skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier (PBS)
Longtime reader, never submitted... but this PBS documentary spreads out in so many directions that are congruent with the YC crowd -- personal productivity and multitasking, education for the digital natives, school computer access, privacy, etc. etc. -- that I have to share it.

Some key moments from the first half of the show:

- brain scan research at Stanford on the impact of multitasking on productivity

- a Korean facility for internet and video game addict high school students, and a shot of 5 or 6 year olds signing up for a school-operated social network and singing a song about 'netiquette'

- a teacher and the principal of a 'wired' high school in the US saying 'We can argue for ages about about kids needing to stay in their seats and keep quiet, but I don't know any job that exists, now or in the future, that requires them to stay in their seats and keep quiet' 'They won't be asked to remember a bunch of information someone told them, they will be asked to do stuff, build things, work on stuff'

- the dean of that same school monitoring the computers in real time (most students have Photobooth open) -- huge privacy breach (at least that's how I'd feel).

This is fascinating -- what are your thoughts on this?
Longtime reader, never submitted... but this PBS documentary spreads out in so many directions that are congruent with the YC crowd -- personal productivity and multitasking, education for the digital natives, school computer access, privacy, etc. etc. -- that I have to share it.

Some key moments from the first half of the show:

- brain scan research at Stanford on the impact of multitasking on productivity

- a Korean facility for internet and video game addict high school students, and a shot of 5 or 6 year olds signing up for a school-operated social network and singing a song about 'netiquette'

- a teacher and the principal of a 'wired' high school in the US saying 'We can argue for ages about about kids needing to stay in their seats and keep quiet, but I don't know any job that exists, now or in the future, that requires them to stay in their seats and keep quiet' 'They won't be asked to remember a bunch of information someone told them, they will be asked to do stuff, build things, work on stuff'

- the dean of that same school monitoring the computers in real time (most students have Photobooth open) -- huge privacy breach (at least that's how I'd feel).

This is fascinating -- what are your thoughts on this?
6 Tips for Building a Successful Company Website
Professional Web Design</a> and powerful website functionality can be one of the most powerful tools for the success of your company. Technology has changed rapidly in the past decade. The way we live, work and interact have changed. Technology has been the key driving factor behind most of the changes in our behaviour patterns.
Misc Q&A about JVM implementation from Click Click
One thing that was quite easy to do is to set the rational expression equal to something and solve for one of the variables. We did a lot of problems where there was only one variable: (x^2+9x+20)/(x^2-25)

In motivating them you don't necessarily have to give every reason to learn something, just reason enough to buy into what you are trying to teach them.
I see five reasons, and they are all advantages of being cloud-based, rather than a desktop application. There isn't much about drawing itself.
Bechtolsheim Thinks New 10G Switch Changes the Game Again
Seriously. By these standards I made a startup in three hours (three minutes on a speedrun) by buying qwertqwert.com and redirecting it to a dvorak translator.

Is it useful? It is more useful to me than most little websites, but by no stretch of imagination is it a startup. A very minimum viable product at best.
I agree. That really felt like I stepped into a parallel universe. Just got to my desk, cup of coffee in hand, on a Monday morning.

Weird way to start my week ;-)
I really hope they don't default the web search to "show more options". What I LOVE about Google is that I can start scanning down from top-left. Now I'd have a whole bar on the left I'd ignore 90% of the time. I know these bars help refine search for most people but it just doesn't feel comfortable to me.
Why the Library of Congress cares about archiving our tweets
Creating Online Buzz Without A PR Company
Fast PHP – effective optimisation and bottleneck detection
> They've got the unique property of not making you think about details

Paper and pen is good too, but it makes me think about details like:

* Whether a line is straight

* Whether my writing is legible

* Whether my writing fits in the container

etc. I don't have to think about these when using a drawing app. Also I can send my render to an XML slicing service. On the other hand, connections are much easier to draw on paper.
You know both will, someday, retire.
Portland has one of the two Dr Martens outlets outside of Europe, too.
I wonder what metric Google uses as a proxy for "conversion" in their A/B testing-- page views? Length of time on site? Ads clicked?
Economist like other old media magazines needs to capture new markets to survive in the game. That's how they are going after it by feeding the glorious frenzy to the emerging economies so that they can advance their share in these countries.

There was nothing in the article that could prove that emerging economies are actually innovating. Just because some american companies have set up huge R&D centers doesn't mean innovation is happening here right NOW. But they are indeed betting on future by being in these markets and having solid presence here.

Pass on, you won't miss anything by not reading it.

Just another feel-good article for the BRIC netizens.
Classification essay – have your facts are ready
When you decide that the essay you write has to be one hundred percent factual, without any kind of opinions thrown in, most of the time it means that you are doing a piece of writing that categorizes or classifies information.
Other cool balanced trees: rank-balanced trees [1], which have O(1) amortized insertion, deletion, and rebalancing, and ravl trees [2], which do not rebalance on deletion in hopes that insertions will happen soon and seem to rotate fewer times than both red-black trees and rank-balanced trees in experiments.

[1]: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~sssix/papers/rb-trees.pdf (2009)

[2]: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~sssix/papers/ravl-trees.pdf (2010)
I was responding to this comment: "If you want this, lobby for patent reform."
Is the iPhone to kernel developer comparison really sensible? It's two very, very different skill-sets we are talking about.
Unfortunately, fun usually involves the possibility of failure and trying to overcome it (at least with video games). Having a high chance of failure would probably ruin the games popularity.
JQuery and Ajax Best Demos, Part 6
Internet Marketing
Full-Service web design agency Ampheon offers complete range of custom-developed web services includes web design, web hosting, logo design, internet marketing, search engine optimization and Pay-Per-Click Management in London UK.
Interview of David Lifson, Founder of Postling
There's a great article on similar situations at:

http://www.berghel.net/col-edit/digital_village/dec-07/dv_12...

He talks about being brought in to help the cops figure out why they kept arresting hookers, crooks, etc with pocket fulls of hotel room keys. It turned out they were encoding stolen credit & atm cards on them.
If Flickr wouldn't be bought, it would be Flickr + YouTube + Vimeo, combined.
Logo Design Consultant: Moving Ahead
Operating for two years now, Logo Design Consultant (LDC) have been providing excellent business solutions in the form of Business Logos at affordable logo design prices. They have recently made some remarkable changes to their website design.
Ask HN: SMS Gateway free alternative ? I'm tired of replying 'Read' + ($0.10)..
When I send a SMS via their gateway (number@provider.com), they ask me to reply "Read" and then, they are charging me 0.10$ for sending a SMS .. but when someone send me a SMS via their cellphone, I can see the text without replying "Read".

Is there any kind of web services that allows to send a SMS directly (so I don't have to reply "Read" everytime) ?
You don't have to use decorators (they cause issues with circular dependencies as well, making it difficult to break up your views module). There is an add_url_rule method you can use to register views.

An ORM is tangental to Flask - there is some docs on how to use with SQLAlchemy (which also suggests WTForms for validation) but it's ORM/DB neutral, which is a good idea.

However I'm warming to the idea of avoiding an ORM completely in future projects - just use a thin layer around MySQLdb or DB of choice, like tornado.database or SQLAlchemy's query API.
Eric Ries interviewed on The Lean Startup methodology (with Q/A from HN)
Hola porras,

why the lack of cities in your project?
Here's the thread where I asked for questions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1267947

The Q/A from these starts ~14:30.
I guess VC's in Foursquare might also be very happy with the possible sale and less interested in seeing the baby grow.
Useful Jquery Examples
A startup "bubble" is sorta always here, even in the worst of times. Because by its very nature, successful startups tend to exit with very high margins, and the occasional home run has it so high that it naturally attracts the media, and consequently investors who always hope to fund the "next Google" or the "next Skype". But we almost never hear about 99% of the startups that fail, break even or succeed modestly.
Than that's good for people here in HN, trying to bootstrap and need coverage :)
> What about the rest of us?

20 years is still good, at least for me. By then, my iPod will be able to hold several brain dumps and I will be able to be restored to a previous state in case I have to.

More interesting will be to fork new virtual instances and merge them back later. Send one to virtual med school and send another on vacation. When both merge you have a well-rested doctor ;-)
Get Qualified Online Research Paper Help
When you need to write some kind of academic assignment, for example, a research paper, you need to find all the suitable information and present it in a proper form. In case you have any doubts or problems you may look for some ready research paper examples in the Internet.
Selling out to Yahoo has one huge advantage. They'll run your brainchild in to the ground so quickly that your non-compete clause probably amounts to nothing.

Kidding aside, Yahoo is a 'mixed bag', they've done some good acquisitions and made some headway, but they also literally killed a bunch of companies they took over through a combination of neglect and budgetary constraints.

If you sell out to Yahoo you know that that's the risk.
IAd: Opportunity for developers, a black eye for Google and Adobe
The motivation for learning to manipulate rational expressions has to come well before you get to this.
How to Understanding Research Paper Styles
Research paper styles are the established instruments of writing academic documents, through which students try to put forward their arguments and counterarguments for supporting the essay hypothesis.
That figure has not been verified.
a good start for users who dont know anything and wont spend hours of searching on technical blogs.

simplifying is always the best way to handle with a large front of customer's.
Fatal Flaw Discovered In Invisibility Carpet Cloaks
more reading here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1185345
This is just a selective repost of some of the tips from http://www.opensourcehunter.com/2010/02/27/26-cool-and-usefu... - and they're not particularly good tips (using .html() to check if an element is empty seems pretty dodgy, for example).
This service and policy is carrier-specific. I assume you are referring to a North American carrier because most providers around the world (except N. American operators) charge the txt message senders and not receivers.

The type of web service you refer to can only be supplied by the carrier. Usually, carriers prefer that you pay them to create a new shortcode and connect directly via SMPP to their SMSC gateway if you want to send large volumes of text messages. Otherwise, you're out of luck unless you have a data cable, convert your phone into a modem and find specific software pertinent to your device that allows you to control the device SMS client.

Good luck.
I hope they do elect to store the actual URLs when URL shorteners are involved. Really, though it would eat a hole in the URL shorteners' business, I really think sites like Twitter should be dynamically 'fixing' those links before inserting them into the database.
Why did you guess $20MM for Divvyshot?
Smart guys, going for the pickaxe business in the gold rush. The software side is also interesting (EOS, vEOS pages).
From http://www.aristanetworks.com/en/products/7500series:
Arista EOS ... Access hundreds of Linux networking applications
They've been trialling this for a while I think; my home computer has the new interface and has done for at least a week.

First impressions: "nicer" to look at for the most part - but no more or less functional (fresh is, I think, the best word for it). The sidebar is initially disconcerting/nasty but it's growing on me quickly.
Considering Data Stores (a look at java storage systems)
It has already looked like that for me for a few months now. Don't see what the big deal is.
I've had some split tests of this hit me (I think) over the last few weeks.

On my netbook it hid the sidebar (I think this was deliberate and not a split)

I've also had it appearing/disappearing by default on various desktop machines (I think that was a split).

I have to confess it is growing on my as a feature. The icons convinced me to start using the filters and some of them are useful.
Arista Networks Unveils New Switching Platform
patio11 gave a great example from his project, but I'll add one other thing.

I actually have an extra category for tickets that I file explicitly called "technical debt." Whenever I "screw my future self," as I heard someone call it once, I make sure to write it up, so that when I have some spare time, I can go back and fix it.

Most of these issues are fairly minor. "I know I have the same code here, here, and here, I should refactor it." Next time I'm touching that part of the codebase, I'll take care of it. But knowing is half the battle.
GVIM+IPython with Conque plug-in
Since I have seen it as a trial feature, I haven't liked it, and I commented to Google to that effect. I'd like to disable it entirely, or I will be driven to doing other kinds of searching more often.

After edit: for the rest of you who have seen this feature of the left side tools, have any of you been served up an option to turn it off?
Impressive Eyjafjallajökull eruption photos from April 16th
This has been a part of the MS knowledge base for at least one year. Why is this "news" now?

http://blogs.technet.com/fixit4me/archive/2008/11/19/welcome...
Good question.

I'll use this as an excuse to shamelessly plug the cofounder-finder I wrote in response to that spreadsheet, http://amb.itio.us.
How is this a feel-good article for BRIC people? I thought that it was an interesting article in that it pointed out a different mentality to innovation: rather than look at tech as the thing to innovate on, these countries are innovating around problems. For example, they talk about fighting piracy through constant iteration, which sounds like an excellent idea. Plus I am interested in studying their approach to traction, how to really rack up volume of users because each user doesn't have much money. I guess that there use/improvements in mobile money probably is a huge factor in this.
I found a lot to contemplate in this article
I'm quite aware of that. I just think it's too bad that the majority of America is a vomit of worthless and aggressively ugly sprawl full of lazy slobs that drive away any talent.
35+ Beautiful Websites’ Headers
Well said “First Impression is the last Impression”. When a user visits your website, the first thing he sees is the header of your website. You think, there is a probability if they do not find it attractive enough, they will not retain back in the website for a long time. To avoid risk and to enhance the value ,Designers have taken out full advantage of this situation. Some of them have so beautifully designed the website headers that the readers cannot just stop themselves from taking a look on them.
A republic or a democracy?
I see, thanks for all the information.
Why can't I browse the entries without creating an account?
Not YC, but relevant to question in a lateral way: http://www.techstars.org/results/
Sounds like you had removed the hard drive, which does provide an added cooling advantage this guy felt unable to exploit.
I'm sure there are many words you have yet to discover, and they are still worth learning and using.
> He can't be more than 50.

September 30, 1955 (age 54). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Bechtolsheim)
That is pretty condescending. I am not a libertarian and I even agree with the sentiments of the article, but the analysis offered in the article was very weak and the OP is right to be skeptical.
what sort of magic is this?
> Look at it this way: a 13" Macbook Pro weighs a whopping 50% more and all you get is a CPU that's a little faster, bigger harddrive and an optical drive, which many people don't need.

And twice the battery life. That's huge.
executing binary from a non-secured page seems like a no brainer.
I got that a week or so ago, complete with a serif font in the search box:

http://twitpic.com/1edlwq/full
For those interested, I asked around and it looks like the entire Twitter collection is only going to be 5TB worth.
Presumably because too many people thought it would be funny to fill it up with profanity and racist epithets. (See "Internet Dickwad Theory")
My favourite: "Seenele - map based Facebook application to find places to get mushrooms."
Personally, instead of

$('#id').replaceWith('<div>I have been replaced</div>');

I prefer

$('#id').replaceWith($('<div/>').text('I have been replaced.'));
Where did you saw first class functions in C++??? It doesn't even have closures!
Lawrence Lessig exposes America's raw telecommunications deal
When will this all be over?

When it stops driving traffic.
Red Gate is hiring, all interviewed will get an iPad
We're looking for more Software Engineers and Test Engineers to help Red Gate grow into one of the greatest software companies in the world. We know there are lots of awesome people out there who may be bored or unhappy at work. We're going to make it easy for you to be happier - at Red Gate.<p>It's easy to apply. Just leave your details for either our Software Engineer or Test Engineer role.<p>We don't need your CV or a covering letter at this stage.
Honestly, this is a great idea for most users, although how MS hopes to pull it off is a mystery, their cryptic error messages are rarely covered at all on their official sites...wouldn't it seem reasonable that the developer that raised the error would be responsible for at least making some somewhat informational note about it? And now, they are intending to actually fix it, automatically???? lol
We're looking for more Software Engineers and Test Engineers to help Red Gate grow into one of the greatest software companies in the world. We know there are lots of awesome people out there who may be bored or unhappy at work. We're going to make it easy for you to be happier - at Red Gate. It's easy to apply. Just leave your details for either our Software Engineer or Test Engineer role. We don't need your CV or a covering letter at this stage. Thank you
Just computed from the reported $20m exit, and the typical investment sizes / equity proportion that YC typically does. (I have no particular knowledge of whether the $20m figure is accurate or not.)
If it was a secure page it would be a-okay, right?
Visions on the future of magazines (post iPad)
What a brilliant concept. Force10 had better watch out, it looks like this is serious competition for their exascale product.
I would take the money and run. 120M now is a big exit for them. If they wait they might not that lucky next time, and even if they are, there are going to be 10M or more in funding while now it's just 1.35M.

But honestly I don't care, I had a terrible experience with them as developer (we built SquarePik, an iPhone client for Foursquare). Twitter became the Twitter we know cause they built their product on top of their API and supporting third party developers. Foursquare is mainly focus on their own clients from day one.
Yay for the short half-life of HN!
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1198924

But for those who enjoy the book, I've already moved on to my next project:
http://www.rubyproblems.com/
I think Red Gate is about as awesome as one can get without being a startup. [we use their offices and are eternally thankful]
Paint Roulette demonstrating HTML5 Canvas and WebSockets
Using the HTML5 Canvas element on the client side and Perl/Mojolicious (http://mojolicious.org) on the server side, both connected via WebSockets.
Developing Your Start Up's Board of Directors
Tacky.
I've never heard of an example of a city that died from high real estate prices. Do you know of any?

New York in the '70s. I wouldn't call this "death" since the city came back, but I wouldn't want to repeat that debacle.

It's not high real estate prices per se that kills a city per se, but real estate volatility. When real estate prices are high, repairs aren't made because there's no need to-- apartments sell themselves. When they're low and vacancy rates are high, repairs aren't made because there is no point.

High real estate prices and rents also impoverish a city; they draw money out of it, since most of the ownership is outside of it (cf. New York, where absentee assholes own most of the rental property). Some people in the city benefit, but the net effect is negative, especially since the young and talented are invariably on the butt-end of property prices/rents. During the boom, this isn't a problem, but after the boom ends, prices and rents remain high ("sticky" is the economic term) and this drains the city like a vampire.

Ten years later, due to disrepair, poverty, and exodus of talent, you have a shell of a city. Then the crime starts, and the city falls into an arrangement like New York in the 1970s nightmare.

What's difficult, if not impossible, to predict is when this transition will take place. It's likely to hit New York, but I have no idea if that will happen in 2011 or 2030. The tricky problem with bubbles (and New York real estate is still in a bubble, despite the semi-collapse of the national property bubble) is that it's very difficult to predict when they pop, although inevitable that they will.
Incidentally Red Gate has really great jobs pages [1], clear, concise and informative.

1. Example: http://jobs.red-gate.com/templates/redgate/jobdetail_zip/183...
I think that that is proof that Foursquare should sell... to Facebook. Their valuation is still stomach-able enough if Facebook wants to use their current operating profit and cash reserves. It would immediately make Facebook the mobile leader, and take Foursquare to millions of users.
Microsoft stealth launches 'historic' programming language: F#
Possibly because most people might not sign up if they knew there were only a handful of other people on there?

NB That isn't a dig at amb.itio.us - it's a nice wee site and I have signed up for it.
Gabriel, I've really enjoyed your series. Keep it up!
Ok, so what if you're already in the rut this article describes. This accomplishes little for the people that are already stuck in this life and dissatisfied in it, but feel trapped.

Well, no, that's not fair. It makes them feel worse. Nice try, but fail.
Strogatz: It Slices, It Dices
Clojure: Parsing ISO8601 dates with Ragel state machine