skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Free online accredited college/school is an idea up for grabs and needs to happen.

Monetization could be paying for the exams (fixed price per course as opposed to per credit) and a single "sponsor" per course where the sponsor pays for the cost_of_making_the_course + $x for the ability to be a "sponsor" of that said course for first year.

ie, MS/Apple/Google sponsoring CS related courses. Where they sign contract stating to not have any influence on study materials.

Exams on brick and mortar exam halls (rent rooms in traditional colleges?).

The only problem I can see for this kind of online only college is for some courses where you actually need hands-on lab experience.

Possible?
I don't work for Red Gate but I use their office, Red Gate is always after talented Developers and Testers. This well written job spec is probably a testament to their attitudes: http://jobs.red-gate.com/templates/redgate/jobdetail_zip/183...

They are rated one of the top companies to work for in the UK, and you've probably seen some of the innovative blog posts they've been writing recently (free ipads, geeks by the sea, etc)

Their CEO is on twitter, @neildavidson, I'm sure he'd ask the development interviewers to pay special attention to anyone that mentioned HN to him after they applied...
Russian Wiggers
Wigger is a pejorative slang term for a white person who allophilically emulates mannerisms, slang, and fashions stereotypically associated with urban African Americans.
i suppose you have to speak german to get the job, right?
The point of the article was that all of us said stupid things in private when we were 19 years old. Perhaps that's true. But in this case it's a bit like learning that someone accused of a major embezzlement was shoplifting when they were 19. I'm inclined to think that there's a pattern here.
Then Microsoft might get accused of censoring the internet, and protecting users from ads that sometimes genuinely help users find something they really want. And it would be hard to justify each item on its blacklist separately. And even though it would help some users, they might be accused of unfair practices against Google anyway.
Ask HN: Non-programming part time jobs?
While I am a software developer, somehow the thought of working for another company depresses me a lot at the moment. I guess ultimately I enjoy thinking about concepts more than the actual programming. Programming is a means to an end to realize my ideas. But programming for another company would mean programming for programming's sake. (Just trying to understand why the thought depresses me so much).

And yet, I need money. I wish I could think of any other way to earn minimum living expenses than developing. I'd love to just work in a cafe or a book shop for a couple of days, but I worry that it might not pay well enough.

Part time developer jobs are also hard to come by (which would leave me time to work on my own projects, hopefully alleviating my depression).

Maybe somebody here has ideas for a middle road?

It would also be great to work not sitting at a desk all the time.
There was a time I thought the old world was black and white.

PS: And I was happy to see a picture of my country (Sri Lanka) there :).
Language nitpicking. Sorry for the ambiguous headline, but what I meant is what you said.
I thought Steve Jobs main role at Apple was to "criticize others' work and belittle their motivations"? Didn't some of the early Apple employee's give him a rubber stamp with "this is shit" carved into it so he wouldn't have to waste time writing his feedback on their work?
I think this is a clever idea. I know of a few people that have pondered getting housemates that have a specific skill set in addition to a good vibe.

I think you've missed the single most important requirement for a "kickass roomate" - has got non-work stuff finished and launched.

I would also advise you to scrap all the development/design criteria of tools, and focus on attitudes and passions. Like look for a hacker developer, and a designer that is obsessed with user experience. Any man and his dog can use a collection of tools but that makes them neither a developer nor kickass.

You might also want to put a link to a web product you've finished (you state "i develop web applications not only for work, but for fun. it takes up most of my time.") -- you have launched stuff right? :)

Good luck man.
Ignore the morons. They will be around you everywhere in life. They will spew their hyperbole no matter what you do. Fighting them is a losing cause, just vote against them when you can. Be it by sending ihatedjanjo.com to 127.0.0.1 on your machine or voting against them when they run for political office or not watching their tv programs etc etc etc.
70,000 Android activations/day. Each and every day. It's coming and Apple won't be able to stop it this time either.
Ask HN: Why aren't more startups trying to break into cable industry?
I've been working in the cable industry for 10 years focused on bringing new technologies into the space to drive innovation and value added services. I always end up working with the same people just running different startup companies.

I know it's a difficult industry to get your foot in the door but I'm wondering why aren't new and fresh players trying to get in?

If a killer startup is interested let me and I can try to help. rhasson at gmail dot com.

Roy
For whatever reason, Japanese vision researchers seem to do this sort of thing a lot. At the ex-ex-day job, where we had a robot vision lab, I'd get a "Check out this demo from X at Y university" email at least twice a week.

Dr. Kitaoka was our office favorite:

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html
Big red flag. Get out ASAP.
If the iPad is succesful, then it will affect me whether I buy it or not. Just like Micrsoft's success has filled my inbox with spam from botnets and limited my tech choices in a myriad of ways. Just like Facebook's success means there's no room for an alternative until they really shaft people.

It's called network effects and it's one of the basic elements of information technology. That's why we care about what the idiots are buying and what the power-crazed shysters are selling them.

Ironically, the answer to your question is that many of the other large companies (e.g. Microsoft, Telcos) have already locked people in and don't even need to care about competing at Apple's level in order to rake in the cash, they just have to occasionally intervene to prevent competition from entering their market. Does that sound familiar in the context on Apple?
I wanted to post but then I saw that captcha and it seemed like too much trouble to fill it out.
Draw Your Ideas
Oh, the story with the bunker is a bit of a metaphor. Hitler ordered scorched earth tactics at the end of the war, ostensibly because this should have made it harder for the allies. But in his ideological point of view, this was because he thought the Germans weren't worth it anymore.

See http://www.br-online.de/wissen-bildung/collegeradio/medien/g... and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerobefehl and http://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/...

Sorry, all of the sources are in German. (But that's German history for you.)
Or they could mount a full-frontal assault like Google is and attack the iPhone from every angle with an open platform. Palm was a small fish, Google, not so much.
Dress Up Games For Girls - Girl Games - Fashion games - Clusterz
Tutoring has a lot to recommend it, depending on where you live and your ability to get clients. You need more clients than a freelance programmer would, but the hourly pay is not necessarily that different, particularly for well-heeled clientelle. Paying a lot of money is how you know you're getting quality. :)

(Some at my previous day job once remarked that it would be cheaper to order me to do tutoring than to pay for a freelance English tutor, given the hourly equivalent of what Japanese salarymen my age made versus the typical price of an hour of English instruction in this neck of the woods.)

Edit to add:

That aside isn't quite so useful for folks not here. Let me hum a few bars: students at highly competitive suburban high schools, students studying for the LSAT, working professionals with gaps that are impeding their career growth, and middle class women who are filling a hole in their life through learning stuff all pay rather substantially more than 10 year olds who need help with multiplication.
It looks like you don't believe that it's even possible. Why?
Joel Spolsky on why developers need their own offices:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FieldGuidetoDeveloper...
We do not have NIH syndrome, so we used the built-in framework captcha.
Indeed.

You started the project and he's not stepping up to the plate, which is what the 50/50 split of the rewards was based on. Commitment at this level is something that has to come from within, it's extremely unlikely there's anything you can do that will bring up his to anywhere close to 50%.
Ask HN: Who's Hiring?
Read my resume and see if I am a good candidate. :)

Here:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0Su2VXWhOROZTQ4MTZkYjUtZjgxNS00MDNjLTkwYWQtZTczYTU1MGNmMWNh&hl=en
I wasn't implying that it was abnormal. I was just saying that it's an orthogonal issue. More specifically, it's a thinking vs feeling issue rather than an introversion vs extraversion issue:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/thinking-vs-feeling-which-i...
Money's freedom, tho'. How many foreign countries could you visit, how many experiences could you have, for the price of a 4-year liberal arts degree?

It's harsh but there are only 2 types of people in college. Those studying towards the field they want to work in, and those pursuing a hobby full-time. The latter would be better served spending the money on first-hand experiences instead of reading about it other people's second-hand.
If these are the reasons people have for hating django then I would have to conclude that the django developers are doing great work!
We're hiring in London. Both experienced internet veterans but also people straight out of school. We're a small (10 full time) but profitable consumer internet start-up where you will get direct exposure to the founders and all aspects of the business.

http://www.lokku.com/jobs/

We look forward to hearing from you.
I'd argue that HN is a biased sample even among programmers though.
Putting the Lift Conference Under the Design Research Microscope
While we're not quite "friends", we know each others for 5 years. Kind of messy probably to finish it right away.

Damn me for not doing my homework before starting up. :/
Steve Yegge - where are you?
Do you know that feeling when your favorite TV show gets canceled after 7 seasons? You've grown attached to the characters and their lives and you actually feel loss... That's how I feel about Steve Yegge's blog posts. He apparently made his threats true and stopped blogging. Does anyone share that feeling, and more importantly, does anyone have any insights whether there may be a chance for his blog to get revived?
Not sure if they are still looking but Nokia had some interesting sounding jobs going in Berlin. Working with Matt Biddulph of Dopplr fame.

http://www.hackdiary.com/2010/02/10/algorithmic-recruitment-...
Here is an article in Chinese about this incident:

http://policy.caing.com/2010-05-13/100143630.html

It says there are 400,000 people working for Foxconn in Shenzhen. 300,000 of these are unqualified workers aged about 20 years old. There is high turnover.

They work for 10 hours a day, with 1 hour for lunch and 10 minutes in the day to go to the bathroom. After the financial crisis they have been cutting staff and work pressure has increased. Managers intentionally introduce faults on production lines to see if workers spot the errors, if they do not, they are punished. They are also punished for talking to each other or dozing off.

There is a strict hierarchy, with little communication between managers and staff. Managers manage by shouting at staff, there is little respect for individuals. After 3 or 4 months working together colleagues don't even recognise each other.

After the spate of suicides management has increased psychological support programs, but a spokesman says with 420,000 staff they are unable to understand everybody's mental health issues.
What would you lose if your Gmail, Flickr or Facebook were deleted?
OK but where did your parents, or their parents, or their parents get the money in the first place?

There are no shortage of examples of people from humble beginnings who're self-made millionaires, and people born into every privilege who squandered it all.
Sorry, but that post is far too filled with buzzwords to be of any use here.

In addition, nobody knows J2EE inside and out, it is far too big.
Hi HN,

I made this site as a quick way of telling less technically minded why and how they should take a copy of their cloud based information.

I must have a ton of facebook friends who have photos on there that would be permanently lost if their profile was deleted or hacked or whatever.
Do you think you could have posted this comment without using any Free Software?
That means 1 out of 1000 use something else. Probably a little lower. I'd believe 99%.
Yellow flower bokeh
Hi Max, are you still with the VC company, or have you moved on to a startup? (here: massimo moruzzi)
Doc Searls on Steve Jobs (1997)
Please Rate My Startup - LoyaltySpace.com
OpenID is an excellent case study of a promising technology killed by being incubated in the techy echo chamber. For example, the spec (and the process to create it) spent a mindbending amount of effort on getting delegation right, so that people can port their identity around by the simple expedient of putting references to their delegated openid providers in their user-supplied identifiers, and no visible effort on making the end-user experience less painful than an IRS audit administered during a root canal.

Supporting email addresses is where we should have been several years ago. (Take a look at who actually gets used as OpenID providers: the gigantic free mail folks who hold 50%+ of the market and had the instant scale to make things work. That shouldn't have come as a bolt out of the blue! Now the best OpenID implementations resemble "Pick which of the following you have an email address at"!)
I've got a hacker roommate, and I must say it is awesome
Happy 50th Birthday, Laser
BTDT.

The reason is probably because the MSO's are horribly slow at adopting new technologies. On top of that if you try to do anything that deals with actual content you get the joy of dealing with the studios and layers of DRM and other bullshit as well.
I'm going to put my startup to the masses on HN and would appreciate any comments, feedback, and ideas!

I have built a system to manage customer loyalty programmes for small businesses.

By implementing my software, they'll be able to:

Improve sales by directly rewarding recurring purchases.

Be slightly more data driven in their approach and marketing - sending tailored offers and marketing.

Use the mobile channel - SMS and Mobile Web to push out offers and build a relationship with their customers.

There is a definite gap in the market for this. I have spoken with tens of potential customers who have looked for a similar system, but have been put off by the high setup costs and tie ins. These are businesses such as restaurants, salons etc, who want to try loyalty marketing but want to be sure of it's use before making any big commitment.

Anyway, would appreciate any comments about the idea, website, sofware etc.

[NOTE: There are still a few rough edges in the software to be cleaned up over the next day or so. My existing handful of customers out of my beta testing and development are on a seperate instances running older software.]
More background on the idea and my own philosophy here....

http://www.loyaltyspace.com/faq.html

Thanks - Ben
If working conditions have improved since the suicides started making the news, other employees may have manufactured another suicide hoping that conditions will improve further.
Anyone remember friendster?
...

My point exactly.
You might try approaching this from the other side--what kind of stories do you like to read? Do they entertain, enlighten, instruct, etc.?
Cool idea. Personally, I would make note of somewhere in that ad of how clean you are.

Hacking away all night with some buds is cool and all, but not when your sink is full of dishes and your floors haven't been wiped in weeks ;)
TheRose
TheRose-cartoons
Just like Apple can design their product in any way they want, all these hackers and programmers and creative business types can complain all they want. But because they complain, does not mean they want to get into hardware business.

So just like the advice "if you do not like the devices, buy something else" is valid, so is "if you do not like hearing critique, grow a thicker skin".

We are (mostly) from free countries, with freedom of expression and all that jazz.
This "argument" was unfair and proves that Jobs was short of more pertinent arguments in this case.

The recurrent successful experiences of Steve Jobs can and should be used as a heuristic that he has no "vision problems" ;).

But the argument is unfair because the lack of successful experience proves nothing more that you didn't have YET a successful experience and certainly not that you might be wrong on the debated matter. As successful experiences won't prove that you will always be right, it's just a heuristic.
> Banks alone can't take civilization down because they don't produce wealth. As long as there are factories, services, knowledgeable, skilled people doing useful things, the civilization will stand OK with or without the rotten banking system.

While it is true, banks don't produce wealth, they are the lubrication that keeps the machinery working smoothly. Manufacturing has to buy raw materials, add value, and then sell their product. The time that lies between "buy" and "sell" is tough without banks.
I believe that Eric's heart is in the right place and he truly wants to help more entrepreneurs. I don't disagree that born-again evangelism and "scammy consultants" is an unfortunate side effect of what is going on.

While people will like or dislike my op-ed as they will, I'd just like to say that in writing the blog post, I had no such motives (consulting, that is) -- I'm just another startup guy trying to build a company.

I do agree with the other commenter that there is a new set of "buzzwords" floating around, like MVP, product-market fit, pivot, etc. These phrases emerge as shorthand.

But still I do believe that these authors are more rigorous, more into measurement and results, and more down-to-earth practical than the kinds of biz-consulting blowhard that turned everyone off business speak in the first place.
Tutoring is great. The "credentials" you need to get a job easily are basically the fact that you've graduated from or are studying in a college, but you can do without this too. Places to look for a job are a) specific topics students commonly get stuck on (polynomials, the bane of middle schoolers! calculus!) b) things that need lots of studying like university entry exams in some countries, SATs, APs etc.

The thing about a) is that often the kids aren't stupid but they've just gotten a bad explanation. I find that a one on one with a no-nonsense explanation and enough examples clears everything up and suddenly you're a hero. The thin about b) is that you might need to know things specific to the type of thing you're helping with (eg, SATs) but you're more likely to get repeat jobs from the same customer.

The marketing scheme here is mostly word of mouth. You can put up signs and that'll get you some business but once you successfully help your first couple of students the word spreads like wildfire between stressed parents and you suddenly have a reputation. Your reputation is very important so don't scam your clients, work on giving a good impression and maybe even give occasional freebies to regulars.
I wouldn't care to venture a number, but I suspect alternatives like Jython and IronPython are more popular than that...
Powerful Tools that You Need (and Probably Don’t Know About)
Yup - I paid my way through my first start-up tutoring. Again, it probably depends where you are, but on the east coast at least, some middle and high schools cost more than most college tuitions. The kids there often have several tutors to supplement their education and are willing to pay top dollar if they think you are smart; coincidentally, this is mostly determined by how much money you ask for and where you went to college.

Anyway, it can be very rewarding and fun work. Once you get that first student, it becomes exponentially easier to find the next by asking for referrals.
this attitude doesn't prevent successes, but it does lead to unnecessarily high failure rates
sevenload.com is hiring in Cologne, Germany for PHP/Java developer positions. Here are the listings: http://corporate.sevenload.com/en/career/recruit

There's a few more if you can speak German: http://corporate.sevenload.com/de/career/recruit
I don't have an answer but I know the feeling and hope you find a solution (I have to go back tomorrow).

You might consider looking for something you can do online that doesn't require programming, such as e-commerce. Do you have something you can produce or resell that will let you apply your technical knowledge in a non-technical way? Crafts, or writing, or buying and selling used stuff?
You don't need time accounting-- you've already done the time accounting: you're doing too much, and he's doing almost nothing.

It's time for a serious talk. Let him know that the status quo can't continue. Ask him if he is interested in staying on, in which case he needs to step up, or if he'd rather walk away.

And, naturally, if he says he wants to step up, have a follow-up meeting next week (and each week after that) to discuss how it went.

Nip this one in the bud.
Frankly, I don't know why people start stuff. If you have a problem why not hop in and solve the bugs in that framework or just switch to some other framework if you don't like it.

Such iHate stuff makes sense when you are doing it against business corporations/govt or when you are paying for goods/services. Django is free! It's opensource! It's a community project. (why not fork it, add your feature and use it if needed?)

P.S: Sorry, this comment is probably gotten long enough to be called a rant about rants.
My immediate feedback would be the following:
You seem to be trying to sell the idea of customer loyalty instead of what your product do in the field of customer loyalty. (The 5 promotional points on the front page)

Now that is a perfectly valid approach, but I don't think you want to do that.

Instead assume that your customers already know what CL is and instead focus on what your product does that others don't. I.e. what set you apart in the CL field, not just what is great about CL.
I really like your copy. Clear, to the point and makes me want to sign up even though I don't even have a business. A bit rough in places but that's ok.
How about working in a technology summer camp? The pay is much better than in normal summer camps and you do what you like to do - programming. Well, teaching it.