skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I agree with Larry Wall on this particular point, but I'd love to see further examples illustrating the principle here.
Style is an Invitation
I would focus 80% of your time towards the ebook. Your sales page could be optimized a little more (and there are typos). If you pull in more user testimonials and run some adwords, you could see this come in and be your primary source.
If you wanted to do business hire a local politician who'll do the leg work for you.
CarbonCalculated is a suite of industry specific web tools to help organisations accurately measure carbon footprint.

We believe that carbon data should be freely available. We have opened up our large database, so all the sources and formulas are available via our browser.

Our API allows developers to leverage our datasets without worrying about complex CO2 calculations. Access is available on request.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated ;-)
Advocating principle of least astonishment for Perl is like a giraffe trying to breakdance.
Here's how another popular scripting language handles this:

>>> a, b = 123, 456
>>> a + b
579
>>> c, d = '123', '456'
>>> c + d
'123456'
>>> b + c

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#4>", line 1, in <module>
b + c
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'int' and 'str'

I must confess that none of these behaviours surprised me when I first encountered them.
Wow! That's amazing. Turns vim into a kind of cardfile. I like this (compared to a buffer explorer) - the visual indication of where the file is is nice.
Is there a philosophical reason why he is asking "what" instead of "who" is a philosopher?
What is this? gv can't read the PDF I found, and there's no explanation.
Worldwide weather reports and forecasts - actuWeather.com
Thanks Steve. I have been thinking about it. But it does not fit my long term business model. I am developer and want to make web and software development my main income source. And as I want to make it passive I am doing it by putting ads on free content or software (to make it long term income).
An atlas of the infrastructure behind the iphone
Does anyone have any experience with Ceph? It sounds interesting, but is it reliable? Easy to configure and maintain?
I would suggest changing those so they aren't active hyperlinks.
False dilemma, most of the first world actually has a great standard of living without ubiquitous gas guzzlers, AC, tumble-dryers and whatnot. Some even argue that energy efficiency can be improved by a factor of five: http://ernst.weizsaecker.de/?p=889&language=en
>even ending her declarative sentences in that rising questioning lilt characteristic of many young Californians.

I really enjoyed this bit?
That's gotta be a big hurdle to overcome during salary negotiations... By working for free you've already set the bar at the floor.
The Best New Wordpress Themes for Porfolios
Long time, no Wordpress themes for portfolios. So today we’re featuring 10 fresh & super sleek Wordpress themes you could use for online portfolio website or other visual rich projects.
To get a real REPL in vim: http://code.google.com/p/conque/
My solution: random passwords for everything, in a file in my ~/. Each line contains:

<site> <username> <password>

And ~/bin/psw:

#!/bin/sh
cat $HOME/passwords.gpg | gpg --decrypt | grep $1

Simple, done.
I take my passwords straight out of the obscure underground hiphop lyrics I listen to everyday.
I agree and think it's like that in most European countries.
Someone (normally the opposition) complain that the government isn't doing enough for the schools where to the government answer we spend X amount of money on this.

There are however times when this backfires.

When some long awaited and praised system goes 300% over budget, at least in Denmark it's not going down well with the public.

Another area that no country yet seem to have solved satisfactory is the digitalization of patient journals. But the main problem there seem to be incompatibility between different divisions which I have a hard time believing can be that difficult to solve.

Anyway it sure is quite sad to see how bad the government is at running IT projects. Although large corporations don't seem to be doing much better.

It needs to be solved.
I heard something recently from a colleague about one of these NHS systems. The consultants that were brought in advocated that the system be written in COBOL and with similar technology.

Whether this is true or not it. It would be easy to imagine that the wrong technology decisions can be made to make the work roll on for years.

With the way the world works now, much of these systems could be put together from fixed priced components built under tender.
C-x 2 for horizontal split, and C-x 3 for vertical ;-)
Most of the high profile, high budget projects they are talking about have been outsourced to big name consulting companies at absurdly high rates. Cutting those en masse is probably no bad thing.

In other news, there is talk of changing the rules so that a substantial proportion of such work must be given to smaller, independent companies, who frankly could probably do a better job given the track record of places like EDS. As long as they don't then find they "need" to bring in expensive management consultancy firms to co-ordinate the smaller teams, that is...
Compact PST
Compact PST - Kernel for pst compress and compact to compact heavy emails in ms outlook files.
Duck Duck Go Traffic & Sponsorship
WordPress 3.0: Ultimate Guide to New Features
Bit by bit, people will memorize long passwords, too, after repeated exposure and handling, and at that point they will stop using the piece of paper with their long, hard-to-guess password scribbled down on, and it will have turned into one more memorized password.

The one single long password I have is 28 characters long; a random password I tapped on the keyboard and then wrote down on a piece of paper, used to administrate my ADSL modem's NAT/wifi/etc. which sadly can't be configured to allow only local login, hence the need for an "unguessable" password - however, not only have I inadvertently, from typing in the password many times, memorized the full password by the character, but I've also inadvertently memorized it motorically, and can without thinking repeat it on the keyboard in a second.

I agree fully on Schneier's advice, though, as the longer and the more random the password, the lower the chance for a dictionary or brute force success, but I'd store the piece of paper somewhere else than in my wallet :)
That's ... an awesome mental image.
There. Added mine to help you out.
Don't limit yourself like that.

If you want to be web developer go get a job.

If you want to be an entrepreneur then you better go where money is. Besides how do you expect web development to function as passive income source? Offering a service/application may be such an opportunity - but then you're an entrepreneur who uses code to leverage his business.

BTW. Your project is mint - love every installment of it!
Congratulations on achieving your goal!
A word about adsense and admob.. you could make a larger income from your app or website traffic by having your own offers instead of leaving it up to an outside source to decide. You could either direct them to your own real estate (ebook or other apps) or you could find an offer that you truly like, such as the hosting company you wrote about and direct traffic to there. Doing this should result in a higher return, and once established you can negotiate a higher payout as well.
Work Before Play vs. Play Before Work
Magic 8-Ball, Steve Edition
Think Wordpress.

Fried just doesn't want you to have that option for project management. It's not about Diasopora, it's about Basecamp.
This ebook has been done "by accident". As a developer I want to make passive income from selling many copies of application or via ads on web pages/in software.
Finding and fixing database performance issues
Be a Producer
Compress PST
Compress PST - Compress pst files by removing unused or extra space from pst files and save it in a separate folder.
Chosen framework certainly is a major problem but even bigger. Unrealistic scoping of the project.

Most governments believe that they can simply will a successful solution into existence.

Instead of thinking how they would like the system to be used they should think about how to get to a point where the system is used and then expand from there.

What a wonderful world it would be if they actually learned to think like entrepreneurs.

Start simple, stay simple
Add as the needs arise
Don't do everything that is possible only what is necessary
Think how not what
Make it for the actual citizens rather than for some political goal.

And for @#((@# sake. Lets get all the data available, yesterday!
There must be something clever we could say about moment of inertia.

Also, isn't it instructive that the "novice" here is someone who's already a programmer in another language? Why are the arbitrary conventions of the Unix shell sacred? They are not some ultimate good. They are merely good because they are the result of cooperation and collaboration over many years. They are by no means perfect.
The thing about the Yelp/Facebook bug is that it demonstrates how some of these features have pretty fundamental problems. Facebook gave Yelp full access to their API in a way that meant that any XSS holes in Yelp would result in a breach for Facebook. Yelp had an XSS hole.

Keeping a large site free of XSS is really, really hard (especially if you don't have an escape-by-default policy baked in to your template layer). Ensuring your partners are free of XSS is even harder.
This is my very first attempt with mobile soft and it was my first bet (to use AdMob). But I am going to implement mediation layer to my soft so I would easily be able to "swap" ads and test what brings me best income.
SoCal Venture Activity Trumps New York and Rivals Massachusetts
Actually most branding experts don't fall into those traps.

They do however fall into the trap of thinking that you can actively brand something, just as you do with cattle.

At the end of the day, your brand reflect everything about your company. From call center to email updates etc. Most importantly is your product (it didn't used to be like that)

The things that matter is the experience you give, not the narrative your frame it within.
The thing about selling the dream is that everybody has a picture in their own minds that makes it exciting. If we were to put actual code to it, it doesn't look like what I had in mind. So, a lot of people will then say it's junk.

That's really very important. What you just said better describes what is my problem with them getting so much money. Essentially they are selling junk for at least 50% of the backers. The ideas are always different in one way or another than implementation thus people are paying up for something they think is what they want
Accidents sometimes result in much profit. Don't limit your horizons.
It is also a problem of self-identifying politically as a "progressive". They kinda have to go for anything that's shiny and new. Whereas conservatives (note the small c) say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. In the specific case of healthcare, look at Matrons on the wards. Yes it reeked of old-fashioned attitudes, but the Matrons ran a tight ship. Now we have outsourced cleaners with the lowest bid and MRSA epidemics. All because New Labour wanted to sweep the 1950s under the carpet.
Well done. I think this goes to show that when you want to generate cash and your focus is on the money, it's better to do several small things instead of investing time on a single product that takes a long time to make cash.

Your income is going to rise and rise, just remember not to get lazy. Keep yourself hungry, otherwise at some point you will stop growing.
Probably more of a practical reason. If you saw a headline reading "Who is a philosopher" you might mentally answer "Plato, Heidegger, and Bostrom;" and not read the article.
The iPhone wasn't the first touchscreen phone. It was the first to combine such a good execution, usable mobile browser, and multitouch. Add the App Store into the mix, and you have something unbelievably good.
Ask HN: Review Preceden's paid conversion funnel
Linux Mint is a Distro based on Ubuntu. Some more information:
http://linuxmint.com
http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Mint_tools_and_specials
http://linuxmint.com/rel_isadora_whatsnew.php
http://techie-buzz.com/foss/download-linux-mint-9-isadora.ht...
I await references from other movies, like "The Omen."
I think the new government could get away with levying a windfall tax on all the big outsourcing firms.
I've always liked the Daring Fireball approach to advertising (not sure if he should get credit for it, but he was the first one I saw doing it), and I really hope it works out well for you, Gabriel.

I love DDG.
I'm not surprised. I use godaddy for hosting domain names but their interface seems really complex. This makes me think that they have an even more complex infrastructure with possibly many holes. It's also possible that they don't have yet fixed the issue because of internal bureaucracy.
This is just a stop-gap measure to get some income before you implement context-sensitive ads, right? Most advertisers won't get any value from most searches.
Why yes, I'd love to read about the new version of Linux Mint! What cool stuff have they come up with now? ... Oh, a directory tree. How helpful. [edit] Sorry, that was a bit harsh. It wouldn't get the votes unless some people found it useful.
Having come from a background in which I saw a lot of how the tendering works I wholeheartedly agree with you. Most large suppliers build into their bid a lock-in period and extra revenue streams tied to that.

For example if Company A supply server hosting, hardware and support for the Government Department then if you want to get new servers in there you have to pay the prices they quote and you have no choice (it's way above normal cost, of course it isn't comparable as your configuration differs from the mass market configuration).

Then to install a new version of SharePoint on the server will mean that the server isn't supported unless that specific version of SharePoint has been through testing with the Department version (so many group policies in place that it's best to think of them having their own version) of Windows Server an Windows desktops. Of course, they will charge for testing and that will be at least £50k for a basic server app, head skywards for anything else.

Finally when you have paid £60k for a £12k piece of hardware, and perhaps £100k for your testing, and £50k in software licenses... you get into maintenance mode. During maintenance mode nothing will happen... nothing at all. If you want a change you will have to accept all responsibility for the impact of that as they manage the server and don't want any risk. Any risk at this point is a cost to them so they will damn well act to limit change, usually by charging to implement any changes (effectively a cost penalty). And if Windows Updates come along, well who needs those anyway. Service Packs on the other hand can re-trigger the test cycle (ka-ching!).

So for a team installation of something like SharePoint it isn't unrealistic to be thinking in terms of hundreds of thousands of pounds... wherein you and I know perfectly well that it can be achieved for less than a tenth of the cost.

This isn't just a procurement problem, it's a problem with the whole lifecycle and how the incumbents shape contracts that benefit the vendors rather than the service being provided.
HN, I put together the infographic in this post to show my success so far with charging for my web app, Preceden. I don't have a lot of experience charging and am looking for any feedback you all may have.

Two specific questions:

1) What's a "good" conversion rate for a freemium web app? And since the answer is almost definitely "it depends", what factors go into it?

2) What do you think of the site's current free/premium breakdown (you can add less than 20 events for free, more than that is $29 for unlimited events). As mentioned in the post, both the max event limit and the price are hard to get right and I'm not sure how to arrive at the optimal numbers.

Also, and unrelated, when I submitted this through the "submit" section on HN it removed the "Ask HN" from the beginning of it. I went back in and added it, though I'm not sure if it was intentionally removed because it linked to an outside URL. I didn't see it in the FAQ, and am curious.
He should get credit! I'll update the post to reflect such.
Do you know how memcached does it? Do they pay the performance overhead, or do they cheat in some way? I don't think perfect LRU is needed, but the general idea behind LRU works /very/ well for a memcached style cache.

Trying to achieve something similar using Redis by for example updating the expire on every read would be a bit of a pain and I think put extra load on the client and server. This isn't a complaint about Redis though, it has its own use cases which are wonderful and I have no objection to using both for their strengths.
'safari jet' that transforms into a plush viewing platform
And not counting Gmail, which was a 20% project, and is only considered high quality because the rest of the state of web-based email interfaces is horrible, open source shit.

What's so bad about Squirrelmail? It seemed pretty snappy when I tried it.
Congratulations on your increasing success. We all know how hard it is and you are putting yourself out there trying your best. Thanks for sharing!
I think this is pretty impressive, he is clearly doing lot of work.
我是香港人
哈哈..
So he means "what does the word philosopher mean"
I promise to not become lazy =) At least until I will have a solid passive income... :D
Isn't it usually vice versa, companies not finding great employees? If you are a good and self-confident is the free trial needed? Don't think so.
i don't know whether you can extend your existing visa but this should be on the top of your list, also make sure that you find permanent solution for the status for living in USA (or north america)... trust me, H1B or any other temporary visa is not a permanent solution, you're always worried about loosing your status and have to go back to your home country. One small change in immigration law can put your hard work in jeopardy.

i know many who apply for Canadian permanent residency (same as USA green card) so that they atleast have stability and dont have to go back and forth to/from home country. Canadian PR is easy and fast and you can work from Vancouver (closet to silicon valley on canadian side) and in the mean time keep working on your project and on some kind of visa status in USA.

edit: also once you've PR from Canada, you can go to US on visitors visa as many time as you want, this is good if you want to meet VCs or other project related partners/members. Also you can get Canadian citizenship within 3 to 5yrs after PR.

Do I sound like sales guy for canadian immigration :-) anyway find a lawyer who has knowledge of both countries (USA & Canada), again trust me this will immensely helpful for planning your future and stability.
It's really nice to see how btrfs is improving.

I am playing with it a little and I wonder if I could expect greater redundancy (like three or more copies scattered) and block deduplication (that would probably require using a hash function instead or in addition of crc32 for block integrity checks)

The yum plugin (unfortunately, I am a Debian guy) looks very sweet.
Bollocks. It's unreasonable, not to mention unrealistic, to shift the balance of responsibility for online security from the relatively small set of professional developers to the mass of individual, non-expert users.

Imagine if banks had a policy that their individual customers were responsible for ensuring that their deposits were secure - banks would collapse regularly (and in fact did collapse regularly before the introduction of deposit insurance).
I'm pretty sure you could save £6 billion just by never ever using EDS again. It's like some kind of abusive marriage, the government keeps getting screwed over and then goes back for more.
Well, wordpress.com isn't a player in the e-mail space, which was the analogy.

And regarding Basecamp/Diaspora: I can already get most of the same functionality I can get from Basecamp in plenty of other products, both hosted and open-source. Basecamp is popular because it's really, really good, not by a long shot because they are the only option.

A project management application on the Diaspora platform would have zero advantage over Basecamp because of that. And even if it would have, Diaspora is open, and 37S could just implement Basecamp as a node.

Fried says Diaspora is going to fail because it's the provocative thing to do, and that's what Fried does on his blog.
Firms rethink tablet course as Apple takes lead
Simple and elegant, that really sells it for me. I user SuperGenPass which is great as long as you can run javascript when you need your password. The latest trouble I've been having is on my android device when logging into applications. It's enough to make me want to learn how to write an input method for android/supergenpass.
Launching & Marketing UnAnchor.com with a $0 Budget
Daring Fireball is a member of the invite-only advertising network called The Deck. To be a member is to be in an elite group of influencers.

http://decknetwork.net/
No One Wins In Business Plan Competitions
That's a $4.23 CPM if my math is right, based on $5,000/1182204 qualified page views in April. That's awfully high.
My 88-key Space Saver Model M does not fight back at all; it just makes it clear to all nearby that a key has been pressed.

(And boy, it sounds weird with a digital delay...)
Well, I can see how you can do a local optimization for a select number of businesses that has the money to offer bribes, and that in turn can be good for the local community.

But for the economy as a whole it can't ever be good.
I was critical of some of your prior posts, but this is pure gold. Your writing has improved, and this blog post has a lot of meat on the bones. Well done, thanks for sharing, and keep it up!
I think the traffic is still too low to offer a unique context-sensitive ads approach. So this is an experiment for now. I believe this exclusive approach offers a unique branding experience, but we'll see :)
Licenses are up to the individual authors; some allow it, others don't. But in a DRM environment like Amazon, the point is moot.
The Teenage App Tycoons
In defense of VC pattern recognition
Any Lisp is a direct representation of it's own Abstract Syntax Tree. In other words, it is a syntax which is also its own meta-syntax.
I am trying all my best. Thanks!
Facebook Amassing Data Center Space
+1 to DuncanIdaho's comment.

If you do go the ebook route (and if you keep blogging at your current pace, you should certainly have enough material), check out fifobooks.com (disclaimer: my startup runs that site).
I do exactly the same thing!

What I haven't done yet is write a script to add/modify/delete items from the encrypted file. I keep meaning to.
Would be nice too if I only saw an RT once, not each time someone else on my list RT's it.

Heck, why not update the RT'd by info to include several people - to make it clear. But please, only show me the thing once!

Only a slightly different note, would be nice if twitter would store the "read" status - so that my different clients know what I've read and what I haven't. If it was core twitter functionality then different clients could all sync together nicely.
Thanks for your support. I am really happy to hear such words - especially from someone who was critical before... :)
I'm not referring to his sidebar. I'm referring to his weekly sponsorship by a single company.