skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Isn't life, evolution's best attempt at gray goo? Developed over the past few billion years? How could we invent something that replicates faster and more efficiently than life does?

Something invented by humans is invented by natural selection. Just as new organic species can wipe out (or live harmoniously) with old species, a new inorganic species could do the same.
I think the entire suite of online synchronization that Google provides online to the droids as the rival to mobile.me not just itunes sync.

Google provides mapping services, increasingly important to geolocation services, email, document creation, address book management, not to mention Google voice which is seamless on its phones.

Apple has a great phone, and of course the ipad, but a great number of the users use Google services of which the droid enjoys an extremely fast pace of integration. This leaves Apple in a strange position, where its own clients rely by the millions on its chief rival technology.

Droid can and will enjoy a very fast adaptation to the cloud, and apple doesn't have that scale capability, and to scale to a place that can rival Google in web services will be quite a feat, and a change of focus for Apple.

http://counternotions.com/2010/05/25/mapwars/
Right, the idea is to transition newer JVM languages in. A lot of legacy code would be in Java, so the Scala or Clojure interop would let them build on top of all that. Maybe start with a more or less self-contained component, like a web services API or something could demonstrate the advantages of developing with newer languages.
I think Anatari is right on the money. It seems like a lot of startups are web shops, which means Java may not be the best fit. But on the back-end, it's great. I would imagine that a lot of back-ends are initially written in some other language and then rewritten in Java (or another JVM language) when performance really counts.
The benefits of dynamic languages are not their speed, its the rapid prototyping and interactivity they provide once the prototype has been designed it can be implemented for speed in any lanuage providing the features you need.
> but when you read the whole thing it seems that RMS likes to change his opinion as he receives more information.

He really does. I used to be involved in Emacs development back in the day and he frequently changed his opinion on things if you presented him with with a well-reasoned argument. Sure, he's a stickler for his principles, but he's not afraid to admit when he's wrong on practical details or unable change his mind about stuff if you give him a good reason to.
I'm going to give YC startups the benefit of the doubt and assume that their recruiting practices are somewhat better than the standard BigCo HR Dept.
I clicked the @30sleeps username below the girl's image and I was redirected to a Twitter authorization request. That's a little shady IMHO. Now I'm not so sure about signing up.

What happens when I click the big signup button? E.g. will my girlfriend or somebody I know be able to see I clicked the button?

Are you planning to match people u according to things they like to talk about and who they follow?
I am so tired of hearing about this. Seeing this gain momentum makes me lose (even more) faith in the media and in the common sense of most people.

It's facebook. It's public. This should've been common knowledge 3 years ago. Somehow, people just love getting upset about this.
I love iTunes. It has all my music in a scriptable database with a wonderfully configurable front end. I've never understood the hostility that's developed over it, other than possibly sour grapes Windows users forced to use it because of their iPods. Before iTunes, I used WinAmp, which was garbage. Maybe there are better programs now, although I can't imagine what else I'd want to do that iTunes doesn't make easy for me.
Income share, low pay contract work, commission, ... There are so may ways to pay people and not pay a lot if you don't have an income yourself.

But then again - you say would benefit from having an intern - that means s/he has influence over potential future income. If you have no money or other employees and the intern is supposed to create the company from scratch - there's a different position for that. If you already have other employees... limited funds or not - you either need that person or you don't. If they do enough work that it will benefit you financially, take a loan and pay them. If they're not useful at this stage - why take them at all?
that's why I do the low-tech paper, pencil and time pomodoro technique, especially when working on drudgery tasks like database conversions.
This site is redirecting. Don't click on anything. Especially the cleavage.
FWIW, you can set those here:

http://plentyoftweeps.com/users/profile

Though it might be worth considering persisting whatever the last search terms used were...
Shameless promotional plug: http://waldendesign.com/

I work for them 2 days per week, I'm sure we'll be able to help you if you're interested.
Well honestly after reading all the boring "4 cores mac + dual 30 inches cinema display" that most of the reviews on this site are, i feel much more closer to rms than to lots of guys on that website.

This one is good too : http://jason.rohrer.usesthis.com/
refreshing :)
get trac for free and save yourself the headache
Seems rather nonlinear. Frinstance I'd be willing to sell you a pint of my blood for fifty bucks. Two pints will cost you five hundred. Four pints I'll give you for a hundred thousand, and eight pints I wouldn't sell for ten million.

Those prices may vary if you don't need it all today, of course.

source: http://askville.amazon.com/blood-person-lose-live/AnswerView...
Ask HN: Anyone developing for the Kindle?
Dear Developer,

Thank you for your interest in the Kindle Development Kit (KDK). We’ve received far more interest from the developer community than we anticipated. We are still in limited beta and are working closely with the developers who have been given early access to the KDK.

We appreciate your patience while we work towards opening up the program to more developers.

Regards,
The KDK Team

So is anyone developing for it? I've been waiting for an entry but to no avail... Or is it even worth some time in it?
Facebook as a platform for your small business
It's funny, one initial selling point for Java was as a rapid prototyping language. Because back then it was, relatively speaking.

I think in the big picture of a increasing speed supply (courtesy Mr Moore, for cheap cycle farms and cache; but also JIT compilation techniques), and comparatively fixed user speed demand (a gui only needs to be fast enough; network latency swamps many other delays), Java is now much faster than it needs to be (faster meaning performance, not development time).

Back then, you had compiled languages (C, C++) that were fast, and scripting languages, like python, that were not. Python was touted as a glue language. Anyway, Java was mid-way in terms of speed (being partly compiled and partly interpreted), and mid-way in terms of dynamic benefits (eg. garbage collected and runtime array bounds checked - but requiring static typing). That combination of ease of use and performance was a good fit for some tasks, at that time. As the speed supply moved up, Java became usable for more tasks. But as speed kept increasing, Python and Ruby and even PHP also became fast enough - and they had the ease of use of being fully dynamic.

To give a direct answer your question: agile/iterative prototyping is how startups compete these days (not on performance), and ruby, php etc are better than Java on this particular attribute. Another aspect is that many cool new things are happening in languages other than Java - they have more interesting tools (eg. Sinatra), and more interesting energy in the community, because they attract those crazy, eager, young, passionate, enthusiastic early adopters.

Exceptions: where more performance is required (eg. Google uses a lot of Java; and it's the basis of the Android platform and others); and for the Enterprise; and also where type-safety (for reliability) is more important than agility (though ML-based languages have some of this market).

Note: a startup can tackle any problem, not just consumer-facing webapps. I think webapps get disproportionate publicity (because they're on the web); and web forums (like this one) favour them.

btw: I remember Java's younger years, I'm still a fan, and I'm using it in my product development. Java... some one still loves you.
So I guess they can tweet while on their first date about how their date is going!
Got Game? Does Your Startup Need to Think About Game Mechanics?
playframework is way better than rails in my opinion
It is impossible to know everything, so you must form an opinion with limited information. Once presented with new information, it is reasonable to change ones opinion. If you think Stallman's information theshold is too low, maybe you need some more information ;)
Java is an avowedly corporate language. It isn't built to be fun or elegant or beautiful or especially powerful - it's built to be robust, idiot-proof and flexible.

For startups, it just seems very poorly suited for the task. I think most of us would agree that the main advantage any startup has is speed and agility. Java isn't that well suited to rapid development, at least not compared to Python or Ruby. It doesn't offer any potentially game-changing technical advantages over the mainstream like Scala, erlang of JavaScript might. Java is a sturdy, reliable language that is very well suited to fairly boring corporate work. It's just not rock and roll though, is it?

Think about the standard startup rhetoric - do one thing and do it well, start small and iterate rapidly, split the market with something unique. If you're going into battle against an incumbent, you need to change the rules of the game - you don't want an AK47, you want an IED. If you're trying to build disruptive technology, it seems obvious that you'll be better off using tools that are themselves disruptive.
Yeah, never heard of it until now. If I ever venture out into Java land again, I'll have to give it a better look. How does it compare to Grails?
I'm having trouble picturing the implications of an AGPL database. His brief mention of "everything it talks to should be GPL" doesn't really help.
Depends on how it's used. Fundamentally, peak $resource refers to the peak in production of $resource, which under laws of physics as we understand them will necessarily happen eventually. Barring changes in demand, $resource whose production has peaked will become more expensive; peak $resource implies peak cheap $resource in this case.

Unfortunately, peak $resource has been used, reused, and abused in so many different ways that stating one way is the definitive is bound to be incorrect.
I wasn't sure if he was joking or not, so interviewed him back in 2008. Here's the complete text of the interview. (I should've used the VERBOSE command.)

Q: I'm fascinated with a message I read about how you read the web with a wget demon. Could you elaborate on it?

A: It is a program that runs wget and mails me back the result.

Q: Do you then convert the HTML to plain text and read it by email, or do you load the retrieved file in a browser? (If so, which browser?)

A: I can do either one.

Q: Finally, is it free software, or something that you'd be willing to release?

A: I did not write it, but our sysadmins say it is kludgy.

Original entry: http://waxy.org/2008/01/personal_ads_of/
Traversable Wormholes
IMHO, Java lends itself to overengineering. I am not sure why, but Java makes it very tempting to try to nail the design right before you know what you are designing.
There is probably some discussion around this on the chromium-dev or chromium-discuss lists in the chromium.org Google groups. I haven't checked though.
Footage archive website using Ogg Theora + open video
Thirty-five or forty years ago, McDonalds got caught out serving kangaroo in their hamburgers. Much more recently it was found flavoring the french-fry oil with a bit of tallow, to the great offense of vegetarians and I think a few Hindus.

However, it has always been much smoother at the apology business than Facebook now seems to be.
Russia Takes a Big Step Into Technology
It seems to me the big benefit of Java is interoperability with other JVM languages like Scala and Clojure (or Jython or JRuby). This is much like the benefit you get from learning C when you work in a language with a good C-based foreign function interface (Python, Ruby, OCaml, etc). You can build most of your application in the more dynamic language, but fall back on the static language for the elements it works better for (high-performance, system-related, or interfacing with a library designed for the other language).

The advantage Java has over C is that, in that comparison, Java is really nice to work with.
It's also amazing how many opportunities you miss by not answering the door when one knocks.
Absolutely repulsive. I'm sure I'll get a down-vote by the RMS Zealot Society because of saying that.

add.: I wonder if the down-voting is because of the "RMS Z S" remark, or because of the implied crowd of down-voters apparently thinks eating things off of ones own feet is acceptable when it's RMS doing it - I honestly don't know what to think.
Speed is a bad reason to choose Java or other less expressive languages. There are many more expressive languages with speed comparable to Java, including but not limited to Haskell, Common Lisp, Scheme, Clojure, Scala and several ML variants. Some of these run on the JVM and some offer static typing. It looks as though Psyco and LuaJIT compare well to Java in microbenchmarks as well.
Hug whoever put in auto-translation, from me. Thats the best idea anyone has had in a browser since extensions or possibly tabs. I <3 u.
Let's be real here. Tim wrote a fun book with great suggestions to offload a lot of your own work, but he's also a master of PR that works his ass off.
Maybe the static typing - harder to change, so you try to get it right.
This directly applies to hacker news readers - if you read about a successful or even a failed startup founder, do you read that submission because it was useful and educational, or because it had a compelling story in it?

There is a large group of people who don't do startups but only think about doing startups. Since they lack the requisite experience they will upvote what looks compelling and inspirational to them, rather than what's useful or representative (the latter looks dull and muddy). And since this majority will upvote the sexy narrative, the rest of us will end up reading it. It's what I call "a narrative tar pit" and it's why I never look at the front page, only at the RSS feed. Frighteningly, at some point a random sample of submissions is bound to produce more useful reading material than the front page.

It would be even better if I could only see stories upvoted/commented by a couple of people here whose taste I trust, but whose names I will not call out to avoid another stampede. I hope that pg considers this modest proposal.
If you want a java-based framework coupled with Rails' productivity, go through the play framework's screencast and documentation (http://www.playframework.org/documentation/1.0.2.1/home). It's the only java framework I've found that excites me about development, and if you know Rails, you really know play. It's that similar.

Edit: oh, and also many, many times faster.
History Crash Course #6: Isaac and His Sons
Yes, it's not impossible to slow down the process. I'm not reading either of the two papers you mentioned, but I used to read another serious paper - Harvard Business Review, and they were producing 50% fluff plus 50% great reading material. I recon that's their deal with the devil, and not a bad one. However I am strongly convinced that it rests solely on integrity of the old-school journalists and once they retire so will the relevant news.
Does anyone have a video of the VC panel that pg was on?

http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions/tech-innovati...

I'd love to see that discussion.
"Bring[ing] everyone else to your pace" by increasing latency struck me as a really nice idea. It suggests an additional feature that could be added to a site like Hacker News, where each reader can choose an update interval, and have news delivered on that interval.

The key is to use a ranking procedure that is appropriate for the interval, so that the reader doesn't get new stuff for that day, but the best over N days (or N seconds -- not everyone is Richard Stallman).

This feature may be silly and unoriginal; but I'm commenting on the internet so I thought it fit.

[Edit: when I said "delivered" I didn't mean by email! Just "updated".]
Secure Communication Comes To Android
It's kind of funny. Everyone mocks the complexity of monads, yet this guy basically implements his own version of Haskell's Maybe in order to make his code easier.

It's really hard not to gloat.
That still may break sites if the variables that ga.js defines are used outside of a try/catch.
Well, then I disagree that after two years of really using Python for everything, that I've been much more productive than with Java. I bet I spent a good chunk of that time debugging errors at run time which would have been caught at compile time with Java.

Of course that is a non-scientific anecdote and there are times that the REPL is just awesome (especially for web app development).
I agree with a couple of the posters, I think the JVM is the core piece of technology to take away from the Java ecosystem. Especially as more languages can compile byte code to run on it.

That being said Java still plays a very big role in backend systems and don't forget that some important backend tools i.e. Hadoop and Cassandra are written in java. So I wouldn't write it off just yet.

Derek

http://nosqldatabases.com
80%, meet 20% :-)
Also, remove default bird-silhouette pictures.
Have you tried? It seems to me that it's very hard to replicate the native feel of the apps in HTML as there is always some imperceptible lag that kills the experience compared to silky-smooth native cocoa touch. Nothing prevents Apple from maintaining or even widening this gap, if they chose to.
Site's down, but here's the original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoQ4tka1zNk
I canceled Identity Protect service at AMX after it routinely lagged (sometimes months) in notifying me of credit changes to my fico or whatever. It is sad to see people pay $14/month for that service which, best case scenario, notifies you after somebody jacked your card and has long since moved away to a foreign country. Then I canceled my card too!

Really identity thievery is an issue b/c of the banks + loan companies. They're perfectly willing to roll accounts with very little scrutiny and I don't understand why there are not class action lawsuits etc. to nail the lender not the jacked identity. Search on the "credit freeze" if you want the real solution.
Writing your own web framework in Java isn't rocket science ;)
I love how YCombinator is such a big brand now that the WSJ can put its name in a headline without any further explanation.

A year ago, the title would have been "Incubator has startups pitch to programmers, not investors".
I agree - I saw the avatars and think I should either be able to click through to the person's profile on your site or at least their Twitter account.
"... Are there theoretical or practical reasons to avoid java in lean startups? ..."

good programmers can probably program in java but given the choice would they use it at home or on side projects?
Why is it so hard to find programmers? Are people afraid of joining a start-up?

Let's not overlook the big differences between working at most start-ups and working at most companies:

1. Every programmer, no matter how good, is at least a little insecure. Every one of us doesn't know something. Is the something you don't know going to make or break the next project? In a start-up, there's rarely a safety net to catch you, but in a larger company, there's probably a better chance that someone else can help you along.

2. It takes a special mentality to work in a less certain environment. This is more a matter of personality than skill. My mentor was fearless. He used to say, "I didn't know I couldn't do it, so I did it." This attitude, as much as skill, determines how well one would thrive in a start-up.

3. What happens when things go wrong? (And they will go wrong.) The ability to recover from problems in a larger company is a great asset. In a startup, it's a necessity. I've met many enterprise programmers who could crank out great code between 8 and 5, but melted under the pressure of an all night emergency. They would never survive in a startup.

4. What happens if you don't feel well or if your mind is "someplace else"? In a larger company, you could coast for a day or two (maybe more). That's rarely an option in a start-up; time lost is time lost forever.

5. In a larger company, you can do quite well whether you have deep domain knowledge or you're a jack of all trades. In an early start-up, you better be both.

6. Ever wonder why waterfall development refuses to die, even though it's not as effective? Because so many of us have to have a road map in order to function. "Road map" personalities don't fare nearly as well in roadmapless environments (many start-ups).

7. A start-up programmer must have at least a little maverick blood. If you believe everything you hear and do everything everyone else is doing, how can you differentiate yourself? In a larger company, you may not have to. In a start-up, you probably do.

8. Is there something you simply have to do? Then you probably belong in a start-up environment. It's tough (although not impossible) to get the same opportunity in a large company.

9. Do you think the work is really cool? I know lots of good enterprise programmers, but have trouble thinking of very many who think their work is cool. They like their jobs, but work is "just a paycheck". Not the type of people who would thrive in a start-up.

10. Do you do a happy dance whenever something works for the first time? Then you may be more comfortable in a start-up than in a big company.
It has to not seem like a sham class, though, at least if anyone actually investigates it. Just the fact that you get course credit isn't really enough; it also has to be mainly educational, not just a job relabeled as a class. Here's the federal government's six-part test for it: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
Instead of browsing, I do situps, pushups, etc. I get back to work the second my simulation finishes.

Well, sometimes I do that. It is effective when I do it.
I've never looked at grails so I can't offer an opinion but I have some links that may be helpful to you. The first is a HN discussion on the play framework and the second a discussion on google groups about the differences between the two frameworks.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=898738

http://groups.google.com/group/play-framework/browse_thread/...
twelve lowly computers, that makes him waste more time waiting for stuff then coding: $2000

a pair of data hands that he found off ebay: $3000
I think the hate comes from Windows users who do not like using a non-native app. Who can blame them.

I too love iTunes.
Poll: how do you use HN?
Vote for all that apply.
HN site (news.ycombinator.com)
HN RSS feed
Browser extensions & others
3 secrets of the uber-virtualized
living in the one of the wetter parts of the driest continent ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157600195809887... I'm acutely aware of it's scarcity ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/413507302/in/set-72157... Not understanding scarcity is a first world urban problem.
I get redirected to mybookface.net, what the hell?