skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
From their FAQ (http://improveverywhere.com/faq/):

>We are not claiming that what we are doing is improv. The majority of Improv Everywhere Agents met each other through the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, the nation’s most awesome improv theatre and school. The name reflects our idea of taking some of the skills we learned at UCB and bringing them to life in public places. We stay in character at all costs and interact with members of the public with no script beyond the mission’s idea. We have no clue how people are going to react to us, and that is where the improvisation comes in. Sometimes people misread our URL as "Improve Everywhere." We think that’s probably a better name for what we try to do.
I'm pretty sure that's something planned for 1.3
I second this just because the first thing I did was go search for books by that author on Amazon.
I believe it also uses HDCP.
I wonder how crocodoc would behave if we integrated with HN so that each HN user showed up in crocodoc (and anonymous users were unable to comment)...
Why is housing so hard to come by anyways? I'm just curious.. it would seem like someone would rise to fill that need if people are literally standing in line to be interviewed for the chance to rent a place.
Some of this is really interesting, other parts not so much.

Versioning directories, pluggable storage layers, decentralized databases...these are interesting, but have been tried, and have not thus far proved compelling. Thus far, I have not seen projects move to Bazaar or Monotone because they were fed-up with Git and Mercurial not versioning directories, nor have I heard of people picking Mercurial or Subversion because of their pluggable storage systems, nor do I see people choosing Fossil and Monotone because they have distributed databases. It's not that these aren't good features--some of them, like properly handling directories and renames, are (IMVHO) definite improvements over Git and Mercurial--but rather, they are not by themselves enough to make people switch what they're using.

The real kicker for me is simply the license. All of the major DVCS players right now are GPL licensed. While Git's been pretty accepting of non-GPL compatible implementations (e.g., JGit, Dulwich), the Mercurial team has indicated that it would view any such project in a very dim light, and I can't conceive of anyone wanting to tempt the FSF by trying that kind of thing with Bazaar. Suddenly having a well-implemented closed-source-friendly DVCS could very easily result in a very sharp and immediate uptake among tool companies. This could completely change the game for corporate shops.
Looks fascinating. One thing that jumps out at me as a git user is the directory/rename tracking.

Directory tracking seems like a great idea.

Rename tracking on the other hand seems like a fool's errand since there is no sane universal definition of what constitutes a rename; I think what git does with superficial heuristic hinting at the UI level is really the best thing there.
I think you mean seasoned CEOs and not those CEOs who only work during the summer or christmas ;)
Are there any competitors to this? I'd love something like that in Denver.
Happy Cog redesigns Zappos.com
It's true. Telling friends and family what we do usually ends in an awkward stare. It consistently blows me away that people would rather work for 3M or the government than build something awesome that they love.
Business appraiser Orlando
Hetsler Mediation & Valuation,CPA firm specializing in Business valuation divorce,Expert Witness accounting, and Business appraisal jacksonville in family law and civil matters http://www.forensiccpafirm.com/
I don't know about the immigration part, but getting citizenship would be a second, part-time job for the better part of a decade.

And that is after you get here.
You can get my Android installer here: http://www.couch.io/android

Remember it's only a developer preview, but it should be fully-functional. Requires Android 2.1 or 2.2
Usually it is, but in this case, I would bet money that Dropbox has floated the idea internally.
> If you're still pirating music in 2010, and the track you're pirating is available on the Apple Store for 99 cents, then you're just being a cheap bastard.

I'm a cheap bastard until the band rolls into town the next time and I go because I know who they are and that I like their music. Touring is the new business model--records are live show promotion tools.
Another, albeit inadvertent, example of the risk factors: the Asian model depicted midway through the article - seemingly for purely visual reasons, as she's not mentioned at all - committed suicide unexpectedly in 2009, apparently due to the pressures of her modeling career.

So not only is asset selection driven by hunch and/or groupthink, but the desire to maximize ROI from a productive asset can destabilize it.
Whatever happened to Duluth's (I forget the name) 'Tech' builidng on Superior Street downtown? Is it home to some tech companies?
I think you're worrying too much. Sounds pretty normal to me. Try to keep learning, practice coding problems if you're so inclined or get a hobby. Get out more. Spend more time with your family. Teach a few courses if thats possible.
In this context, I don't think there is any such thing as linear improvement.
A standing desk worked for me for a few weeks while I got over a back injury. I felt great, and a soccer ball underfoot gave me something to play with when I was thinking more than typing. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand to stick with the standing desk after my back got better, because my computers, papers, and books were just too spread out around my office.
Ask HN: iPhone 4 or hold out for an Android phone?
Was thinking of making the leap from my iPhone 3G to an Android phone instead of the iPhone 4. I'm on ATT for my business and would have to stay with them unfortunately.

Anyone holding out for a new Android phone? Should people thinking of upgrading to an iPhone 4 hold out for some of the new up and coming android phones?
mn has plenty of history (you may have heard of youtube, or unisys, or cray), and a good number of entrepreneurs. just no angels. angels can go to hell imho. i'll bootstrap thanks.
I met the Poly9 crew at a geo conference a couple years ago. They struck me as incredibly talented. Their Flash-based globe (similar to Google Earth) impressed me with its speed and responsiveness. I think they were using Papervision 3D. If I'm not mistaken, their 3d globe is still used on the ever-popular Twittervision:

http://beta.twittervision.com/?mode=3d

It's funny to me that one of Poly9's core products is in Flash, given how much Apple has done to push Flash out of its recent products.

Anyway, I'm happy for the Poly9 team. I'm sure they'll be doing amazing things with Apple.
In one of my companies we use a subscription model similar to the one you have described above.

What we do is as soon as the user shows interest in the subscription (i.e. clicks the relevant link), there is a redirection towards PayPal where a recurring subscription is initiated after the whole transaction is processed.

Paypal then takes care of the rest. Its API reports back to the software and if someone's card is declined or anything like that, their subscription status changes. This way we do not worry about the subscriptions themselves.

Several things to note:

1. The software handling this comes within the software we use. Integration then is something that others have done and we do not worry about this.
2. Refunds are processed manually
3. Increase in the subscription price is a pain since the old users (the ones that paid with the old price) will continue to get charged the old price using this model. The recurring transaction from PayPal does not account for increases in prices. Therefore you will need to cancel those subscriptions manually and let the users resubscribe.

Customers are never emailed but everyone is well aware that these charges are taking place. We also use eSupport from Kayako which solves a lot of problems in customer support (you will need something like that if your volume is going to be high).

From another company that I had, we were using the ModernBill software. It handled a lot of payment processors and it was emailing customers. The processing was automatic on that one so in your case I would be inclined to use this piece of software.

I hope the above helps.
Great idea. Too busy myself but someone should create a very simple network site that allows for profiles with just a Bio, Contact info, and a comment section that also includes ratings.

The Bio section would have a list of skills ( populated in a standardized way ) and a place to include a resume ( plain text or attachment )

The Contact section should have the ability to be displayed only during certain time blocks ( as defined by the user ) so that when someone is searching for another individual to chat with then only people who are available right now ( or at a pre-selcted time during the search ) show up.

The Comment section would allow for people to comment on their discussion and provide an overall feedback of the interaction as well as their opinion of the others skills in each proclaimed category.

That is it. Let me know if any of you decide to take this up by emailing me at michael@theofficialsoundtrack.com as I would be willing to provide my own feedback, input and potentially resources to the right person or group.
"The core of Veracity will be open source, but we do plan to sell add-on [proprietary] products built on the core."

When companies do this, doesn't the open source product run the risk of becoming a second class citizen, or even a crippled one with features being implemented in the proprietary product and later migrated downstream or not at all? Isn't this a recipe for conflict of interest?
why can't you do both? there is always a huge resale market for used phones, especially iphones (and even more especially if you jailbreak/unlock it prior to sale).
"LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder. This disease, like caries and many other ailments, is prevalent only among civilized races living under artificial conditions; barbarous nations breathing pure air and eating simple food enjoy immunity from its ravages. It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient."

- Ambrose Bierce
as a side note to you project check out http://www.yummly.com/
Forget Brainstorming
Depends on you and what you want. If you're a hacker who wants to do some coding for the phone, I don't see how you could stand the shackles of the iPhone. OTOH, if you just use a few apps, make calls, and never want to code for it, the iPhone is indubitably nice. If you want to make a business out if it, there seems to be more money in the iPhone, although that may change rapidly, too.

It's been discussed to death here though, do some searching with Google.
Android - go for the already existing models.
I maintain an account there purely as an identity placeholder, with an explanation of such in my description (with all other privacy choices set to "only me"). I'm not adding new friends (but I haven't mass de-friended anyone, to ensure the account actually serves as a credible placeholder), and I'm not interacting with the site at all except via incognito mode in Chrome when someone sends me something that requires a Facebook login.

I'm much happier as a result.
(Board)games as socioeconomic indicators: irony edition
tghw's interpretation is closer to being correct.

A Veracity repo can have lots of DAGs (directed acyclic graphs).

A DAG in a repo can either be a "tree dag" or a "database dag".

Veracity's notion of a "database" is a model that is unique to Veracity, although its concepts are quite common. Records. Fields. Multiple record types. Simple constraints. Links between records. Simple queries. It's not SQL.

Nothing here implies that Veracity will help you, as a database developer on SQL Server or Oracle, manage the versioning of your schema and sprocs and so on. Those are interesting features, but they're distinct from (and a lot higher level than) the stuff I was describing.
Reminds me of this philosophy article

http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal
I'm actually quite interested to see a discourse on the impacts that these sort of ultra low-priced outsourced products have had on concierge and virtual assistant services in small town USA.

Sort of along the same vein of how designers formed an ad hoc association of how they felt regarding spec-work and design centric crowdsourcing sites like 99designs.

Does anyone have any articles on this?
First Post-Bilski Patent Appeals Ruling Rejects Software Patent
Young?

So you're saying you intend to practice age discrimination? Well, as a Libertarian I think you have the right to do so if you want, but I think you should ask yourself if it's really a good idea or not.

Maybe just going for "talented, ambitious and bright" would be good enough? Actually, Donny Deutsch said something in his book ( http://www.amazon.com/Often-Wrong-Never-Doubt-Business/dp/00... ) about how the thing to do is hire older (30+) folks who "haven't done anything yet" and are hungry to prove themselves, given an opportunity. I personally think there's a lot to be said for that approach... but what would I know, I'm an old fart (37 in a week). :-)
OpenSolaris Governing Board member on the OGB's threatened dissolution
It would also be wrong to think that lowering taxes would change something dramatically; . The Dakotas were in bad shape economically and could sacrifice existing tax revenue and responsible fiscal oversight (remembering a lot of what they attracted was financial industry drawn to low regulation and low consumer protections -- thanks a lot Dakotas!) Minnesota's economy is going relatively well, and there's no dearth of successful companies. And generally there's a good standard of living and a strong sense of community responsibility, which is why those companies are staying -- there's real people behind any decision to move, and a lot of people aren't willing to move even if there might be financial incentives.

Minnesota is missing tech entrepreneurship... well, even that isn't true, as medical technology is doing quite well. Y Combinator style startups aren't. This is unfortunate, but overall changes to the economic structure of the state is hardly called for.
Sorry, but that is the majority of softare development. While you may believe all your previous accomplishments were really great, there is most likely someone looking at your code thinking how frustrating it is to work on the codebase. I think it is way easier to start from scratch than take an existing project and move it forward. When you start over, you can build a ton of momentum. You can hold all the complexities in your head. You rarely have the same problems existing solutions have because existing solutions have users that have learned the system and have a set of expectations.

I'm not trying to belittle your previous work, while at the same time you should realize that your frustration with maintenance is somewhat belittling as well. It is simply a different kind of problem that takes a different set of skills and talents to do well. If you consider maintenance in this way, it can be just as rewarding and help further your learning. Likewise, if you are doing maintenance, you are working on software that had some level of success. No one will ever ask you to change a codebase no one uses. You can learn a ton from a codebase that has been around for a while. You see the parts that were bolted on and how that impacts the future, but also how the tradeoff of a more flexible design was actually not necessary.

I'm not trying to be negative, but rather challenge you to change your mindset. I maintain a huge amount of code and it is a huge pain in the neck at times. That said, I also realize that my ability to continually dive into new parts of the code has become easier through time. Even if I do have to read the 1000 lines of code, I'm finding that the process of reading code and making guesses where to read next has become more efficient. Likewise, I've tooled my environment to help me search for leads when solving problems with the code. My perspective on writing new code is radically different because there is a very clear understanding of how I could do a better job for the developer that looks at the code in the future.

In short it can be really frustrating to maintain code, but at the same time it is something that needs to be done. I also believe it can be something done very well. If you see it as a healthy challenge I think you'll find the feelings of burnout will subside and you can take pride in changing that one line that ended up helping save people massive amounts of time and money.
Are there any examples of applications being wholly hosted inside Couch?
my co-founder just got the HTC Desire and is smitten with it.

I have an iPhone 4 and am equally smitten.

Both are brilliant phones, do you want Android with the extensibility/hacker-ness or iPhone with the polished UX/App store?

(the antennae issue isn't a problem for me on iPhone 4)
I don't get how they can get 10Gbps down cat5e over 100m when 10GBase-T requires cat6a to do that.
don't know if this is the right forum for this question, but Ill take the bait.
Level of customization, the iPhone is good once you jailbreak it , but look at keyboard choices swype, and swiftkey, launch screens, and browsers offered for android. Google integration.. Chrome to android, the unified gmail calendars, and maps.
Also flash.. I don't care if it drains my battery or not.. I just want the option to be there for when I want to turn it on and Yes you have the option to enable it or not. I'd rather make the decision that let Jobs tell me what to do.
I had a similar choice to make a few months back and I chose to go with Android (and so did my wife) from the iPhone (outline here: http://www.niden.net/2010/02/from-iphone-to-nexus-one-review...)

I have learned that if I am always going to wait for the 'new' to arrive I will not enjoy what is here. Therefore I bought a Nexus One and am enjoying it now. If something new comes out next year, then I will think about it and maybe upgrade.

Waiting for something new is good for your pocket but not your urge to get this new toy :)
Keep your current iPhone 3G if there's nothing wrong with it. Better phones come out at a fast clip. The longer you wait, the better your upgrade will be.
Sounds like a regular old business to me.

Pay based on profit / performance = stock options and commissions

Contributors = employees

At some point the existing employees will say, "Dude why do we need more open source contributors, we're making enough money, lets just do it ourselves."
At a fundamental level resource is susceptible to bubbles of one type or another. Diamonds are in the middle of a fairly long and stable one, but there are significant parallels between Super models, Diamonds, and Land in China. Generally, a short term spike in demand is extended for some arbitrary length of time due to human psychology. I suspect the length of a given spike is generally related to both scarcity and underlying value.

PS: VHS and Global Worming are poor examples for this however they are both somewhat sticky beyond their technical merits.

EX: The amount of GW research relates to its political implications far more than the complexity of the theory. When the implications stop having economic implications the level of interest and resistance will quickly drop. As will the amount of debate by people with limited understanding of the issue. Also, VHS's initial technical advantage was soon less important than its level of adoption.
I don't know what qualifies as a "major DVCS player", but fossil is BSD licensed: http://methodlogic.net/BSDFossil.html
...how do I get my mojo back and get that level of technical excellence back?

You decouple your day job from your need for technical excellence.

You do something on the side. Maybe a pet project. Perhaps a little service work for customers you find. Contribute to an open source project. Or best of all, start your own business.

This is what I did and it changed everything. I have never complained about the lack of stimulation of any day job I have had (well maybe just a little). Better yet, I have used to crappiness I encountered during the day to push myself to "never do that" at night.

The day job is comprised of quality right in the middle of the bell curve and it's good enough to pay the bills. The side work gives me a chance to push all the way out to the right hand side of the bell curve with cool stuff.

The ultimate plan is for the side work to take over and make working on someone else's crap during the day unnecessary. Give it a shot.
Well, yes and no. A 20-year-old woman is in the position of being able to date anywhere in the dating pool. She can go for a guitar player her own age or a 50-year-old business executive. A 20-year-old man is probably permanently broke, dressed like a teenager and still inexperienced in the ways of the world.

A 30-year-old women sees her options begin to shrink - she's now competing with the 20-year-olds. A 30-year-old man is finally making money, he's probably traveled a bit, he's discovered the finer things in life, he's well dressed and confident. He has options now. And it's not unreasonable for him to overlook the women who overlooked him 10 years before.
JXTA/JXSE 2.6 is out
Javascript vs Silverlight
Eric is a very smart guy so I'll be interested to see this released. The pluggable storage layers seems like a feature that might make it a lot slower than git since I believe git uses a lot of file level i/o tricks for speed.
One of the YouTube founders having loose ties to MN does not make it a MN startup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawed_Karim
Ask HN: Explain the Internet Back-Bone
My son is 12 and a Boy Scout. He is earning his computer merit badge.

One of his requirements is to explain how the internet is structured. Obviously topics like Web-servers, switches, routers, fiber, cat 5, e-mail servers, etc, etc

But I wanted to explain the back-bone to him and I dont quite know how. How does one get to be on the back-bone? How does the Back-bone exist?
Isn't there a group of DNS Servers that are like the core DNS on the back-bone?

Can anyone provide some advice or thoughts?
I bailed on Minnesota for Washington state almost as soon as I received my Computer Science degree. Seattle may not have the best tech scene or startup community in the US, but it's a far sight better than what I've seen in the Midwest.

It's really a pity, too. There's some great stuff in the Twin Cities, and I think it would be well served with more diversification in availability of high tech jobs.

From what I can tell, unless you're into doing ERP/CRM consulting, EE for 3M, IT work for Target Corp, or biomedical engineering, you're pretty well SOL.
WordPress And Thesis Go To Battle. Mullenweg May Sue.
See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1515315
> The 100 watts of power is twice what can be achieved with Power-over-ethernet.

If it is just passive power (not switched on based on some protocol interaction) it's going to be fun when people end up plugging this into their laptop's ethernet slot instead of its HD slot.

"Try plugging into one port. If you see sparks and smoke come out, try the other port."
Lean startups and pivoting - is it a key sucess factor for startups ?
Are you John Titor?
As?
this is a really interesting issue. If themes have to open source, shouldn't commercial plugins?

(I don't think they should inherit the GPL licence - I believe this would harm wordpress in the long run)
According to the following article, not only is Minnesota one of the eight states with such laws, but it was actually the first:

http://www.orinlaney.com/ipguideweb.html#legislative