skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=edw519 is my alternate resume. I share it with all prospective customers and employers. This accomplishes several things:

- It demonstrates my passion for programming, whether or not it's work related.

- It gives them a chance to get to know me a little better through stuff that would never be found on a resume.

- It shows that I'm not bashful when it comes to sharing what I've learned.

- It (hopefully) demonstrates that I'm willing to listen and learn from others.

- It (hopefully) demonstrates that I've accumulated at least a little wisdom over the years.

- They may actually find a comment I've made about an issue near and dear to them. This may give me an extra boost.

- It keeps me honest and encourages me to "play nice". I always have to consider what a prospective customer would think before I hit "add comment".
Pricing rule of thumb:

Tell your client your hourly rate. Then slap your client in the face.

If they're not more shocked by the rate than the slap, you're not charging enough.

Also, make some prominent small projects, artsy fartsy or designery or whatever. Something that's exciting and interesting and based off Twitter or feeds or some such buzzwordy BS. That's the best way to rope in marketing agency work... where everyone charges outrageous rates all the time, so they don't mind paying them ;)
What Steve Ballmer needs to do to save Microsoft's mobile bacon
That's just really sad, that there are people that would be interviewing for a coding position and it turns out they can't even do that in under a minute or so.

How do they expect to do their jobs ?
+1 for Bangalore. And I can vouch for another 4 guys (not currently active on HN) who'd definitely join in as well.

My email's on my profile. Guess we can try a trial meet if we can have (at least) 10 guys turn up. And then see if it catches on.
angel investing in others
since it's a brand new user it's probably bullshit, especially when you remember that it's next to impossible to sell a company as a cash only deal. There is always an earn out/stock play, to make sure the buying company isn't buying a lemon
Sounds like a case of inner city pressure to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqfcwgT0Ds
I am a front-pager mostly, but I hit up the new page when I find the front-page content lacking...content. I also tend to scan the new page right after submitting an article, which is a few times a week.
Two Words: Hookers and Blow.
We have a patch, but not tested enough...
Maybe in 1.1.1 or in 1.2.0
Interestingly CodeRay doesn't support Perl. At least its not listed on their front page.
I struggle with this more than anything. I shrug off simple ideas because I perceive them to be amateurish and unimportant, and instead stress out over something bigger that may be infinitely less successful.

I'm gradually learning to just work on something, as sitting around waiting for some magical idea is a waste of time. Not to mention, you can discover much bigger problems and opportunities from working on anything as opposed to nothing.
sit down with a copy of Rich Dad Poor dad. Do you live near a college? Is this a good college? If so, look into buying a few houses around there and rent them to students, and if you can, buy adjacent houses when they become available.

Say you buy 2 houses for $350k(random example for bloomington, In, can be much less.

I'd buy these in cash, which goes against everything you will ever read about total leverage and all of that, but then you can buy two more houses and put 20% down other two as collateral if they require it(they shouldn't), so you have 4 houses at the cost of 2.4 houses, which means you will be collecting a lot of rent. Since you have 4 houses you are depreciating as they are investments, that income will probably come in right around being tax-free as long as it is something around $1.2m in property so like $45k/ish a year income, if not more.

Then you buy up a few houses with this income, maybe you can get 3 houses in a row, then maybe you can build a row of townhouses you can rent(cheaper to maintain)

So that's just an idea, arguably better than letting it sit in an account, and you are buying something that has a relatively high demand, student housing.

Other housing also works, but students are better to deal with.

So you're making a bunch of money off of 1.2m of your 5m and if you ever have to sell or get money out of those houses you could borrow against them or you could sell them outright.

Also check out tax free muni bonds.

not proofread
When you go on an interview and say you were CEO of acme co 4 employees or VP of product at Microsoft they will know the difference. I've always thought your a "CIO" but my project manager has a bigger budget and more responsibility. People know this. No harm in giving yourself a flashy title. Good on you CEO's of 2 man companies!!
I got fizzbuzzed in an interview before I knew what fizzbuzz was. It took about a minute for me to think "what? you want me to do what? Why? ... Ok?" So I would say 1-10 minutes is acceptable.
Make it work for you. Become an angel investor and advisor for other startups. Take $1m of it and invest make 50 $20k seed investments. Do something that makes you tick, help others if possible. Dont ask yourself, what can i do with my money, instead ask, what do i want to do that this money now allows me to do?

Also, any clues on what the name of your company is?
Palm loses webOS user interface design lead Matias Duarte, report says
most of the people who have ever lived throughout all of humanity's existence have been unhappy with their lives. That would seem to me a dubious proposition.

Actually, I would agree with the assertion that most humans who've ever lived have been less than happy through most of their lives. The 60K number is mentioned in the context of being in the top 20 percent, status-wise, so this implies that most Americans are unhappy even though they're richer than Croesus, quite literally. This squares with my experience.
They say money can't buy happiness look at my cking smile ear to ear baby!. Boiler room
It must be a lot of work to make these, wonder why the creators don't want credit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma
Glaxo Open Sources Malaria Drug Search Data
Why the downvotes? Do we not care for sarcasm on HN?

I think it's a appropriate response too. Wordpress does both hosted and open source, and by all accounts they're doing OK.
Still NO  Google task data API after 15 months & more than 3500 votes
Because what we're talking about here is Google dumping into other markets and ruining businesses. Of course their tactic wont beat free products on price alone, but that doesn't have anything to do with the discussion.
You don't have a financial advisor? Well, I assume you have a lawyer, and I assume you have a banker-- ask them for recommendations. You might also ask the pros who were on your board of directors prior to the sale.

I wouldn't assume any of these things. Did YOU have a lawyer or financial advisor when you were 20?

The OP reads as if it was basically a 1-man shop sale. If he sold a company for $5M that had a board of directors and all the typical formalities, it probably would have been VC or angel backed, and the terms of the deal for a $5M sale would have probably netted him $500K at best. Let's face it, almost any investor-backed equity event of $5M is pretty much a failure and returns little if anything to the management team.

So, I read this as a "guy in a basement" sort of scenario who managed to create some webapp, service, or widget pretty much solo and was wise enough to be able to flip it for a nice chunk of change.

I also happen to think he was smart for reaching out here to get broader advice. I've met TONS of financial advisors that can't manage funds for shit. Not to mention in the current market a lot of funds are down, and I'm sure he would have no trouble finding a bad financial planner or lawyer that would love the opportunity to manage the portfolio of someone naive in that regard.
I like how I feel when I am using the thing

This sums up my opinion on the iPad. It just makes casual consuming fun.

My wife still sings "Flash, ah-ah" to me every time we talk about it, but she's warming up to it. Watching Modern Family on the ABC app while snuggled together on the couch was a revelation for her.

We don't use it for everything, but the things we use it for sure are fun.

It doesn't replace my MBP, but neither did my smartphone.
DuckDuckGo: A new search engine having features that even Google doesn' have
There have been a couple of other posts about people wanting to organise one in either Amsterdam or Utrecht.

I live in the Amsterdam area and work near Amstel Station in Amsterdam, so I'm good to go to Amsterdam or Utrecht.

PS. Anyone happen to be going to the UX Cocktail Hour on May 31st or The Web and Beyond conference on June 1st?
My alternative CV.
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUEU0HM-7KWpZGQ5enZ6bXBfM...

This is my traditional CV. (outdated)
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUEU0HM-7KWpZGQ5enZ6bXBfMW...
Defensive programming is not always the correct assumption though.
Ask HN: Making my app mobile?
Hey guys,

So I've been working on a fitness app for a couple of months now - its still in its early stages, but its closing in on 200 members pretty quick. That said, as I continue to work on and improve the app - the greater need I feel for a simple mobile version (i.e. logging in and data entry).

My question is this: should I make a quick and dirty version for mobile browsers so it can work on all devices? Or should I focus on releasing an iphone app for now (which would take me longer than the mobile browser version) and come back to android/blackberry apps later (probably 6-8 months down the road)?

This isn't going to be a huge value prop for the product, just kind of a needed feature right now, so I don't want to spend needless amounts of time on it while the product still needs more iterations, and the team is comprised of just me.

About the app - its for weight lifters, not the average joe looking to get skinny. (feel free to give it a look at liftrr.com)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulers_identity
It all depends on the company. If he created something that works, has value, and happened to find someone with money who can do the math, this is not unlikely at all.

I have first-hand knowledge of several simple cash transactions for business sales like this in the $2M-$10M range.
Really? So when one company is getting all its revenue from ads and gives things away free in other market segments it is the market that decided those areas weren't worth anything? Care to sight any credited economics sciences people who explain this?
http://cs-www.cs.yale.edu/homes/dna/papers/vldb07hstore.pdf
Y2K-Like Crisis Predicted -- IPv4 Runs Out in 18 Months
According to CNN, the Internet runs out of IPv4 addresses in a mere 18 months from now. Unfortunately, a lot of software is coded for the IPv4 standard, not IPv6. I predict a Y2K-like crisis until this is resolved.

CNN Report is here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/27/internet.crunch.2012/index.html?hpt=T2

In fact, at a previous company I used to work for, I recall software I wrote that was tuned for IPv4 because at the time I had no idea that IPv4 would run out so fast. After a layoff, I warned the boss, but he likely ignored me. Oh well, their loss. I imagine with all the tech layoffs going on, this is going to be quite common.

Meanwhile, this is not the booming economy of the early and mid 90s, so a lot of companies won't be able to afford to make the changes like they could during Y2K -- making the crisis for IPv6 even more lengthy.

I would like to recommend each and every developer to start reading up on IPv6 as soon as possible. The world needs to sound the warning bell and get everything tested and cutover to IPv6 before we have major systems malfunctioning.

Imagine what would happen to the world's financial markets, in a tough time like we have today, when the systems we rely upon start failing because they need IPv6.

I also predict that pretty soon, you'll start to see a massive hiring cycle for IT workers as they are brought back into the workplace to convert and test everything for IPv6.

(Might also be a good time to buy gold?)
Android might be growing faster than iPhone, but how does that directly benefit Google? Apple makes money for every iPhone sold, but Android phones are manufactured and sold by other companies than Google. I thought Google gave away the OS for free (unlike Microsoft's strategy of licensing their mobile OS at a cost). Can someone explain to me how Google makes money on Android phone sales?

Please don't say "future search ad revenue from having more internet connected devices in the hands of consumers."

Edit: In answer to my own question, if the only profit Google makes from Android sales is search ad revenue, then according to this article (http://aseidman.com/2010/05/65000-new-android-devices-ship-e...), Google makes only $8.63 per Android device sold over the entire lifetime of that device. Article was found via HN, but no one has commented on it yet.

So apart from this meager search ad revenue, how does Google benefit financially from Android sales? I just can't figure this one out.
Two thoughts ...

First, I think you'd need to differentiate it from LinkedIn, as all of the benefits I'm reading here seem to be covered, except for some of the more cosmetic aspects (CSS).

Second, I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing people would pay a yearly fee for. I think people are willing to pay when they're in a time of need, but most of the time, it's hard to see the value of paying for a service that's there as a "someday I'll need this, maybe" service. Note that job boards (the flipside of this app) charge for specific job listings ... companies don't generally pay for a "retainer" service that they can then post to when they have a need ... they pay a per-job fee. Maybe an annual subscription would work, but, again, communicating the value would be important.

Keep in mind, of course, that HN might not be the best place to do market research on this, as few people here are interested in keeping a resume and applying to work for someone else. Most here (me, for example) want to be captain of their own ship. So feedback here could be skewy.
> I have first-hand knowledge of several simple cash transactions for business sales like this in the $2M-$10M range.

Like what?
I have the 3G version, and for me it's the perfect commuting companion.
I think this is the potential of tablets in general. If others, like Notion Ink's Adam, are able to deliver the features/price that they're promising, the whole category could be a big hit. The iPad is just a hint of what's to come.
I totally agree that we aren't building enough nuclear power plants, but that is purely for political reasons. The research is still happening and once there is a change in the political climate we'll be able to ramp up nuclear power over a few decades.

Also if we look back at the past 1000 (or even just 100) years of human history, we've been pretty good at discovering and harvesting 'magic ponies' of all shapes and sizes.
Note-taking in meetings: Three easy habits your lawyer will love you for
Python 3 frameworks anyone ?
Here's Why Lawyers Don't Run Startups (And Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers)
Any regrets? No.

Wow! Almost every one said that.

Now that I think about it, it's not that surprising. I have had 2 failed product businesses, and looking back, I did lose a lot of time and money. But I learned a lot. Both technically and business. Stuff I could have never learned in a regular job.

I have had quite a few good jobs since those days, and I've always done well, both with the work and the rewards. I attribute my success to those failures.

Failing with a startup often teaches more than succeeding as an employee. You may lose time and money, but the other dividends may make it all worthwhile anyway.
Why Lawyers Don’t Run Startups
Ask HN: Show me how to perform raw data analysis more effectively
I've been a ruby guy for a few years now. The elegance of the language is the biggest draw for me. Unfortunately, I feel like every time I pull a ton of data from sql, or a set of flat files in to memory that I'm plagued by GC collection pauses and that it takes _much_ longer than it should to process the data.

That said, I'm looking for a better language or at least a better framework for just doing exploratory data analysis. We've done some big data transformations with hadoop (pig) and post processing the output with a little bit of C. Those datasets were absolutely huge and the problem warranted using something a bit more heavyweight like that.

For the small / medium sized datasets I'm looking for something a bit more elegant. What good tradeoff between speed and elegance have you found? Got any supporting code samples to make your case?
OK, so the point is that the iPad doesn't replace laptops or smart phones, but complements them. Great, more devices to buy! Just what I wished for.

I guess in couple of years Steve implements some new consumer device which complements the existing ones. He's so visionary.
x86 assembly is full of old cruft, that 'cld' there is a thing that if you've ever forgotten it probably cost you a lot of time.

99% of the time the flag is clear... unless it isn't.

So for a seasoned assembly programmer that cld is idiomatic, axod probably typed the instruction reflexively because he knows he can't rely on the state of the direction flag, even if it has nothing to do with the problem per-se.
There is no reST library for ruby that I could find.
I have a suspicion that this is not true... or at least is just for the purpose of bragging. But the replies at least could be interesting. Here's mine:

At 21 I came into a pretty useful 6 figure sum, essentially through good luck and timing. At that age you're used to living on a shoe string (especially if a student like I was) and so that can seem an extraordinary amount of money. I'd say it's a pretty scary age to become affluent, you may have grown up in the last couple of years since leaving school but it hardly counts as worldly.

I spent about £30,000 within a couple of months before I stopped and thought about it properly. So the first piece of advice is: avoid too much temptation! That can be hard and I still have trouble controlling impulse purchases (Amazon Prime is the worst invention ever :P my book buying budget is still about £300/month, and I've actually worked to get that down).

As to what to do with the money; while plenty of HNers will be able to give you advice (hopefully from experience!) the other posters are right - you need to talk to a financial advisor.

My take? Put it somewhere safe and take the interest - then just ignore it. If you want to take the $5M and do something with it (i.e. start a firm, pursue your dream) then do that. Otherwise I advise ignoring it and just carrying on with your career how you want - albeit slightly more comfortable/financially secure. In 5 years when you want a nice house the money is there and ready. etc etc.

Certainly having money is going to change you; but I'd suggest it needn't change your life path too much. Don't let it derail what you want to do :) allow it to facilitate those things!

This is pretty much what I have done and it sees to have worked. YMMV.
Hire a professional. You have the money now so you can afford one. So you don't get taken, I would ask around for suggestions. You could also call up Vanguard they offer financial planning for people with that amount of money. With them, you don't have to worry about ulterior motives because of their corporate structure.
Like I care if random people like having a cup of coffee on the terrace with an ipad.

1. put 'ipad' in title

2. write some random thoughts, don't matter if you like it or not, if they are even technical or just stories about posting while sitting on the can.

3. ...

4. profit!
First, congratulations!

Now, to business.. If you sold company stock, and live in the states, you now owe about $1m in taxes, or a little less depending on what state you live in.

Your very first job is to sit down with an accountant and get your 2010 taxes estimated. Then set aside the money for this. Seriously, do it today. Then lock in your head "I sold my company for $4m." It will help you in the future days to remember that.

If it was an asset sale, you got f-ed, and now owe a lot of tax money. Live and learn.

Next, let's talk about 'more money than I can ever spend'. If you keep your current spending rates, and you keep your money in a completely 'safe' vehicle that exactly matches inflation, you have about 94 years of spending ahead of you at your current rates, and at 15% cap gains tax on the 'earnings'.

It is nearly psychologically impossible for a newly minted 20-something millionaire to keep at their current level of spending. Since you do not already have a plan for this money, I would say that it is 100% likely you are not the sort who can go about his business without some change in lifestyle. So I would suggest that you expect either to keep working or get good at investing.

Along with the books recommended here, I would strongly recommend you pick up one called "How To Retire Early and Live Well on Less than a Million Dollars." It's written by a financial writer who decided to do what the title says in the 1970s. He talks through a number of items and considerations that financial advisors will not think about. Simple example: what's the proper amount of real estate leverage for someone who needs some income, and wants to be able to hold on to the building in a real estate crash? This is not typically discussed in most investing books.

It is not unreasonable, based on all this, to put almost all of this money into a one year, low-risk, locked-away investment just to give yourself time to think, plan,and get on with a new part of your life.

Now, if you built this company up, and are now unemployed, expect to be depressed. You should consider (along with some celebrating) doing some fun things (I like to travel), and also learning some new skills.

You will need some new friends, because your old ones will all still be working,and won't be able to hang out most of the time. You might want to find a new hobby, or pick up an old one.

Finally, enjoy! Sounds like a great experience.
>In a 2001 study, two scholars in Canada asked 70 people to read “The Demon Lover,” a short story by Elizabeth Bowen. One group read it in a traditional linear-text format; they’d read a passage and click the word next to move ahead. A second group read a version in which they had to click on highlighted words in the text to move ahead. It took the hypertext readers longer to read the document, and they were seven times more likely to say they found it confusing.

In other words, if you mangle a short-story and push it into a different format from the one it was written in, it's harder to read. That has nothing to do with hypertext.

>She found that comprehension declined as the number of links increased—whether or not people clicked on them. After all, whenever a link appears, your brain has to at least make the choice not to click, which is itself distracting.

That's more a question of wordiness than of hypertext. Whether and where to link is a very important decision in modern composition, probably more important than word choice.

Basically, these studies are assuming that all content is created equal, and that's far from the case. I would say it's more a question of poor web design shattering focus - that said, much of the web is designed with the intent of shattering focus.
Graduates, you can have it all
any assumption is wrong, but when given the choice between two assumption (safe vs unsafe) safe is best.

I did note in my 'answer' that the problem wasn't specified fully.
I suppose you could first convert the string to a list of characters and use integers as a replacement for pointers. You could then modify the list in place.