't see any fundamental one.

Or, if you see programming and scripting as the two ends of a spectrum, how would you describe such a spectrum, and where would you put the limit?

I personally do see a spectrum: programming being for elites, and scripting being for the newbies. But as programming literacy spreads, what you would call "programming" now is more and more likely to become "scripting". This is not really satisfactory. I would prefer a more timeless description.
Advice To a Young Bride, circa 1890
No functional programming is just something people pretend to like to make themselves feel smarter than others. Notice there are no libraries for functional languages - there is a reason.

Also, pg and his "blub language" argument is lame. All languages that are Turing complete are equivalent. Everything else is syntactic sugar. Pick what you like.
Aagh upside down scrolling.
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I was having a discussion with my friend today on related topics and I couldn't figure out the answer to this question: where does the demand for talent in the finance industry come from? On a basic level, banks exist to facilitate loans. Someone with money gives it to the bank. The bank loans it out to someone who pays it back plus interest over a period of time. At the end, the bank and the original investor get some return on his/her money. The hardest part about this chain on events is picking people who wont default on their loans.

But clearly the demand for talent in banking is much higher than that. These people get paid extraordinary amounts of money. So where is that demand coming from? What service is being provided by banks that warrants the compensation?
Fair, but even if it were extremely efficiently run, even the fuel costs of lifting large masses into orbit and the associated size of the vehicles required, as well as the resultant complexity of such a thing would be prohibitively expensive. Much cheaper, but still not where it needs to be.

In order to do anything serious in space, it needs to become MUCH CHEAPER to put things into orbit. That is what a space elevator could accomplish. Not to say that we're ready technologically... we need to become a whole lot better at producing long carbon nanotubes.