skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Great comment. A few thoughts from an older guy on naive assumptions made by younger people:

1. That your buddies will always be there in the clutch - many times they won't (a good test: whether they will value your friendship over, say, an opportunistic money grab - many people, in my experience, fail this test).

2. That you can succeed with corner-cutting (the easiest way by far to really learn something and to advance is normally the toughest way: to really dive in deeply and master the fundamentals, with hard work, and then to apply what you learned with diligence and hard work to achieve practical outcomes - the "quick" way is almost always inferior, though its lure is always there to entice you when you are young).

3. That ultimate satisfaction will come from the accumulation of money (nothing wrong with gaining financial success but money in itself can never satisfy the deeper needs of life).

4. That you can abuse your body with any form of excess without needing to care about longer-term consequences (big mistake).

5. That you can relate to others in a haughty way without consequence. Younger people are prone to have a sense of invincibility about what they can do. Don't presume. We are all frail and fallible. Treat others as you would have them treat you.

6. That you need not concern yourself with developing a core center for your character. You can lose everything and still keep your character. In the long run, this is what matters most because it ultimately defines you. Work at making it a good one.
Sorry if this is harsh but I don't have much respect for whiners.

Education is just like every other good cause in that it needs leadership to be improved. If someone with a background in education put together a concrete plan and came here and posted an "Ask HN" plea for help I could almost guarantee they'd get that help.

But as any good programmer knows you can only create a solution if the people needing the solution give you enough info to give them what they need. Meaning the ball isn't in our court right now.
I read "won't hear a better argument"

You are right. I have not studied Capitalism or any other type of economic framework. But would it matter? If you've committed to the idea of our "finest form" of economy, than like any religious person, your opinions are hopeless to evolve.

I clearly said I haven't heard a better argument; not that I won't accept any. I used to think a mixed economy was the best economic system (the best of socialism and capitalism). Then I read Wealth of Nations and a bunch of essays from Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. As I said, since reading those I haven't heard a better argument.

Maybe I should point out that at this point, I think your an asshole. But I digress...

I am sure the people of developing countries share a different opinion than you. Are they wrong?

Again, you have failed to do any research. Just Google "free market africa"

This is the first hit:
http://www.unu.edu/africa/papers/development/Stambuli3.pdf
You should read it.

I fail to see how you can bring yourself to argue an opinion that is not grounded in any research. Even if you argued Marxism after reading Das Kapital, at least you would be informed.
Why limit yourself to selling "pet stuff" online?

Edit: There are advantages and disadvantages to selling Pet stuff online. (Bad: tends to be low value per weight and vary fragmented dogs, cats, fish, birds. aka Dry fish food is reasonable to FedEx 50lb bags of dog food less so. Good: Large market and ???) Clearly you can make money selling pet stuff online but there is little reason to do that over selling kitchen supply's online.
Maybe you are right. I was using Gandhi as an example of how evaluating ones fault is not necessary the way to judge people for a job. Sure he made these mistake, but it didn't take away from his ability to unite people. That is the point I was trying to make, whether he was a racist or not, his genius still stands.
I know a robotics guy looking for jobs in Minnesota. Can I get some contact info or do you have a job listing?
Early Stage Investments: Amazing, Smart or Crazy?
Startup Roundup: HootSuite and Skullcandy pick Philly partners
I enjoyed this. Would most large scale applications of these ideas happen with Hadoop? Any other software I should be aware of for, e.g., estimating frequencies in a large text stream?
I have found Apples to Apples (fsync off in PgSQL) and doing key/value store in PgSQL, PgSQL performed on par with, or slightly faster than MongoDB, using my admittedly not fully baked KVPBench app - http://github.com/gmr/kvpbench.
And Windows.
MeeGo Handset Project Day 1 is Here
Switching stacks on the GC was like setting its house on fire and then shooting it as it ran out the front door in its lingerie.

That's bad, right? I'm still giggling.
How Russian spies hid secret codes in online photos
I believe taxes are due to be done today, so likely, I'm not asking the accountant for more work than that already done.

I first asked 2 months ago which he sort of brushed off. Since I was serious that I need to see it before working, it has been a week and he's saying it'll take another week
Er, don't be Ray Kurzweil?
A designer once told me that good design books have great covers. I can only think the other way around of this book.
"When it comes to Web UI development, believe me, it is totally different from any kind of development - all rules fail. What ultimately counts is experience - mainly from failures. So take my word - kill your urge to make use of pretty looking and so called smart-choice JavaScript plug-ins - they will make your life difficult later on. I just completed an assignment and like always, only used core JavaScript with some help from jQuery to add all event listener place-holders. Tabs, modal dialog, complex form elements and all; I did it on my own. It wasn't more than 4-5 lines of code each, anyway."

That, to me, is the most important part of the article. Not said nearly enough. If you have trouble implementing something like tabs in jQuery in under 3 lines you are missing fundamental understanding of front end development techniques. Front end plugins always lead to a huge lack of customization ability for a very small upfront time saving win (vs. traditional software libraries, which face similar issues but IMO the decision is not nearly as clear cut).
Ask HN: SaaS vs. DIY
Most tech startups have similar infrastructure needs, such as:

* A place to deploy their code (bare metal box in a datacenter, hosted VM, Heroku, Engine Yard, etc.)

* Revision Control System (git, svn, mercurial, etc.)

* Monitoring (page me if X, Y, or Z)

* Metrics (Google Analytics, Cloudkick, etc.)

* CC processing (Chargify, Spreedly, Cheddargetter, etc.)

* Wiki or other documentation / information dissemination tool

* Blogging (posterous, wordpress, etc.)

* Bug tracking (github, trac, etc.)

* Email (gmail, yahoo, hosted Exchange, etc.)

* Other communications tools (Campfire, IM, etc.)

* Project management tools (Basecamp, Flow.io, etc.)

* Others?

Each of these has a price. Either they cost you SaaS money, or they cost you time (as well as infrastructure cost) in learning how to roll your own, deploy it, maintain it, back it up, et cetera. The cost for all of these can quickly add up, and yet if you roll your own, you may be leaving your area of expertise, and you're certainly not focusing on the heart of your own product.

Which infrastructure costs (listed above or not) have you decided are worth paying for as opposed to rolling your own, and why?
"Cut to 3 years later, and I'm on a small, tight programming team for a little dot-com startup. I've been there for almost a year, and it's time for a bit of R&R in Central America. 6 weeks off should just about do it"

Does this remind anyone of yesterdays article about the guy who took a month off for a honeymoon? It's one thing to take advantage of a large corporation but if you are screwing your startup for your own vacation, you are being extremely selfish and possibly detrimental to the company. It's fine if you need to recharge your batteries, but its another thing entirely to leave your startup, and your friends, to get more vacation time. If the startup failed, you lost much, much more than you gained by going to Costa Rica.
Freakonomics: The Risk of Wasted Time
Could an asteroid not just fly through Jupiter?

Or if not, probably due to friction, does Jupiter have a solid core of stuff it collected over the years in its gravity well at the center?

edit:got downvoted for some reason, but i was genuinely curious!
An Engineer's Guide to Bandwidth
If you haven't seen this. It's a must have.
Care and feeding of Happy Spammers
Bump is letting users send paid apps (on Android)?
Optimize life for your personal enjoyment.

* Live as close as possible to work and a grocery store This eliminates commute costs and time. Alternatively you can walk to work/market, which gives you some exercise.
* Minimize spending on stuff you don't need or enjoy.
* Minimize foundation costs as much as possible - transport, food, medicine, shelter. This is hard to do without major sacrifices, but can be done.
* Minimize time spent on stuff you don't enjoy. For example, you don't need to clean a smaller, less cluttered space as often. You can eliminate the stress/time of commute by living closer to everything.

The idea is to eliminate as many stresses and time wasters as possible, maximizing the amount of free time you have. This gives you time for projects you care about, or just slacking off. If you have too much free time, most of the world will envy your problem.

I have found it is, without question, the best quality of life increase possible.
I agree with this post, and have dedicated my work to improving the quality of business education.

If you're interested in improving your business skills in a concrete hacker kind of way, here are 99 books that I believe are the best to start with: http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/. Reading + personal experimentation goes a very long way.

I'm currently writing summaries of these books as well: http://personalmba.com/category/book-summaries/

My own book, which is a summary of the most important/powerful concepts in business (if you know about Charlie Munger's work on "elementary worldly wisdom," you'll be interested), comes out December 30th: http://personalmba.com/book/

All it takes to get a great education is interest + great resources to learn from. Plus, if you're DIY-inclined, you can save a ton of time and money teaching yourself.
My belief is that hiring decisions are the most important ones I make, so I want to know the people I'm hiring and I want them to know me. This is going to sound cheesy and it's not one-size-fits-all, but it all comes down to cultivating relationships.

So I talk to devs via email that I've met on HN. Or on twitter. Or at <insert language here> user groups. Or via other devs. I'm interested in what they're working on...not just because I might want to hire them, but because development is interesting, right? That's why we all read HN. :) And developers rarely get to talk to people that "get" what they're doing outside of their work colleagues.

It's a great way to learn about new things. It's a great way to get questions answered when you bump up against an issue. It's a great way to help other devs when they hit a wall that you've maybe hit before. And it also a fantastic way to find guys you think might want to work with you and vice versa.

I know that sounds really kumbaya, and it probably doesn't scale or whatever. But I'm not trying to be a huge enterprise software company that has revenues in the gazillions. I'm just trying to be a small shop that does really amazing work and is a place where really good geeks love to work.
Agotterer,

I LOVE the simplicity of your design. Well done!
Avoid debt, Save money, Give generously, Live frugally.

If you have debt already, then pay it off as fast as possible. Go crazy to pay it off- rice and beans, beans and rice.

When you're done paying off debt, then save vigorously (before paying off debt, make sure you have ~$1000 in the bank for an emergency). But if you have no car payment, no school debt, etc, then you can save soooo much money.

When you've saved a lot of money, then you can give a lot of money. Be generous. Find an issue or something that you really believe in and give. When giving with a grateful heart, you will be really happy.

Finally, just live frugally. You don't always need the latest and greatest tech, or whatever is the cool new gadget or car, etc. Enjoy what you have.
Entrepreneurship Helps Make America Great
Slavery (in America) died in the 1800s. Your job doesn't own you.
It is neither extortion nor underhanded, nor dishonest if the employee openly and honestly negotiates it before leaving. Unless their contract explicitly has termination penalties if they quit to early (fairly rare in the software world), then they have every right to threaten to leave immediately if they are not given what they want, and this remains honest.

Now, you may have a point with it being disloyal, but what have you done to earn their loyalty? If you or the company has done something unusual to earn their loyalty, then you may have a valid point and reason to feel wrong. But paying them an honest wage for honest labor is not a way to earn any exceptional level of loyalty.

Not to mention, how many people are without jobs? Some people would be grateful to have a job, even with NO vacation.

At the risk of sounding somewhat cavalier, the overall unemployment rate has nothing to do with my situation or my relationship with my employer. The unemployment rate in my particular region for my particular industry matters somewhat, but if we are talking skilled software developers that is relatively low. Even then, the really relevant question is how easily can the company replace me, which includes my specific domain knowledge and my skill level. It sounds like the article was written by someone who could not be easily replaced for people who could not be easily replaced.
... and any good entrepreneur knows that you create what isn't there, based on incomplete information. And the community that is here consists generally of technology oriented people interested in startups (that is, either joining one or creating one).

No one is whining. I'm just calling it like it is.
> Maybe I should point out that at this point, I think your an asshole. But I digress...

Sigh.

You've come here to fight me, yet there is a well-authored video which highlights the points I am making.

They aren't mine, but I understand the logic and outcomes in which the author is illustrating. It is with this my eyes open a little more, I learn a bit more and offer my open-mind to ideas not yet in bloom.

The results you want me to find on Google reinforce your point, finds the best practice, but not any alternative.

I will take your advice about the quality publications you have recommended; Wealth of Nations, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, etc.

Yet, still, I will be an asshole simply because I wish to see your research as only that.
I have the hardest time settling on titles for blog posts. For this one the candidates were:

A Founder's Job.

Your Business is a Person. Make her Awesome.

Who is your Business?

Is there one you like better? Any tips for picking titles?

Thanks!
Are you opening to hiring someone who is not on-site? You could always fly them in for a few days each month to get in face time. This could really open up a stream of high-quality applicants.
The spot first caught the eye of an amateur astronomer in Australia

Where do people discuss/publish this kind of discoveries?
But I'd assume they're just too busy to do any additional work. Especially since, at least in the US, tax bookkeeping is different than the normal "give you a picture of the company" bookkeeping that is what you need (I read long ago (before it all got computerized) that some companies legally keep two sets of books because of this).

I wouldn't be at all concerned about him needing a delay right now, but brushing you off 2 months ago? That's not a good sign, although it might not be too bad of a sign.

Are you proposing to put any money into this venture, or just sweat? If the latter, what's your opportunity cost?
"One feature I needed to remove, which was essentially a boolean check, touched over 40 files across four applications."

What does this mean? How does a feature span four applications?
Regarding Java field modifier, its too bad the default is none of public/private/protected.

In all other aspects, thumbs up to the post.
The Drag Coefficient Scoring System: what size startup is right for you
Classmates.com deceptive marketing settlement: $2-$3 off $39 membership
Several years ago, at my second "real job", I walked in with a job offer for 20% more and got to keep my salary and work 20% less (4 days a week) instead.

I was literally shaking, but it worked!
It sounds good, I remember bookmarking the original research project.

I sure wish they'd provide an idea of the eventual cost, though. I can understand their not wanting to right now, but I at least can't afford to invest time into their beta program without knowing if I'll be able to afford it when they start charging for it.
Postgres is easy to convert to from MySQL, if you keep that conversion cheatsheet handy. However, mastery of its performance quirks (all servers have quirks) can take years.

It took me 48 hours to convert to it, 10 months later and I don't feel like I know much about it.
Bill Joy: What I'm worried about, what I'm excited about
As you say yourself 'I don't even know if foursquare costs money I don't know anything about foursquare really'.

You sure write alot for somebody who doesn't know anything about the service. I don't 'use' foursquare either, but I've tried it and know what it's about.

A single network wouldn't be successful in building a foursquare competitor, as not all of your social contacts are on the same network.

Part of the value of FourSquare in the long term is to be introduced to new places (likely around the world) where your social network has checked in and found value. A great restaurant, coffee shop, attraction, etc.

In addition, there is the game element, which apparently people find fun, but how much fun is a game you can only play with people on the same network? How successful would skype have been if you could only speak to other people who already had skype? That is basically what you are proposing.
And yet, you'll probably find as I did, that if you disappear for a week or so, nothing really terrible happens. With clients, it's easy - tell them you're gone. When you run an SaaS, it's not as easy, but I became so ill I wasn't able to do a thing… and we lost maybe one customer.

The others who were waiting on my emails got a very sincere apology and explanation, and we were all good.

This goes to show that you only think you have to be there all the time.
The only things worth spending money on are knowledge (eg, books), experiences (travel, etc.), and relationships.

Most things, at least beyond what's needed for utility (computer, shelter, reliable car if you're not in a city with good transit) are ultimately an unfulfilling waste of money.
Two things...

First you aren't "Calling it like it is". You're passing judgement on the community based on what you perceive to be inaction. What I'm saying is we can't really act until someone who knows the other side comes to us and asks for help.

Second this isn't about entrepreneurship. The reality of the situation is that schools are poor and the kids who need help the most are generally the poorest. So if you really care about reforming education you really can't go into it as a for-profit venture. Because you have to make whatever you accomplish available as far and wide as possible to get any traction.
I understand that - I meant my comment to be more a complaint about bogus/worthless "margins of error".
Locking in Innodb is row-level.
So an echo of the old "but I don't want to have to pick a window manager" line?
"Economies do not grow because consumers spend; consumers spend because economies grow....

Investment capital comes from savings, and when governments borrow, savings are diverted from private investment. While it is possible for governments to invest as well, it is much more likely that the money will be spent on entitlements or "invested" in projects that may be politically advantageous but economically useless.

Any money spent by governments is not available to the private sector to invest...."

And he didn't even mention how following the "Stimulators" for two decades has ruined Japan.
They're also the "safe bad guy" - you can make Nazis the villain in your movie / game and no one will complain (except don't show the swastika, ss in some countries.)

Spielberg promised not to use Nazis as a trope after Schilder's list, and the last Indy movies suffered for it. Using commies as the enemy seems so dated and Jingoistic, even though the conflict was more recent.
They couldn't even figure out the type of a function that takes a string and returns a list of permutations? That is...unexpected. One wonders how so much working software gets written.
> This seemingly innocent image of sleeping puppies could contain cleverly hidden coded messages from Russian spies. (Although, in this case, it's just a picture of sleeping puppies.)

Where's the fun in that? Let me stretch my steganographic muscles!
Why Tesla is a buy Outside the Box
It's there, at least visually, even if you have Javascript turned off with NoScript (Firefox).

And, yeah, it's very annoying.
First directly imaged planet confirmed around sun-like star
There's a much better way to say this that isn't controversial or link-bait. It's also very old.

"The devil is in the details."
guy doesnt know what he's taking about. rant. wasted resource on HN
I like doing both :)
Ask HN: Advice on finding big brands to advertise on my site.
I have a facebook app which is getting some serious traffic (2m+ visitors a day). It should easily be enough for a big-brand ad deal, but I have no idea where to start. Are their 3rd party companies which act as the middle man and help negotiate ad deals like this for a cut? Is hiring a full time ad sales person the way to go? Do companies like Coke expect a rich presentation selling them on the merits of advertising on your site, or is a short email and traffic stats enough to get their attention?

Sorry, not going to post the link. In this instance it's the idea (and it's easily reproducible), not the execution..
Has Foursquare succeeded? From what I've heard, they aren't profitable, yet, which means to me that the jury is still out on them.
That's a fair question. I think most -isms simplify complex systemic issues by applying a particular framing. Since this abstracts away aspects of the issue that don't fit frame but might still be important, -isms may fail to address the critical problems (or even acknowledge problems that some people care about).

This isn't a very specific argument, but it's hard to argue against -isms as a general idea.
I would need some sort of bugzilla data importer to actually consider switching (we have about 8 years' worth of bugzilla data we currently rely on). That would be a huge task, I suspect, given the long history and complexity of the bugzilla schema.
City debuts Seattle crime map
Maybe it was a common utility function called from 4 applications that looked into 40 files to see if you had permissions to do something or to see if an operation was safe to do?

Seems excessive but....
How much notice would you give them if you had to fire them - you know, for business reasons? 3 months? Two weeks? None?

Underhanded, disloyal, dishonest…
T-mobile handset theory update - with device info
I saw Ryan Singer's UI Fundamentals talk in person at Windy City Rails. It was worth the cost of admission by itself, and I can't recommend it enough.