skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Though I still use and enjoy Posterous (as well as at least two of the tools they criticized in this campaign), this entire campaign has bummed me out.

I generally am against defining yourself oppositionally, but concede it's probably hard to avoid when the other side is doing it, too. But the competitors weren't doing it.

Not only did the campaign not match the feel of the market (users were not being zero-sum about their publishing choices, competitors were talking more about their product and communities than competitors), it didn't match the feel of Posterous. Having read and listened and enjoyed what little I know about the founders, it didn't match my picture of their real vibe.

Most of all... probably everybody on this board agrees... feature lists are over as compelling marketing. What does the product help me do? User experience is what wins. (exhibit A, iphone... it redefined the entire feature phone market that came before)

And the funny thing is... Posterous's user experience is awesome. They didn't even have to go the feature route. It really is "dead simple" (their original catchphrase) to use. When they used that phrase (not that they invented it, but they use it really well), it stuck in my brain. I repeated it to others. Posterous totally had a marketing gimmick nailed and working: emphasize the experience and the easy angle.

All their feature comparison charts have felt totally disingenuous. For every X a competitor gets for something Posterous has, they usually have 4 things Posterous doesn't. I mean, making WP look like it less features than Posterous??! What an unnecessary risk of credibility.

Posterous people:

I LOVE your product. I use it alongside WP and Tumblr (Tumblr is social and has conversational hooks built in. I've never compared the two.).

Your campaign really bummed me out and disappointed me. I guess I just don't think it's the real you.

Your experience is awesome, and you keep adding new features. I have no concerns about your product, and will confidently recommend it. Just don't indulge the feature troll. We've come so far in an industry. Feature lists are for dying enterprise companies trying to make us feel better about software we hate using.

Go back to the OG Posterous flavor.

Your fan in Portland,

Andy
Man Claims Ownership of Facebook
I loved reading your story.
This is were I wish and strive to be and funnily enough your life sounds about exactly the way I hope mine can be some day.

I think I might even use your article as a reference in future because oddly enough a lot of people don't seem to quite get what I'm talking about when I try to tell them what me dream is. "What, not have a job? How? What would you do? You have to work" etc. etc.
U.S. Signals Intelligence (1989)
Journalism Needs Government Help
So... you aren't saving for retirement at all? If so, relying on the success of a future business as your retirement fund isn't smart. If you're still saving elsewhere, that could be a sound plan as long as you don't sink it all into a business that fails.

If that's your plan, then you are depending on Social Security or whatever social programs are available when you retire.
10 Inspiring TED Talks for Startups
One of the great things about Crossfit is that every workout is like a competition. Most workouts are fixed work with variable time, so the shorter the duration, the more efficient/"fit" you are.

For me, I find it very motivating to graph this progress, so every time I do a specific Crossfit workout, I can compare it directly to previous attempts at the same workout.

I wrote http://statulo.us, which is a free Crossfit tracker I really just wrote for myself. There are now about 1400 uers, so even something this simple seems to have some traction.

Running/swimming is easily graphed as well, as long as you time your efforts by distance (and terrain, for running).
> for those that don't know, utorrent is written in c++ and pretty much better than azureus in every way

The Azureus/Vuze DHT is a lot nicer than the Mainline DHT (which uTorrent supports), it's just not documented, there are no other implementations, and this statement probably does not apply to code quality.
How to: Zero Tracks of Your Browsing History with RAMDisk
My concept of FU money isn't that you get to be an uninhibited jerk. Rather, if someone's a jerk to you, you can say "FU" and not worry about whether you're going to be able to pay the bills. The sort of thing you can't do if you're dependent on your employer to maintain your lifestyle.
Ok so I take issue with the examples given in this article, I find that they are pretty weak such as those with more friends in high school will make more money, my own experiences have shown me different, Of course this is as long as you are not a complete misanthrope, in which case it would be hard to get pased the interview stage
You may have to write that book yourself.

Somewhat related: I am quite fond of Chris Okasaki's "Purely Functional Data Structures" and "Concrete Math" by R. Graham, D. Knuth, and O. Patashnik.

But I have almost the exact opposite qualm about most books from what you air: I can't have enough precision. I agree that there can be too many technical details, but there can't be too much precision.

If CS undergrads can't take it, they deserve to suffer. There's always vocational training for people who want a focus on applications. Try to become e.g. a Fachinformatiker (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fachinformatiker).

P.S. I guess I am a bit too harsh. I agree with most of your points.

> I could have learnt all these algorithms, if I didn't need to chew through all that theoretical packaging and generalization. Instead I spend all my time to dig through precise definitions just to get one or two concepts, when I could have gotten them all, if representation was good enough.

Precise definitions can help your understanding. I hope you will some day get a professor who uses them to good effect.

> Learning is ineffective when you compare one algorithm with a blurred idea of another.

Isn't this a good argument to learn many algorithms with precision?

> I might sound like a confused student, but what I'm trying to say is that there should be one unified, simple and consistent source of algorithms in understandable languages.

Go, write one, please!

> I have the large algorithm encyclopedia from Springer Verlag, and it polluted with all uncertainties of the modern CS studies.

Are you talking about "The Algorithm Design Manual" from Skiena? I co-worker brought it to the office recently. I can't bring myself to like it. It seems there are too many references and not enough meat. I have fonder memories of Sedgewick's "Algorithms". But that may be nostalgia. (Get the version in C or the original Pascal.)

Feel free to ask me about algorithms or data structures, my email address is in my profile. I enjoy talking about algorithms way too much for my own good.
Regardless of the competing definitions of "FU money", I think the author's point was about the freedom that comes with not needing a job to maintain your standard of living from month to month.
Meta programming in efene
I think the problem is that people like junk in their house.
I don't.
My 'fuck you' money is $800 every two weeks. I pay $600 a month.
I don't buy much, I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend. We go to the beach, park, etc. I spend my free time programming the game I always wanted. It's great.
Not too surprised either.

But one thing I never understood is how a stuck pedal (one that's actually stuck) can lead to a car accelerating out of control. How could it possibly prevent you from taking the car out of gear, rolling to a stop and turning the thing off? Does it actually affect the ability to shift? Or are drivers just panicking and being dumb? Or do people who own a fancy automatic Lexus actually not know what the "N" on their shifter means?? I sincerely hope it's not the latter.
Not every programmer needs to be a hardcore systems hacker; you can ignore the low-level details and lead a healthy productive life. But me, personally, I get a massive inferiority complex if I don't dive into Nasm and GDB every 2-4 months. It would pain me not to know useless things about obscure stuff.

Yesterday I was prancing through reddit when I followed this link: http://pvk.ca/

My stomach sank when I realized I wouldn't have the time to "follow along" (i.e. waste the day reproducing his results, checking facts, researching and following links) because I am about to start a lead-dev/PM position and need to work on SaaS and EA stuff. So I closed the tab and moved on to focus on what matters. It wasn't until 1AM that I realized what I have done; aarongough sent me a link to his toy prototyping language and I have just spent 5 hours reimplementing it in Lisp, in the process re-digging into the Self papers! (and discovering warts, but that's another story.)

I am an Adderall prescription away from leading a healthy productive life, without unnecessary knowledge about stuff.
While the move is very far away for me, I'm worried about
a possible lack of interesting positions and a smaller
talent pool to run my own startup.

I can't compare with the Bay Area, since I've never lived there, but this area is known for having a lot of smart, talented, well educated people. The whole concept behind this area being known as "The Triangle" was based on the presence of 3 research universities (UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke and NC State) forming a triangular shaped area. In addition to the big three, there are several smaller colleges in the immediate area: Meredith, Peace, St. Augustine's, NC Central, Durham Tech, Wake Tech, and Campbell jump to mind. With the presence of IBM, SAS, Red Hat, Cisco, and others, there is a constant influx of tech savvy people from other areas of the country. In particular, this area seems to pull a lot of people from Northern climates (Pennsylvania seems to send a lot of folks here) maybe because of the weather?

Anyway, just to illustrate a point about the Triangle... Cary (smaller city on the outskirts of Raleigh) is reported to have - IIRC - the highest concentration of Phd holders (per capita) of any city in the United States. Now it's not necessarily the case that Phd == talent, but the point is that people here are smart and well educated in general. Forgot any stereotypes about "Southerners," the Triangle is it's own little nice with different demographics from the more rural areas. (Not that there aren't plenty of smart, well educated people in the rest of NC as well, mind you).

If anything, the problem we have here is how to keep the smart kids who graduate from Duke, UNC, NCSU, etc, in the area. Since this area doesn't - yet - have the reputation for being a startup hub, it seems that people come here, go to school, and then start thinking about moving to San Fran or somewhere "sexy." There are a number of us here who want to change the culture here so that people think more in terms of founding (or joining) startups here. F%@* California, you guys have Stanford and Berkeley, etc. to feed you talent! :-)
Nanotech (as defined by Drexler).
Call me what ever you want, but I made it 3 lines into the article before I closed the tab and moved on. There's no need for that language. There is no need for that attitude. Grow up people.
Ask HN: What happened to the Joo Joo (Crunchpad)?
There are a few blog updates here and it seems as though Fusion Garage is still in business: http://blog.thejoojoo.com/. But does anyone actually have one of these things? Any news on the lawsuit?
Don't get me wrong. I agree with this. By and large it's still a pipe dream, but some dreams do come true. With that in mind, I won't bank on the fact that something won't materialize that lowers the barriers a bit.

Granted, more complex problems will always require more complex solutions. I don't see anything like this changing where I work (quantitative finance), but it'd be more of a concern for those working at J-Random Cardboard Box Company.
Mono 2.4 still leaking like a sieve
I agree that is the author's point (which was excellent). I'm taking issue with his use of the term "FU money".

I don't think it's right to say there are competing definitions, as if they're both equally right. I think there's a correct definition a) "set for life" and a wrong one b) "set for now". These are two very different concepts, so using the same term is causing confusion.

Someone in this thread said "I have FU money for a year", which makes absolutely no sense. This shows how misusing the term can cause confusion.
Profile your applications with Java VisualVM
I am torn between a dedicated server or a VPS. I thought for a moment about app engine or one of the other non-standard cloud based systems but I am a little uncomfortable at the lack of control and costumer support.

To answer your question, yes I can run some capacity testing. Your experience makes me feel comfortable about this; I don't mind upgrading to a more powerful server, or probably running a couple of servers, when/if usage pics up.

I was looking for some numbers to base my estimates on and this is perfect! Thanks.
There are far fewer dateable women in The Bay Area than Brooklyn.
Just a spiral bound notebook and a pen. I've tried more elaborate methods in the past, but I like something that's lightweight and simple, but flexible. Pen and paper scribbles, scrawls and notes work great for me.
what was the fancy car? are we talking about something like a Ferrari? or something more like a BMW M3?
<i>"We knew we had to make some bold statements to break through the clutter but weren't intentionally trying to piss people off."</i>

I wish they had the balls to say "Yes, we did want to call out the other platforms!" Basing your campaign on this saying and then seeing this quote makes me think they're going back on their words.
They can change the like to a 'pending like' and confirm it next time you check facebook.
I'm sure I'll get knocked for this (again), but if you want to pick nits, it's the GPL that prevents the commingling, not the CDDL.

Why not just say that the licenses are incompatible?

That's the simple truth, and that's not a slight on either of them.

The real problem here is that there doesn't appear to be an OpenSolaris development community outside of Sun^WOracle. It's much like Mozilla in its early days, though with an even smaller chance of success. Mozilla's competitive landscape was devoid of credible open-source alternatives - that's not the case for OpenSolaris.
See also Ridley's article from the Wall Street Journal, "Humans: Why They Triumphed": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1374718
Already done: http://www.coboloncogs.org/INDEX.HTM
Well the word that I presume offended you is in the title. Why did you click on it at all?
I had a sister with a severe mental disability (Rett Syndrome) who died at the age of 17. A very wise, (and very broke) parent of another girl with Rett Syndrome explained to us that if you have a problem that money can solve, you don't really have a problem. While I do not posess a great deal of monetary wealth, this idea has helped me differentiate between fiscal problems and other, in many ways, more challenging problems.
This sounds like the story about Apple removing the threads on their iPhone 4 reception issue. Why not leave it up and allow discussion? Then provide answers to users questions...
Seriously? Sure, he used the term "fuck you" money a few times, but only to refer to an immediately recognizable financial situation that he wanted to talk about. Outside of that, there wasn't any foul language in the article and it was actually an interesting read.

I could probably see your point if it was a Zed Shaw article, but even then it seems that reasonable people should be able to look past any vulgarities if there's useful information to be found.
Even if you assume all the traffic comes in during just an 8 hour window of a 24 hour day, that's still barely over 1TPS. It's nothing. You didn't say how big your dataset was in mysql. If you were at 100x data to RAM ratio I would definitely be worried, or if you had any especially slow queries. I think even if you were at 10x data to RAM ratio you would be okay mysql-wise, assuming you're getting something close to 10ms latency on your disks. (Which you ought to be able to with Linode/Slicehost/EC2). If your app for whatever reason has burstiness (e.g. sharing/viral events) then you need to plan around whatever peak load you're willing to support.

BTW, my personal opinion is that Joyent is grossly grossly overpriced. And are they still forcing you to run Solaris?
http://www.thocp.net/biographies/papers/backus_turingaward_l...
Fair enough. Linux also can't borrow code from OpenSolaris. I would love to have ZFS on Linux.

Anyway, it was Sun who raised the possibility of licensing OpenSolaris under GPLv3 (that would still prevent Sun from borrowing lots of Linux code and Linux from borrowing any Sun code, but it would, at least, be a start) not the Linux folks who considered re-licensing Linux under a CDDL-friendly license, hence the "unidirectional" slant of my post.

As for the community and Sun^WOracle's contributions, Oracle has made it clear that they would follow an open-core model for the OS.

That's really sad, IMHO, but predictable. Ellison is nicer than Gates and way cooler, but it doesn't make him a particularly nice guy who wants to share.

BTW, I think the copyright fragmentation you see in Linux is one of its strengths. When you contribute a patch to OpenSolaris, do you retain its copyright or you transfer it to whoever controls OpenSolaris?
In at least some incidents, it was impossible to change into neutral(owing to some electronic failsafe) and not at all obvious how to switch the ignition off. Non-obvious is bad bad bad when your throttle is suddenly stuck wide open.
I felt that article had a point, but overstated it.

There are lots of domains -- simulation, computer vision, robotic control, machine learning -- which are CPU bound and will remain so for the next decade. In fact, one of the cutting edges of these domains is always CPU bound, practically by definition (sensor densities also increase quickly with time).
Sony introduces world's smallest 3D digital still cameras
Sure there is, it's called 'job security'. It involves being the only person who understands how to run 40-year-old software.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) I don't think that in 37 years, I'll be seeing a lot of systems that were installed in the 00's - the mentality these days is more about interconnection and interoperability than it was in the 70's.

That said, I'm a systems administrator, not a programmer. There'll still be servers in 30 years, they'll just probably glow blue and float around the data centre unbounded by gravity, or something equally crazy.
In my experience, 3-5 years in industry :-(
The article says the data recorders indicated the brakes were not applied at all but the accelerator pedal was floored. In other words, people thinking they're standing on the brakes when really they're standing on the gas pedal.

A person comfortable with technology will react to a surprising result by immediately changing what he's doing on the controls to search for cause and effect; for those who have difficulty with technology it is because they can't think scientifically and react by trying to do more of what wasn't working.
I am saving, but keeping it liquid. I save about 50% of my net income--which, as a mid-level software developer, is good money. Therefore, I can invest in myself now (or soon)--for example, starting a business. I'm not sure how much of my savings I'll need to start a business. But I'm a pretty conservative spender, so I'm not worried.

I'm going to make it happen. Somehow.

I understand that everyone's financial situation and aspirations are different. YMMV.
OpenVBX Amazon EC2 AMI
I wonder if the same sensors that provide the log data also control the engine. In that case, it would be impossible to distinguish a sensor glitch from user error by purely relying on in-system logging.

This sort of thing happens all the time when debugging production servers. The same system usually provides the control signal and the diagnostic data. So what initially looks sane, if you keep investigate it, can lead you to a real bug.

I've been pretty skeptical about the whole Toyota stuck accelerator brouhaha myself but this development does not necessarily rule out a design flaw.
That's fair - Sun at least had the option of relicensing (given that the required contributors to sign an IP agreement).

FWIW, it saddens me to watch Solaris stumbling towards its grave. Remaining available only on hardware sold by Oracle renders it worthless to me.

I can't make that shift now, which means that I need to build my own credible alternatives to using Solaris. And when I am in a position where I could afford Solaris on Oracle hardware, I won't be so inclined - because I'll have my homebrew alternatives, and a bitter taste in my mouth.

So it goes.
This reminds me a lot of the "Messages that cities send" essay that PG wrote a while ago. NYC's message was that you should be richer, Boston's is that you should be smarter, Silicon Valley's is that you should be more powerful (in the technocrat sense of the word) - and extending it out, Houston's is that you should have a bigger house, Portland is that you should be more eco-friendly, and D.C's is that you should be more powerful (in the political sense of the word).

Maybe girls are evolutionarily wired to seek more "successful" men, and then "success" is defined by the culture surrounding them.
I understand where you're coming from in regards to kids who graduate leaving. On the other hand, theres a ton of people in their 20's flocking to areas all over the triangle. The glenwood south area of Raleigh, Chapel Hill/Carrboro, and some parts of Durham come to mind.

It seems to me that whenever I visit Raleigh its growing so much that the people who graduate leaving doesn't seem to be that much of an issue. I think what the triangle area needs (and has needed for a long time) is critical mass that makes it an established place in peoples mind of a startup hub. Theres lots of great tech companies and startups, but there could be a lot more :-).
Depends. If "dateable" is a reflexive relation (meaning that for a woman to be dateable, it's not just that you are willing to date her, but also that she is willing to date you), then maybe not. In the Bay Area, if you are a software engineer that can put together a few interesting words about something other than computers, you are an attractive anomaly. In Brooklyn, you are still a software engineer.
Maybe the perception of a huge safety net is more important than the actual assets.

The common theme among all definitions of FU money seems to be freedom from fearing we'll go hungry and relief from risk averse behavior like holding on to an unfulfilling job.

Is FU money more satisfying when we've earned it ourselves rather than winning it (inheritance, lottery, marriage, fraud)?
This is completely true. I'd say additionally that the smart COBOL programmers in their 60's "retire" and then return the following week as consultants making 50% more. That has been my experience working with them.
"review" is a better term for SEO than "summary" in this context :)
Net neutrality comes back to haunt Google