skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Some honest feedback from a long time hacker news participant and innocent bystander...

It looks like pclark is providing feedback of some kind to a product represented by rantfoil, who is responding.

I have no opinion about the issues being discussed in this thread, in fact I'm not sure I even understand many of them. But this much I do understand...

rantfoil, you appear to be arguing in a public forum. Don't. By definition, you can't win.

You responses may be perfectly valid (who knows), but language like

I have a major bone to pick with your characterization of Posterous themes.

I hardly think the theme community is unhappy about...

Attacking...is absurd...

make you and all that you represent appear confrontational.

It doesn't matter who wins this battle, rantfoil will lose the war if this is the public perception of the corporate face. Find a way to address this feedback that will attract innocent bystanders, not scare them away.
It's a behavior we wish to encourage.
Wimbledon scoreboard overflow as fifth set goes past 112 games
3. If you aren't they will also follow you just in case.
"2. Brainstorm to identify name possibilities."

How is that a tip?

It's like:

How to find a grocery store:

1. Think about how to find a grocery store.
That's speculation. They've done better than the NASDAQ, but how do you know they couldn't have done better without the memo being sent out?
Chopping Up The Twitterverse
Nope. I'm saying, "Are you defending this guy?"
Original 1979 Pac-Man Drawings by Toru Iwatani
Finally a solution to task mgt and email integration that makes sense!! Thank you task force team!! I like the chrome extension - wondering when I'll be able to get it on my desktop (windows user). Oh and btw I love the user interface.
In Mother Russia you don't follow public officials on Twitter, public officials follow you.
I love how snarky comments are downvoted on HN UNLESS they're about Mahalo. 30 more karma to go, then I'm going to come back and downvote you and everyone else making the same comment on this thread.
The red-tape force is strong with this one
American mountaineer John Harlin to climb, cycle, and paddle the Swiss border
he no longer pays much attention to the blog

He pays attention enough to start comment threads about it.
In April of 2010, Forbes magazine named Patterson fourth on their annual list of "America's Best-Performing Bosses"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Patterson
Nowadays, there are co-working arrangements in most major cities with month to month leases. In the early stages, why bother getting locked into a lease at all?
Would probably make most sense if you were applying to a small organization where a senior person was doing the review. Otherwise it becomes 1) I don't like how this person looks or 2) this person is just using a picture to compensate for some other shortcoming in the resume...
Interesting. Throw /api/read at the end of a tumblr blog and you're set. Interesting approach, I guess.
A problem with a verbose approach is that when ver 2.0 comes you can't really know/remember which part of the code is actually used and which was just prepared for future development - so you end up maintaining and coding around pieces of code that will never be used.

Like I said, what eventually bites you is that you never ever ever know exactly what version 2.0 will require. So in the end you still have to adapt code, and adapting clean short code is easier.
We have a Hackers & Founders / Open Coffee Club going in the RTP, NC area now as well:

http://www.meetup.com/RTP-Hackers-Founders/
Self-assembling nanodevices created that move and change shape on demand
> If, OTOH, programming is something you care about and that

> actually interests you (which is true of nearly all good

> programmers), it's an attitude you won't have.

Whoa! So what you're saying is that if I don't know the recent trends in functional languages, I don't care about programming? Seriously?

Do you see the problem here? This guy is laying out arbitrary things which appear in his domain of knowledge, and discounting others for not having the exact same set of experiences. I see this a lot among software people.

Sure, broadening your horizons gives you new insights, but there is a lot to be said for mastery and focus.

Additionally, why is it that there is an expectation in software that my job has to also be my hobby, or else I don't care and/or I'm no good? Do you think mechanical engineers working for an auto manufacturer are expected to be at home designing bicycles, lest they be thought of as not caring?
Seattle, WA: ExtraHop Networks.

Actually, we just created this little jobs page, what do you guys think of it?

http://www.extrahop.com/jobs/
I felt it up in New Hampshire. I was sitting at a coffee shop on the second floor of a building and the building oscillated. However, it was not much more jarring than when large supply vehicles roll by an airport terminal. Consciously, I decided it was not an earthquake --- but at the same time, it did cause me to look out the window and decide that I could make it to the ground floor, if necessary, without breaking a bone.
If it was spelled "wholistic" it would be a bit more intuitive, if more confusing phonetically.
Things aren't always so cut and dry. There's probably some people - a large number in fact - that does derive benefit from some of Mahalo's pages. You also have the fact that the revenue generated by Mahalo is going towards paying people which lets them live and feed themselves, etc.

In terms of the grand scheme of things, what Mahalo is doing isn't that "bad".

It's also not the ideal case either. As a savvy web user a Mahalo page is one of the last pages I'd want to visit, but I'm also savvy enough to know how to avoid it.
I appreciate you pointing out that it doesn't seem to have hurt company, although its very like that it did in other unmeasurable ways.

Your post seemed to excuse his actions as if its just his style.
I second that, "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" is an awesome book and I really encourage anyone who hasn't read it to pick it up some time. I think it is an important read for both developers and managers.
Ask HN: how to experience some of Silicon Valley? (for a visiting European)
I'm not sure how to explain this and don't really know whether you guys will have any suggestions at all for me, but here goes:

In a few weeks me and my girlfriend will be visiting San Fransisco for a few days. Coming from the Netherlands, and as a founder myself, I've always been mesmerized by the entrepreneurship and technological novelties that have their origins in the fabled 'Bay Area' in California.

So, I was wondering whether it would be possible to somehow catch a glimpse of all this. Maybe just drive around to see the offices of industry-giants like Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. Realizing there might be very little to see on the outside, and reckoning there's not anything like a visitor-centre for folks like me, my question to HN is simple: would it be possible for a tourist like me to experience maybe just a tiny bit of the world-famous Silicon Valley? If you think so, what are your suggestions?
I'm a big fan of lead-gen of late -- that said, I'm not such a big fan of what many of the higher-ed lead gen providers are focused on, which is volume for volume's sake.

We'll be seeing the fallout of that approach in coming months & years, as the education loan default crisis comes front and center, as graduates of online colleges find that their earning potential doesn't meet their loan payback schedules.

IMO, they should spend more time on how to attract higher quality students for the programs (that is, students who complete the programs and go on to increasing their earning potential), and in the process, they'd build truly sustainable long-term businesses.
The problem with this term "extended" is that it's unnecessarily limiting. Code needs to be maintained, whether or not it's "extended," and switch statements are by far less maintainable than the alternative polymorphism-based implementation. They don't as readily admit separate testing, and the implementation of specific operations are not isolated from each other, etc. 100% of code is maintained and the polymorphic method is far better for that than the switch statement. A programmer who chooses the latter over the former is being shortsighted.
By conflating making true statements about the stock market (good) with defending assholes (bad), you create an environment hostile to truth.
I'm sorry, why is this on Hacker News exactly?

Isn't there a more interesting story about another deserving startup or individual we can focus on?

really.... I'm bored with seeing Calacanis on the front page of HN.
I agree some more text under the headline would be good, as at first I wasn't sure specifically what I could gain from this, compared to the plethora of task mangers out there.
Actually, there is a really solid community of folks building pages, asking questions, providing answers, etc.
We've had a little success. It's fairly easy to track the conversion rate from AdWords campaigns if you're also using Google Analytics.

Our ads convert to signups at about a 10% rate. At $0.16 CPC, that means we pay $1.60 for each signup via Adwords. That's still too low for us to get a reasonable return.

I've tried various things in order to bring up the conversion rate, since I think 10% is low, but this is an area where I'm lost. I've tried making a landing page, A/B testing the landing page, and some other tricks, but I'm out of my area of expertise here. That's what I meant when I said that doing ads is pretty damn hard.

But if I could just hit 20% conversion and stay there...then we'd be golden!
It's a common adage, so I doubt anyone would object.
That does not opt you out of the policy:

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.

They might be using it to sell advertizing today, but that's far from the only thing they can do with that data.
The key/value model embraced by NoSQL databases (Scalaris, Voldemort, Tokyo Cabinet, etc) is the simplest and easiest to implement but inefficient when you are only interested in querying or updating part of a value.

This article (http://seattleweb.intel-research.net/people/lamarca/pubs/pap...) coming out of Intel argues that it is also difficult to implement more sophisticated structures on top of a distributed key/value. The author's main point is that a few specialized applications can and have been built on a plain distributed key/value store, but most applications have ended up having to customize the key/value store's internals to achieve their functional or performance goals.

From the little bit I have read about Membase it looks well positioned to bring simple distributed key/values stores to the next level and back into the lime light.
I think that is fantastic. Human brains are wired to learn and understand stories. The are incredibly compelling to us. I think this would me a much easier way to learn things. How many people can remember esoteric facts about starwars that they internalized just because they were associated with a resonant story
It's a verified account, although I don't know how they verified it.
Also, define high traffic.
See? Look at the meme spread. It's like a political talking point. Some Frank Luntz somewhere started this idea that an easy way to write off a commentator you don't like is to remark about his lack of blog comments, and off we are to the races.
Significantly more.
Mad Men’s Guide to Managing Creative People
I'll call some BS on the stock price affect... after some quick Googling this article seems to pinpoint the exact date:

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/4296-1.html

Comparing CERN stock vs the S&P500, Dow Jones, and a related company ECLP and MDRX will show that all of them tanked the same week, and all of them recovered quite well within a month or so.
> [T]he iPad does actually offer something fundamentally different that consumers really want.

Prestige?

"Your laptop's so small! How do you type on that keyboard?"

"Woah, dude! The screen on your iPod's enormous! That must've cost a mint!"
What it must be like to work in an office where world leaders drop by
There are also coffee shops and 101 other ways to work without a physical nexus.

I think at some point, however, when you're growing, having everyone in one location that is "home" can be very useful, and these tips are good for if you get to that point.
Definitely stop by the Computer History Museum. It's a shame they no longer have the Babbage engine, but there's maybe 2 hours worth of coolness there.
Well even if you are consistent the problem still stands.

If you don't know what a pulldown do then it doesn't help that the design is consistently using pulldowns.
Suggest taking a look at these pages, which get a lot of traffic, that people stay on for a long time and that provide a lot of value:

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-guitar-chords
http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-make-strawberry-shortcake
http://www.mahalo.com/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-walkthro...
Do You Really Believe You Are Safe at the Airport?
> Except for the time spent downloading it, in some cases days / weeks. And the implied risk, however small it's interpreted to be. And the danger of it being a virus (diminishing, but applicable). And etc etc etc.

Downloading is asynchronous. It may cost some computer resources, but probably not any which you would not have used anyways.

You're missing the point. It's practically free, certainly much freer than the retail price. And usually finding the illegal version something (that's worth it) is just a matter of time.

People illegally downloading don't care about authenticity because it's practically free and is worth it to them. Obviously if the time it takes to acquire it illegally over legally is more than its worth to the person, he/she wouldn't do it (or shouldn't do it), but for the majority of people it isn't true.
While I agree that it asks for backlash - do we actually know what happened? It seems like the company's doing decently, so I'm not sure the students of history will have much to work off of.
I was genuinely curious.
> Because really good programmers love to learn new tricks.

Right. And because you don't know the particular tricks I learned, it indicates some sort of deficiency in your knowledge or character. Hmm... Nah.

> You admit learning about PHP made you a better C++
> programmer.

Uh. I learned PHP while coding for a company. No way I would be at home learning PHP for 'fun'. I would rather be out cycling, rock climbing, or being with friends.

> a novice asked

You're effectively talking about a student. Students get a sampling of a lot of ideas. Experienced software engineers are expected to have mastery in one or more areas.

> And that's why it's important for Dick to learn to develop for Linux.

That's an absurd conclusion. Perhaps, "that's why learning Linux may be important for Dick." There are a lot of things in the world to learn. Perhaps Dick will benefit vastly more from learning some other platform, API, language, or entirely unrelated skill.

My point is that this guy comes off as superior and snarky because the MS plebes are discovering what he's known for rh so long. That kind of attitude is corrosive, dismissive, and unproductive.
Unless I'm missing something, it looks like he showed up at their offices...
Here's the deal, that's how generalizations work.
You don't want to ask HN about this contract; you want to ask HN about hiring a lawyer and then ask your lawyer about the NDA. (If you can't afford a lawyer, an NDA sounds like a waste of time.)
Note how the three features that Tumblr doesn't have use vague terms like "real", "works for anyone" and "practical and flexible". Reads like fluff to me.
Removing comments from blog is one mouse click away on wordpress. You can even permanently remove comments from your theme by removing just one line of code.

Edit: Self-plug My new blog http://blogriot.com/. No comments, no sidebars, no distraction. Just me and my writing. Well, not much writing just set it up few days ago. I had the domain unused for few years so I thought, what the hey! why not use it?
I wonder why he's such a jerk.

I can't imagine treating the folks in my department that way. I don't want to own their souls. I hope that they consider the work that they do here enriching, and I also believe that in partnership we make a better department as well as better lives for all of us. I'm proud that our people lead fulfilling lives that include much more than banging out code.

Somebody who wants people to dedicate their lives to their jobs; indeed, someone who seems to want to live in a world where people act that way, is just a mystery to me.
> A service I'd pay for: I send you a photo of myself, my measurements and money. You make me look good.

I think this exists. I can't think of any names but I know I've heard of basically this concept.
Yes, you can absolutely experience SV on your trip ... quite a bit actually.

Use Plancast and Meetup to be on the look out for startup events to attend. That's the real benefit of the valley—there is a high concentration of like-minded entrepreneurs. Go to as many events as you can. The relationships you form can be taken with you back home.

If you want to meet up for lunch or need further guidance, shoot me an email: dru@druwynings.com

-dru
If by CRM you mean CMS, I don't think they're using a CMS because all of the pages seem to be plain HTML based on the extension and the content type. Of course, they could be spoofing that for a number of reasons, but I think it's safe to say that their site's perceived slowness has nothing to do with the database. In any event, it's loading very quickly now.
> * I can also password protect my Tumblr.

Hehehe...
Fluid Layout from Hicksdesign
Felt it in Toronto, on 10th floor, monitors we waggling all over the place. Strange feeling.
There is nothing to experience in Silicon Valley. It's a bunch of office parks in the suburbs. San Francisco on the other hand seems to have been designed for tourism. Marin County is great if you like the outdoors.
No she didn't unfortunately. Mind you the mouse is an abstraction, which means it can be interpreted in many ways. Inverted mouse used to be natural in fps games and still is in flight simulators.

A touch screen on the other hand that don't register where you click but just randomly chose coordinates now that would be noticed.
you'd think they'd bump the Kremlin dude and get that account instead of going with KremlinRussia(do any other countries have Kremlins?)...I'm sure he could be convinced to part with the account
God particle signal is simulated as sound
Too bad the import from tumblr feature doesn't work...
is he really personally bothering to write there or is it just another pr stunt?
Wow, I wish I knew which tech companies you are talking about. The world I know is one where people work all the time, are lucky to have half decent computers on which to work and definitely never get any of those cushy benefits.

Thing is, people in aerospace in the 50's to 70's had a mission and they worked on cool things. If you're working for a typical software company you have neither (unless you consider refactoring that enterprise app as a mission),

High ranking people love this kind of moralism, because it feels like they're really doing something. But the proof is in the pudding and guilt-tripping people about having reasonable working spaces is not going to make people do good work.

This CEO is lazy. Building a good working culture is mundane and takes a long time with constant little tweaks. But nothing beats the rush of thinking you've ruffled some feathers.

It's the equivalent of parents doling out corporal punishment to kids: it really seems to work, but at best does nothing over a long period and at worst creates distrust and fear. Real parenting takes effort, as does real management.
Why a web design really takes six weeks
> every thing you don't understand in your code or build system will eventually come back as increased cost

I agree with this. But what has that got to do with Visual Studio and makefiles?

Is your point that Visual Studio is hard to use, somehow? I've created quite complex build systems using Visual Studio and scripting. I'll admit I've had rough patches where it's been hard to figure out where a setting might be, or where I forget to set things consistently (e.g. library inclusion across build targets), but it's pretty full-featured and reasonably easy to grasp. It strikes me as consistent, once you learn the basics.

Perhaps your point is that makefiles are easier to review "at a glance"? I don't really agree with that, since it depends entirely on one's competency with makefiles versus Visual Studio project/solution configuration.

I could be missing something entirely, though, so I welcome any additional take on it.
That requires almost no attention at all. IIRC, that's a large part of the reason why John doesn't want comments on his blog.
Agreed, I've gone from being curious and neutral/positive about posterous and how they were thinking about making money (ie: solving the "how do you get users to pay for their own content" problem), but now I'm completely turned off to the company because of the way I've seen them respond to criticism over the last week or two. Not that I'm looking for a blogging service, but I'd rather be on one that was run by adults if I was.
Since the early days of iPhone you could collect near real-time location data on individual users by having your app ping location once they give basic location permission.

Seems like this privacy policy is a clarification on an existing process, and maybe necessary since the advent of new background services make is easier to collect in real time?
Font look terrible with Chrome on windows, which is why fluid is so hard to pull off.
True, but then the rational user might conclude that if you can't manage to have a performant static website you might not be able to handle the complicated stuff.
Read Pinker's books. There's a lot more than my two examples. (Though either one alone demolishes your earlier claim that all "intuitive" is learned.) There's a lot of intuitive stuff around Geometry alone that painters have been exploiting since cave paintings. I think there's plenty more we can do as computer people with that alone.
That's a hugely misleading comment.

You can opt out of receiving location-based ads, but you cannot opt out of sharing your location. Just read the terms of http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4228 carefully.
It was a strange one here in Toronto - chair was swaying side to side, pretty strongly but slowly. Used to much sharper quakes.
I don't think this one line is exactly where all the innovation is. But it is representative of getting your toe in the water.

But this is the typical argument I hear from people about anything. "Hey, that was a good movie"... "Dude that plot is basically a derivative of Hamlet with a twist of Revelation, chapter 3. Nothing really new there". Or the most standard, "Actually you can do that with Lisp." I'm sure you probably know that everything in that Linq query is pure syntatic sugar. Not runtime changes needed.

But with all that said, I'm sure MS didn't do this to be "innovative". At least I hope not. I assume they did it to make the lives of developers easier. That's the real test, not if no other language ever implemented the feature.