skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I eat humble pie. Commentor was replying specifically to a TV watching comment.

(Did you... nah, never mind.)

Apparently not.
Logic of the Lemmings: Making Sense of VC Pile-Ons
Canadian DMCA Coming Soon | Heap Overrun
Unless your financial advisor is rich from investing themself then no, DON'T talk to a financial advisor. All they will do is try and sell you stuff to get comission.

Seriously just learn about it yourself. My favourite book is "The Richest Man In Babylon" and it a phrase similar to yours: Don't go to a plumber to get bricklaying advice, go to a bricklayer, so don't get advice about your money from someone who isn't rich himself.

Now if your financial advisor is rich, what is he doing working for you?
NVCA Message To Its Members on Carried Interest
Moreover, the recent suicides at FoxConn simply reflect that suicide risk is highest in the Northern Hemisphere in the month of May.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4528883.stm
What Our Intelligence Agencies Could Learn from Silicon Valley
It's too bad that he can't just login to reddit and answer the questions directly.
More words of wisdom from PB! Especially the bit about people still needing a sense of purpose even though they might not have to work anymore.
There are three basic types of colorblindness, and two of them -- dichromacy and trichromacy -- break down into three subtypes each.

When people say "red-green colorblindness" they almost always mean deuteranomalous trichromacy (AKA deuteranomaly, "green weakness"), which is A) by far the most common form of "colorblindness", B) for practical purposes mostly affects the yellowish part of the spectrum and C) is typically so mild that most people who are deuteranomalous could go their whole lives without ever knowing it.

The problem is that the average person doesn't ever realize this -- just as you apparently believed that the most common form of colorblindness led to an inability to distinguish red from green -- and so there are a huge number of misconceptions floating around which, as one of those 6% of males who are deuteranomalous, I do my best to clear up whenever possible.
An interesting piece of advice I got from my finance professor way back when: Put your money into either index funds (or the more liquid, cheap to get out of Index Future) or treasuries. If you are risk adverse, do more treasuries, if you are more risk taking do more funds (or if you really want to take on risk, lever up). But always stick with these assets, as they are much more reliable than mutual funds or the ilk.

Not sure what he'd say now. US treasuries arent the sure bet they were 5 years ago and who wants to put any money into the movement of the S&P? There is something attractive to me in having a few gold bars in a Swiss lock box, though.
Facebook Privacy Changes | Heap Overrun
I actually thought it was bigger... (perhaps from all the coverage) so I guess for me this website is relatively good news.
Cross-domain Ajax with Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/
Doesnt say nobody will steal your ideas, it says not to worry about it.
Of course what you say is true, value or worth is subjective - something that you think is worth only the cost of production may be worth a lot more to someone else. Everybody has their own value metric, but funnily if you want to buy or sell at a particularly instance in time you have to pay the market price.
the problem with DRM is that it penalizes the legit users, without actually stopping the pirates. A lot of people started pirating, after their DRM software crapped out on them.
Here's the ledger 2.6 manual as html (http://joyful.com/repos/ledger/doc/ledger.html); for ledger 3, see the command-line help for latest options.
I'll probably wait for the first Android tablet and get that for my personal use.

Me, too.
Lisp is the perfect language for its ex-users and wannabes to wax poetic about.

For the rest of us that do it for a living, it just has the least annoyance. I would happily jump ship the moment I get a dynamic, interactive language with CLOS, s-exp notation and some industrial, enterprise-y tools.

I hope to see the day when franz and lispworks partner with IBM and Oracle and push Lisp certifications at the masses. Also, For Dummies books!

Throw these smug lisp weenies off their pedestal and replace them with armies of impressionable and malleable macro-jockeys.
As far as I know the number of suicides doesn’t include workers who decided to kill themselves at home, not at the plant.

Even though the numbers certainly don’t seem extraordinary if you put them in context. It would be a interesting social science research project to figure out how to get comparable data and which comparisons are useful.
The schemes of schemes thing is very maddening, since I never know which level I'm supposed to work on.

The usability is awful. Actions listed alphabetically in the side bar? Including "edit"? Really?

We get frequent, intermittent crashes.

I think if we really needed the flexibility, I'd appreciate it more. We don't really, so it just seems like a bloated, confusing mess.
I don't know about that. It seems to me that luck is one of the secret ingredients. It's not what turns an abject failure into a success, but it is what sets apart the thousands of above-average individuals who are doing fine from the roaring successes.

Ability is a necessary ingredient. Luck gives you the initial break, and lets you set up a feedback loop of success. At least, this seems to be what I've observed.
How mathematicians think in dimensions above 3 and 4
While I agree that his tone is wrong and he has problems of getting his message across, try to see it from his perspective.

I have the feeling that he is very bitter about this because he cares so (or too) deeply. Free Software is his pet project and he put so much effort into it. Every time people misuse the terms "Linux" and "GNU" it is a reminder for him what went wrong in the past and that people in his view seem to take GNU for granted.
YouTube Moderator
Opinions?
Looks more like musical chairs; the economy stopped and everyone grabbed a seat. Although, I switched jobs in November 2007, August 2008, and December 2009. It seems if you have a technical degree the job outlook hasn't really skipped a beat.
GNU is Stallman's life work. Linux is headed up by Linus Torvalds. They're different things, with different communities of developers, different leaders, different goals. I'm not completely defending Stallman's overreaction, but it must be hard to see your magnum opus drop to 0% mindshare under the shadow of a smaller project.
Engineer leaves NY career to walk across US
Especially if it's in high-impact/low-probability causes that are starved for money. Small amounts there could make big differences if they pay off.

Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote a lot about this on LessWrong.com, about how dog shelters get a lot more money than existential risk prevention (singinst.org or Lifeboat.com), Friendly AI research (singinst.org again) or finding cures to the diseases of aging (sens.org). Of course, puppies deserve our help. But do they deserve more resources than the kinds of things I mentioned above? Or is this just the way our cognitive biases steer us, pulling at our heart strings against our best interest?

A couple of wealthy people could easily double the amount of research in those fields (in fact, Peter Thiel, formely of Paypal did pledge a few millions, but more are needed).
If you think the decision of whether to give away money isn't one that can wait, you disagree on the main point of the article's advice, which is that you can go wrong by spending your money quickly, and should therefore wait until you're ready before doing anything major with your money.

Perhaps he could have given philanthropy a little mention where he suggested investing a tiny bit in startups, for experience, but his genearl advice was, "Do something remarkable." He didn't suggest investing a big chunk of the money in startups, or founding a startup, or anything else.

There are plenty of unremarkable ways to donate money to non-profits. Anyone can start a non-profit. They claim to be benevolent. So does the government. If you donate to some non-profits, you might as well be donating to the government by optimizing for high taxes. He could find someone to advise him to donate to a good organization, so the money doesn't get wasted, but that brings us back to the point about not trusting every financial advisor on the planet.
Sacrosanct? No. But still useful. With a real merge, you get a special commit that summarizes what had to be done to complete the merge. That can come in handy, especially with the sort of bugs that creep in during merges. Rebase will actually change your original commit, which obscures the original intent of the commit and hides the merge. In those cases I'd rather have a slightly messier history but more information about what really happened.
Interestingly enough the geolocation based off my IP actually puts me and virtually everywhere important around me (at least important to me) in the clear spots in the middle.

Perspective = epic fail.
I'd imagine hiring a good financial planner is like hiring a good programmer: it takes one to know one. Are you sure your financial planner is so good? How do you know? Gains aren't necessarily a signal -- Madoff produced "gains" for his clients for decades.
The Usability of Passwords
Dj Mixes Downloads | Techno Music Mp3 Download 
discover new music and DJ , find music through your friends, keep track of your favorite DJ, find DJ Events near you
Reminds me of an old Baseline Magazine cover story about how poor software can kill. The poster child? Software that calculated radiation doses for cancer patients which produced results off by ~1000% when the lead pads were entered counter-clockwise instead of clockwise (!). It caused dozens of deaths in Panama.

The unforgettable cover photo was a dead body under a white sheet, with a toe tag.

(Ironically, it seems this article was drastically truncated during a website migration: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Processes/Why-Softwa...)
Here's Google's intro video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HecQTodMtU&playnext_from...

The video comments on youtube.com are not very positive, but I am excited to see how this develops.
Ask HN: Non-tech solo founder scored $100k to develop product. Finding a dev?
Long-time reader, first-time poster.

Thanks to HN and several other forums on the web, I've cobbled together a business that makes me about $5k-7/month. I'm not seeing a whole lot of growth in demand for my product, but one of my sales tools (a twist on a common tool that I faked together in PHP despite having no engineering background) always gets a very positive response and closes me a lot of sales at prices way above typical for products like mine.

The space I'm in is a sexy, popular space. Can't say what it is, but lots of people want to work in it.

Recently I heard about a prestigious grant contest for businesses in my space and applied. To my pleasant surprise, I've recently learned I'm being awarded $100k specifically to further develop the sales tool I cooked up (sorry for the intentionally vague language) so I can offer it to other businesses in my space who sell products like the one I've been selling.

This seems like a pretty good idea. To use an obvious allusion, I've been mining gold with middling success, but while doing so, I unwittingly invented a really kickass shovel. Eventually I learned that my shovels were in fact awesome and now I've got some capital to develop and sell these shovels to other miners at scale so they can make a better go of it.

Here's my problem. To really capitalize on this windfall I need someone who can actually hack. I don't know the first thing about creating a web app that scales. Unfortunately, I live in a remote area and there aren't a lot of programmers around here. Furthermore, I've never hired a developer before so I suspect any job posting I put up would be a big turn-off to the sort of person I'd want to work with. I read all the posts on here making fun of bad job listings and they make me really paranoid.

Suggestions on how to proceed?

Edit: If anyone wants to reach out to me, you can get me at rexfaraday at gmail dot com
You switched jobs three times in three years? It sounds like you voluntarily changed jobs. Was that the case? If so, are you concerned about marking yourself as a job hopper?
> The Intelligent Investor is good, however, it's a bit dated.

I found this edition helpful in that regard: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...

Each of Graham's chapters is followed by another chapter of interpretation/reflection on his advice in a modern context.
article could be wrong. there's a lot of high-quality video in the app.
There is a subfield of programming that feels pretty grown-up: mission critical applications where a bug can cost you a multi-million dollar spacecraft or a plane-load of human lives.

The pace of innovation can feel glacial, safety("has this been done before, is it reliable") is valued above "brilliance", and the whole process with its checks and tests and paperwork can feel stifling, but it produces complex code that works(most of the time).

I wonder if this is a local maxima, though, and if there are more effective ways to produce rock-solid, high performance code. I'd love to see how SpaceX produce their code, for instance.
Lobsters and Crabs Feel Pain, Study Shows
Thanks, I think this is excellent advice, and double thanks for offering your terms of service as a template.
I definitely get the feeling the tech job market is transitioning. I should say that the market never really died, but there was a noticeable slowdown during the recession (you could find a job, but not necessarily the exact job you wanted at the salary you wanted).

Just in the past month without looking for a job, I've had about three sort of "prospects" get thrown at me. I decided to interview with one place and actually have an offer right now. On the other hand, I feel like their offer is pretty low and I'll probably decline so maybe some employers are still stuck with a mentality from 6-12 months ago (Admittedly, I have the luxury of already having a job that I can stick with).
Isn't this just the tip of the iceberg? Much of it is in a suspend emulsion that doesn't neccessarily match the surface outline.
Actually, the Flash Builder app in CS5 can output to Canvas, but unfortunately, the latest version of mobile webkit that renders UIWebViews still has fairly poor Canvas rendering capabilities and performance.
Startup redux.  How I created a new market.
Back in 2000 I left the public sector (where I did computer security for a prominent government agency) and I went out on my own. It was a scary time. I started as an assistant for the #5 real estate agent in my area and then later was on my own. In the middle of it all, I realized the software we had to look up homes was downloading all the current homes-for-sale data in a DB form that I could publish on the web. So I set up my own website and it boosted my sales by quite a bit. I even built in the ability for customers to program their "wants" and it would then email them when homes came on the market matching their criteria. Thus was born the Alaska Home Search Network. Since then, the MLS folks have created an API so others can do the same. At my peak I was making about $30K per year simply keeping my little eMachines server running in my garage with about 100 websites on it.<p>There were one or two competitors, and one of them was heavily funded by a prominent real estate company. But competition is no big deal if your product is what the customers want, so I was able to trash them in the marketplace. I charged $50/month for the service.<p>So now, I am about to do the same in another market. Something nobody has done yet. Yeah, there are one or two dabbling with he same idea, but competition simply gives us the tools to improve our own product.<p>The reason I posted this is to assure folks that it is highly possible to create entirely new markets. It is also possible to charge recurring fees for the service you provide.<p>I am an oddity in that I have never had a failed product launch. (granted I've only done three serious products) The key is research.<p>Look at the elements of a business plan. The idea, the analysis of the possible market, detailing possible competitors, and the bottom line for the ROI. Some due diligence up front is the most important factor.<p>Have fun developing your own companies! And remember: the US economy is dependent on SMBs (small and Medium Businesses) - we generate more than 80% of the overall GDP.
Transparency Is Not Enough
It doesn't mention IP ratings but I guess you could use something like that. I never would and I certainly wouldn't submit that in a proposal to a client.
Still wish he'd elaborate more though on how the abstraction level of a language would not help a programmer do better work. Is it enough to just proclaim "There are no super programming languages, only super programmers" for it to be true?)

This is trivially easy to disprove. C vs assembly. Java/C#/Python/Ruby/etc vs C and assembly. Manually creating databases in something like C for every application vs relational databases and SQL.

I think it is painfully obvious that we have come a long way due to "triumphalism." Not all ideas bear fruit, but those that do can have a huge impact. His conclusion advocates that we should all simply program in assembly and use good practices. I feel that is an absurd notion.
Startups: Get Funded with Extreme University
There's absolutely ZERO way to make it impossible to remove functionality. Walk to top of building. Release phone.

Even at a more practical level, it's still practically impossible. At most you move the modding 'down the stack,' but that's hardly an insurmountable barrier, as modders have demonstrated time and time again.

There is a place for personal responsibility for the decisions one makes, and this is a great example.
Congrats on the grant and the business! $5k+ a month is a really good start.

Try the HN contractors list. Lots of skilled people on there.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlD_6iEb8Ed9dGs3clV...
"... No, for Green, there's just something about the act of walking that makes him really happy ..."

Having done something similar this year I'd agree ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762379...
> I read quite a lot on the web and suddenly something snapped.

This happens in many fields where the method of thought is unnatural. I think it happens when we finally "grok" something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
I saw him speak a few years ago. The impressions I got were:

* nice guy, but a bit awkward socially

* very smart and good memory too

* has written a lot of free software, and would like others to consider making theirs free as well

Also, I wished that he would've included more technical topics in the talk.
I would (and will) go for platinum. It's like gold, in that it's bullion, but the mines that produce it in Africa are getting hosed by local governments. It also has more industrial uses than gold, and most importantly, it can't be salted without other precious metals. I'd go for physical delivery; it should come to a few hundred pounds. I'm all in in gold, and trying to switch to platinum.
Got AIM or Gmail? Leave some contact info so developers can contact you.
'Law-Like' Mathematical Patterns in Human Preference Behavior Discovered
Wow, you've had a pretty straight and narrow life. :)
The reasoning reminds me of the Carol Dweck stuff (kids praised for their talent are disempowered; those praised for their efforts are empowered), where she was talking about the specific subset of luck that is natural talent.
Yeah. Unless you're going to Mom's Bank of Sheboygan, $5m isn't that big of a deal. I only have experience with 7 figure sums in corporate accounts, but even the bank teller at the supermarket isn't wowed by that.

If you tell a bank you have $5m to to put in CD's they'll wet their pants alright, but it won't be security they call. It'll be their boss to gloat. (Unless maybe you bring it in in $100's in a duffel bag.)
Hack your Canon to take crazy pictures (open source)
No. Successful projects don't look bad. If anything I hope it helps me stay clear of companies that would assume otherwise and fail to contact my former bosses used as references. I stayed 4 years at the job before those 3. My current job I told them up front in the interview I planned to stay for 2-5 depending on the amount of growth. Honesty seems to go farther than loyalty IMO.
Well, fair enough. It does actually sound like most people involved are doing their best job, except for the safety inspectors who let the thing get built that way in the first place.
Maybe. Regular oil floats to the surface. I'm not sure about all this crude however.
2 words: dry cleaning. Wave of the future.

And if you don't get that reference, watch this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243133/
Ron Conway and Mike Maples Jr. - Angel Investing Revealed [video] [audio]
Finding a good developer is hard, especially since you're (it sounds like) not technical enough to evaluate their work. So here's a suggestion:

1. Take 20,000, and hire 4 developers for 5,000 each for, say, a few weeks of work. Have them build the SAME product. At the end of the few weeks, evaluate who you like better. There will be likely someone who stands out. Hire them.

2. Take 40,000, and build the product. Launch it. Keep removing features until you can build it for this amount.

3. Now after (and only after) you've launched, take customer feedback, and spend the next 40,000 finetuning the product.

There are of course also other ways to go about this :)
I'm working on a project that is directed at helping people like you. I would love to get your feedback on the ideas I have and believe that they may help you out in the process. You can reach me via email at <my hn username> at gmail dot com.
What's that fishy smell? Someone gave you $100k for vaporware and didn't ask about your team or code? This seems a little off to me. Without revealing any info on your product why don't you explain your grant, who gave it to you, and provide the info you pitched to gain the grant? That can't be proprietary to the point where it exposes your tech, right?
Exactly that one. Thanks.

So, is that a different condition?
Also, being up-front about your limitations will make developers like you more.

And also, make a spec with Balsamiq, just mock up the main screens. Do NOT write a long Word document spec.
Why Space Travel Will Always Suck
FUSE has been around for a while, it is really a great piece of software. Especially the many different language bindings make it interesting.

Here is one for instance in Ruby (Hello World)
http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Creating_Filesy...

Only disclaimer, as it runs in Userspace it's quite a bit slower than its kernel space twin.
Here's some advice from a fellow non-developer who was once your shoes 5 years ago (sans grant money) with similar revenues and skills...

Since you've managed to cobble yourself together a prototype in PHP that people will actually pay for there's a good chance you can take it to the next level, albeit slowly, with a couple books in your lap and a few long days. I suggest you challenge yourself to figure out what is the next step you need help with and figure it out yourself. Unless you are looking at some very unique problem solving chances are you can do this.

Funny story: when I started coding my web app that supports myself and my family I had never created a database or re-usable objects. I ended up with huge pages of procedural PHP code and a primitive denormalized database, because I didn't really know any better. I've managed to scale this old code across two servers, and while it's pretty horrid, making changes and troubleshooting is a breeze because it's all mine.
Fostone released fiSign v1.1 for iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch