skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Fascinating. Strikes me as somewhat a parallel to the Hippocratic Oath. Being that engineering often deals with taming huge forces (somebody here referred to a collapsing bridge), and also with the welfare of the public, the argument for a ritual hilighting personal responsibility can definitely be substantiated.
Lame. Can you at least tell us how you got hacked? I thought we are tech geeks here....
Wouldn't the pipe be much more brittle when the co2 was poured on it?
"short tenures could also signify a rapidly growing company"

Sure, but if everyone interviewing you are less than a year in, where are all the people who worked here before?

And why are you being interviewed mostly or exclusively by junior team members who haven't proved themselves yet? Is the company entrusting the selection of successful employees to newbies who haven't yet proved they can be such?

An interviewer for a company in the middle of a growth spurt should be able to explain that, quote some enticing growth figures, and mention that "almost all of the original team members are now project leaders and executives... in fact, if this goes well, you'll meet some of them shortly".
Putting the touch into touch screens
Can anyone please explain to me what he means when he says that 'most' stock options become worthless even when the startup is sold for a hefty profit? I am quite confused by how they could be devaluated like that.
First to parse this page into a snazzy histogram that automatically updates gets an upvote.
Many people (like me) have deliberately chosen to not join facebook. We can't even try to address issues we see.

I wouldn't call this "can't". If you actually couldn't use their preferred identity provider, that would be different (and it could happen; I had a lot of trouble getting a Facebook account at all a few years back, due to my unusual name). But choosing not to sign up is not the same as not being able to sign up.
Yea, write a simple Python/Perl script that interfaces with TOR and force-reset your exit nodes each time you send out a new request and randomize the time interval. There are plenty of TOR exit nodes in the world to swing the vote your way.
I believe URLs are limited to 1000 or 1024 bytes, or are in practice on some browsers (probably IE of course), and are either limited to 7-bit ASCII for strict compliance or the character encoding is just undefined. It's been a while since I looked at the RFCs in detail on this and I'm sick right now so I apologize for the lack of detail.
That doesn't include bandwidth costs though. $0.22/GB for outgoing traffic, and $0.08/GB for incoming traffic.
For me, its completely the time spent collecting it. If I could get all that data with no energy or attention spent towards it, I'd be all for it.
True, but he said it was a small app.
The terms for the options that most rank-and-file employees get are rarely great. After the interest (which can be high), preference (sometimes double preference) and other terms it is often likely that your 0.2% of the company really isn't worth anything much. There's also the chance that you didn't have acceleration in there, and you weren't fully vested by the time the sale was made.
I'm guessing a Wordpress exploit - there were a few of them a while back. If you go to techcrunch.com/wp-admin it looks like they're running custom Wordpress.
Great video, but maybe they should have been wearing lab coats. They look like wallstreet CEOs in those suits.
You have to be careful what file extension you would choose on Windows
It looks like the System Restore would trigger backup of files with certain extensions (574 in count on Vista) every 24 hours.

The full list of extensions is here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378870.aspx

To me this looks like problem solved completely backwards! Probably when comes to the Windows OS files it makes sense, but not when comes to non-Microsoft Application files.
I also have a diabetic friend, and yes, I was exaggerating. I suppose I should be careful, as its probably not obvious enough that everyone would realize I was. I agree the information is interesting, but the collecting is a huge hassle. That's my problem with this whole thing. If I go on a day-hike, I don't want to be pulling out my notebook constantly to report my energy levels. It kills the experience, makes it more about me than nature or the hike itself.

As I said in another comment, if I could passively collect all this information, it'd be great to have, but I feel like the cost of collecting it outweighs its usefulness in most cases. But I'll certainly grant you that the equation varies per person.
Well, they give a rat's ass about the kind of language developers use to develop iPhone apps.
In defence of PowerPoint
Nice! I'd love to hear about what you used for heating elements ( are you the same person who wrote that article? ) and as cooking vessel?
Here's the thing- at some small companies that still doesn't really work. I can't put anything out there about my current company like that because it would be painfully obvious (even if anonymous) that it was me.
70-680: Windows 7, Configuring
Known as the Microsoft TS: Windows 7, Configuring (70-680), this exam plays an integral role in obtaining your certification. All Microsoft certification exams are extremely detailed and cover many different technological areas. They have the 70-680 questions and answers for this very purpose, to prepare you for the unexpected.
Seconded. I have a server on prgmr.com right now that's running node.js and I've been very pleased. Fast servers and and perfect uptime, so far. Sign up for the waiting list if you're interested. The only konck against them besides the waiting list is that it takes a day or so from when you purchase the VPS to when It's ready.
But it does take attention, at least until it's a habit. In order to insure you actually do the steps after every meal, etc, you either need to be thinking about it all the time, or use some other device to remind you. Eventually, it'll be second-nature, but there's a considerable cost in the ramp-up period.
Just to clarify: It looks like Windows monitors files with specific extensions (from the article above) the full list consist of 574 extensions on Vista:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378870.aspx

If you have a file with such extension, Windows might do some unexpected I/O (backup) once in 24 hours.

The article points to what the people have found out when they've put .RDB as file extension, which gets monitor, rather than say .DB which is not.

The same story from the SQLite author - http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=PerformanceTuningWindow...

"Be VERY, VERY careful what you name your database, especially the extension.
For example, if you give all your databases the extension .sdb (SQLite Database, nice name hey? I thought so when I choose it anyway...) you discover that the SDB extension is already associated with APPFIX PACKAGES.
Now, here is the cute part, APPFIX is an executable/package that Windows XP recognizes, and it will, (emphasis mine) ADD THE DATABASE TO THE SYSTEM RESTORE FUNCTIONALITY
This means, stay with me here, every time you write ANYTHING to the database, the Windows XP system thinks a bloody executable has changed and copies your ENTIRE 800 meg database to the system restore directory....
I recommend something like DB or DAT."
Many, many ways.

First of all, "high" is relative. The exit may be high, but still not cover the funding, so all the proceeds go to the funding entities (the VCs) and maybe a few top executives / founders. That happens in countless startups that sell for $50m after raising $30-40m. Even "senior" employees get basically nothing.

Another common issue is dilution. Your vested shares can and will be severely diluted. Again, the VCs and maybe the founders are the only ones with any control or protection over this.

A lot of other interesting things can happen at or around that all important payday. You may want to read about how things like IPO and other liquidity events are actually handled by law. Surprisingly few startup employees do, and this stuff is far from trivial - there's a reason why Goldman et al pay the best and brightest to figure this stuff out.

All of this is doubly true if the founders / execs are untrustworthy / morally indifferent and actually strive to dilute or otherwise deprive you.
Run by one of our very own: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=lsc
Paypal Integration in the web2py Python Framework
Government Mandates and Programming Languages
That's correct; I can assure you that we absolutely are testing Bing ... is there something you think we missed? Please feel free to call that out to my attention, and I'm happy to dig deeper for you.
"Would we call a TV show with no minority characters "racist?""

Though not in so many words, the kind of academic liberals who use words like "heterosexist" and "heteronormative" would.
Please remember Microsoft web developers are human, like you and I. Ask around, they all HATE ie,much more than you could know. It's an embarassment and joke inside the company.

The IE development team however are not human. They are monsters.
I don't pay myself, everything goes back in the business.
Despite what we think of their work, the team itself is a class act: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/29039
What on Earth is a Lambda Expression? (C#)
how do i do it?
Apple has been milking the same, tired design cues for the last 10 years. The fact that people still think they have brilliant designers is a testament to the brilliance of their marketing team.
Does anyone have an experience with http://burst.net ? Their VPS starts at 5.95/month (512M) and 9.95/month (1G), cheapest I've seen but I don't know anything about them.
"Even the best-meaning managers tend to be grossly optimistic when pitching their companies to a new hire"

I've learned to view a job interview more like a sales-pitch. Once you view it this way, you become a lot more thorough with your questions.
I have done all three and the motivations and results of each are distinct. If you are Sciartiginering you are not building software. Maybe ASCII art?
I love my Pre. Great new innovative ui, and excellent browsing experience.
Sorry, but Microsoft hasn't "tossed" IE6 aside. We still support and service it, today. Would you prefer that someone who bought a shrink-wrapped copy of Windows XP at Best Buy 6 years ago suddenly discovers that their computer/browser stopped working as it should, simply because they chose not to upgrade? Would you be happy if Toyota came by and said they refused to fix your car since it was over 5 years old and your only way out was to upgrade?

Trust me, servicing IE comes at a phenomenal cost to us; nothing would make us happier than to have to deal with a smaller matrix to deal with ...
I'd agree that I'm not stoked about government mandating the usage of programing languages, but for financial data I'm not surprised that they'd try to mandate python. It is my understanding that python is heavily used in investment banking other heavy financial analysis.
Cost of Postage versus Movie Tickets
Facebook contacts in my address book and a performant OS, right now. It's called Android.
I know it's not NoSQL but wouldn't this be a very good candidate for RethinkDB? A few TBs of SSD is not that expensive for a major site. It also supports live schema changes and is a drop-in replacement for MySQL.
Would you prefer that someone who bought a shrink-wrapped copy of Windows XP at Best Buy 6 years ago suddenly discovers that their computer/browser stopped working as it should, simply because they chose not to upgrade?

Yes.

Would you be happy if Toyota came by and said they refused to fix your car since it was over 5 years old and your only way out was to upgrade?

That is standard practice in many industries. At some point, maybe not in 5 years but more like 7-10, you will bring your Toyota to the dealership and they'll explain that the part it needs is no longer available. Your options at that point include using aftermarket or salvaged parts, likely installed by an independent mechanic, or to get a new car. Life goes on.
I think that is right, since the freezing points / boiling points are also influenced by pressure. So when it tries to expand and cannot expand due to an unbreakable container, the pressure increasing substantially, and the respective points also change.

I'm sure if you try to boil water to steam, and keep it in a container that cannot expand, it won't convert completely to steam, since pressure increases its boiling point. With the conversion to ice, I am not exactly sure (something similar happens possibly) just because it is a little atypical in terms of volumes and liquid / solid states. Also, too tired to look this up :)
Digital Signage Software
Been a while since I used Ubuntu, but you can typically install newer packages from pre-release versions. You're not locked in to the 6 month upgrade cycle.

I think it's a pretty good model. For 90% of the installed software there's really no reason to update packages more than every 6 months.
We need digital signage software to advertise all our new and promotion products and found our greatest solution here at Simpledigitalsignage.com. The package here is really affordable, we love how easy to use it is.
That doesn't explain it. Suppose you or I act stupidly in 1% of those situations, and suppose only 1% of the people who came to fakebook (pardon the pun) couldn't find the login and complained. Than we could very well be all equally stupid.
Ouch :(

I certainly aren't human after having to deal with nasty comments on IEBlog over the years ... and I guess now, unfortunately, even on news.yc ... I guess I should be happy it hasn't deteriorated to death threats in here yet (like it has at other places) :/
I understood that it would indeed freeze completely - it would just have a different crystalline structure than regular ice that freezes at room temperature. Some of the molecular configurations result in higher density than liquid water, so it would actually contract rather than expand in those instances.
Sure, it's a bit of fun to point out an IE error visiting Bing. But the title of this post, and the uncalled-for leap to generic Microsoft bashing are pretty pathetic. The first comment (from a Microsoft employee) rightly calls the author out on this nonsense.
Bitcask: because you needed another local key/value store
If you wanted to, sure. Palm also has an App Store. IIRC, they just entered into a bunch of EU markets.
By the time you're done writing and testing a new webOS, the market would have changed and the serious contenders established. Right now it's still up for grabs.
I just entered the American equivalent, the Order of the Engineer. Our ring is smooth, polished stainless steel and the obligation is not as ponderous (written around 1970 as I recall). I think it's definitely a worthwhile thing.
Somebody needs to mention that really low turnover can also be a sign of problems. People don't often leave jobs where they're asked to do very little. It can be a sign of a lazy, unambitious culture.
And unicorns are magic horses.

The properties of ideal entities aren't much use in a universe where nothing approximating such entities actually exists.

Note that Fannie and Freddie actually lied about the mortgages pools that they constructed (said mortgages contained more subprime than they admitted). This not only defrauded the folks who bought those pools, it also made the entire mortgage market look safer than it actually was.

Note that it was regulators who pushed subprime mortgages and insurance for such securities (so they could justify "encouraging" banks to hold them as regulated assets). Said regulators also gave ratings monopoly AND told banks that they had to hold Fannie and Freddie stock, which put many of them into technical default when Fannie and Freddie went down.

At best, regulation is systemic risk. Often, it's corruption backed by a threat of violence.
> to influence the organization of records on disk so that the most common queries will require very few seeks

might be revealing my lack of knowledge here but what tools/apis etc does one use when they want to work at this level? It seems like a good thing to do but I'd have no idea how to go about it. Enlightenment appreciated.
Finally it’s HP that solved Palm Mystery
Ask HN: cheap way to control voltage wirelessly
There are a lot of knobs that can be turned by controling the voltage on an input in real time. In my field, people usually who want to do this just buy whatever National Instruments is selling for $1500. It's expensive and involves a mess of wires, but it works.

Does anyone here know of a cheap way or two to wirelessly control a voltage (say from a netbook or phone)? Cheap here means in the $1-$25 range.
While this is cool, when you get to this point with JavaScript syntax why not just write your program in a Lisp like Clojure? People keep saying that JavaScript is good for asynchronous code, but that might not true at all. It's just that we JS hackers become very accustomed to a style of code that works great for simple user-driven events. In my experience this does not scale for much else.

Maybe we can make it work, but I don't like what I've seen thus far. I want people to adopt a syntax that doesn't affect standard JS style: http://mootools.net/shell/q9ASd/28/
I've never had a phone with Windows Mobile, but I use to have a PDA woth that OS and I could run both Minimo (Gecko based) and Opera on it.
they are running off wordpress.com
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/18/wordpress-com-outage-techcr...
It's how much you earned. It would be the gross, so the cash you pumped back into a business wouldn't matter for this answer.
Remedy: disregard all "no" votes. We have a winner!
Mnmlist: manufacturing content
It's very easy to vote multiple times in Poll Daddy.

Just keep changing your user-agent.

It's worthless for anything serious.
Brand tags: first thing that pops into people's head
I prefer themeforest.net and the rest of the envato sites. More modern designs and cheaper.
I'm curious as to why you think that; do you have a personal experience with one or more of the team members, is it based solely on their product, is it their handling of public relations, etc.? Make no mistake, IE as a product/team/etc. (and MS in general) have made a lot of mistakes, but "monster" is both ambiguous in meaning and quite damning without any context.
That is for a very different reason than anything being discussed here.
Are they still want to develop apps in javascript to run them in browser? Is this called "the real prize"?
It's also a WebDav / S3 client, and cloud-based drive emulator ala Dropbox. Good job at misrepresenting.
So do you have weekly meetings with Steve Ballmer where you all get together and cackle maniacally about new IE idiosyncrasies?
whoa

ALTER TABLE takes an unreasonably long time [...] Changes take over a month.

How about a RAID of SSD ? Or a Fusion-IO ioDrive?

Shouldn't they be an order of magnitude faster?

I'd love to see a benchmark comparison of a large db with SSD vs conventional (can't find one).

added: here's an old benchmark with an older slower SSD that is faster than RAID10 http://www.bigdbahead.com/?p=68 and an update with more details (and faster) here http://www.bigdbahead.com/?p=557
Does that form hurt anyone else's eyes?
Seems reasonable.

One interesting question you can ask each other is "What would it take to change your mind?". In a certain sense--which may remind you of Karl Popper, the weaker the conditions you can offer on which you'd change your mind, the stronger your standpoint is.

Of course asking this question can be quite uncomfortable for yourself. For example, I like to think of atheism as the reasonable person's natural point of view. But I could not offer good conditions that would make me change my mind. Because I suspect I'd rather doubt my sanity than accept sensations that would be incompatible with no-gods.
This has been a really interesting back and forth, just a quick point:

> There's a reason the Haitian earthquake killed more people than stronger earthquakes in other places. Haiti has had "limited government" for decades.

That's actually false. Haiti ranks as the 141st economically free country in the world out of around 200, and 24th out of 29 in the Caribbean. Government spending is around 20% of GDP, the income tax rates are comparable to the USA, but the property tax rate is sky high - up to as much as 15%. So no, Haiti hasn't had "limited government" the way Singapore or Hong Kong has limited government. They've got quite a bit of government going on, it just happens to both inept and corrupt.
But it doesn’t beachball and it doesn’t crash.

Flash is the only piece of software I use that crashes constantly. As in nearly every day. Compared to once, twice or even as much as – gasp! – a dozen times per year when using all that other stuff I use.

It’s disruptive. It’s annoying. More so than spinning fans. That’s a minor annoyance compared to the crashes.
Open source packages and linux kernel compiled together - really really unparalleled. No community, no support, no market, just a plain cognitive dissonance.
I had a physics teacher who liked to discuss with crackpots (not too many hardcore Christians in Germany). He agreed with what your saying: Disproving their models is hard, and those guys aren't stupid.

As an exercise: Try to convince me that the Earth isn't flat.
Given the level of effort it takes us as web developers to support IE, I don't think you can fault people for expressing their frustration every once in a while. IE is the greatest source of dev-rage in web development. I personally appreciate the level of attention that IE has been getting lately, but we're still fighting with the old versions, waiting for them to drop off.

It's not fair at all to take it out on individuals on the IE team or do something stupid like threaten physical violence (and I'd fully support someone being called out for that), but letting people rant at your organization as a whole keeps people sane. Leaving Posterous because a designer finally hit a boiling point in frustration? That's just as bad.

FWIW, I can appreciate how hard it is to work on a team where you're fighting both the legacy of your old products and the decades-old impression of Microsoft as anti-web. Every version reduces the amount of frustration we encounter and every version that drops off makes us all that much happier. We're glad to see IE join the forefront of the browser race again. :)
This is kind of absurd. Scripts are throwing errors all the time on the biggest of websites. The only people who notice them are the ones with their debuggers enabled. This might not even be due to MS.
Doesn't describe many common upgrade scenarios; it's much more about starting a new Rails 3 project.

The official upgrade plugin might be a good place to start:

http://github.com/rails/rails_upgrade
That says nothing about the distribution, or the absolute levels.

Most people are pretty competent in breathing, they don't suffocate. Still half of them are below median in their breathing abilities.
Yeah, just throwing in non standard random crap like XMLHttpRequest. No good will ever come from this experimentation without a guiding standards body.
I believe that's true. However, at my parents' cabin in the Rocky Mountains, the pipes still blow if they aren't drained properly (they're at surface level). It's only happened twice that I can remember, but it's quite impressive to see a steel pipe with a crack running the entire length.
Because I'd rather write my programs in a Lisp like Javascript?
At the announcement he mentioned that there would be multiple availability zones - which we could treat as yeffectivly different data centers. I thought they were _literally_ different datacenters. What exactly is an availability zone?
You can try this at home with a bottle of beer. Put it in the freezer, forget about it (happens to me all the time) and open it. It freezes instantly.