skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
the article was hardly a rant

You'll have to admit it's extremely thin on actual arguments. There are lots of links to journal publications, but it would have helped to summarise their actual findings rather than hand-wave about "complexity".

Composing locks and transactions in the same system sounds much harder to me than just using locks. I think the jury is still out on the effectiveness of Clojure's concurrency model.

Actually, Clojure does address that by allowing you to compose transactions with agents. If you send messages to agents during a transaction, they will only receive the messages sent from the transaction attempt that successfully completed. This leads to a fairly natural state-change-then-I/O pattern where the agent locks the non-memory resource and operates on it.
That is actually exactly what I was thinking.
To be fair, many of these products are in their infancy so yes in general the fix may be in version n+1. I don't think that's a defense of NoSQL products it's a common thing with any young product.

Anyone who chooses an early product would hopefully understand that they will be experiencing issues and will be upgrading the product many times as issues are found and fixed.
It's not the gov't regulation that is the problem but how integrated your job is to your lifestyle. You can't rent an apartment without either having a sufficiently large deposit or having your employer cosign for you. You can't open a bank account without having a job (for example, after arriving in Paris, I walked into HSBC to open an account with 2000€ cash, the manager said I should take it to the post office).

Firing someone is not the problem, it's the ensuing lawsuit that's the problem. If it's not done in a particular way you may end up paying an entire years salary instead of a few months.
Didn't he say 5000 Euro a month loaded costs? That's low end of the market where I am in the UK - for people with specific domain knowledge or a proven track record you would be paying a lot more.
A noprocrast of 3 days works great for me!
North Dakota has a budget surplus, but is not going to be a startup culture anytime soon. Although a lot of towns have fiber to the home.
Engineering is all about failure
Thanks for the mention, Daniel - I'm the guy who created this list. If anyone is looking for pointers to great books about specific business topics, I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.
MSFT behind another competitor's EU antitrust troubles this time It's IBM
Global warming is big business(draws in millions) and it's a hip and popular movement. Is it for real though?

I'm on the fence, as we had 84 inches of snowfall here in the east coast this winter. Record breaking snow falls for these parts. Yet this summers' temperatures have been insane; always 90 degrees on up to 100.
The idea that Seadragon is a platform that can be compared with Flash and Canvas is such crap. Its just a library for zoomable maps (which you've been able to create for years with the google maps API since 2005 or something).
Sweet fancy Moses, please no videos. Transcribe to text.

My bandwidth reading is an order of magnitude greater reading than watching.

I've almost given up on video on the web for interviews.
Hi HN: Are you interested in online gaming?
I am almost done building a new type of online game (think more like gambling, less like checkers) and I'd like to get some advice from the community on how I should get the word out when I'm done. I've thought about using affiliate programs. What do you think?
Why can't you give Kindle books as gifts?
Linux kernel uses goto all over the place, if you know what you're doing, it doesn't matter.
Snapgoods: Like Zipcar for Gadgets
You'll have to admit it's extremely thin on actual arguments. There are lots of links to journal publications, but it would have helped to summarise their actual findings rather than hand-wave about "complexity".

It's a blog post. What do you expect? The ACM article he links to is excellent, with some very in-depth analysis and real benchmark numbers showing exactly where the overhead of STM is most onerous.
Correct link: http://cryptnet.net/mirrors/texts/kissedagirl.html

A classic, although if I remember correctly the comment makes more sense in the context of the entire thread.
---Spoiler--- You could equally make the argument that he planted the original inception into his wife's mind in that nether-world level of dream depth (you know what I'm talking about I assume - don't want to spoil too much), meaning that it would be necessary for him to go that deep to plant the idea that he didn't have to feel guilty about his wife.
That's good insight.

Still, it's okay to cry.
If you know somebody's medical history and 23andMe results, can you say more things about them at any given level of confidence than you could with just zis medical history?
No, though I don't even see how you could disagree.
I respectfully abstain from the vote.
Google adds HTML5 support to embedded YouTube videos
Webfaction - highly regarded, good support, lot of convenient features
In comparison, I landed in china on thursday. Today is
monday, and I have a fully furnished office (with furniture
I selected myself), an assistant and 25 interviews with
programmers scheduled for this week. The business papers
have been submitted, bank accounts have been setup.

How much money did you need to spend for all that?
HP: WebOS phones only, no Win Phone 7
getting caught messing with I9 forms as an employer is not cheap
> P.S. - Is there anyway I can help you out with your project?

I had to think about this for a day. The short, immediate answer was "Yes! absolutely!", but I wasn't really sure in what ways.

I think I need three things right now:

1. Links to people with experience in mechatronics and/or teaching such things to small groups of kids age 12 to 16 (or thereabouts). I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, reasonably proficient at programming, and have taught rock climbing to groups of kids that age. So, I think I've got all the pieces, but any hints would be appreciated. I intend to use Arduino and the course syllabus will involve making a small, automated, maze-navigating robot over the course of a couple of months in the Summer. They will get to keep their robot. I will build one of my own starting early next year to make sure I have a good idea of what to expect in assembling it.

2. I really need "help finding help". I've got that affliction where I'm used to being self-sufficient and providing help to other people. As a result, I'm not very good at finding or getting help with things. F'r instance, I have no idea how to motivate someone else to be interested in what I'm up to, and I don't know how to ask for help, or how to respond to offers of help.

3. Finally, the same old yarn about needing resources. I didn't have any savings when I started my business a few years ago. I've grown it literally out of nothing, and it's pretty healthy, but its growth potential is limited mostly by my lack of capital resources at the moment. So, if you know of anyone that might have a passing interest in helping me sort that out, that would be nifty.

Thanks for your interest! I'll post an update to HN once this thing gets rolling, hopefully in a few months. The main focus right now is to get my hands on a small building, which is requiring me to step up my revenue a bit.
How to Generate Leads: Referrals, Opportunity Leads, Advertising and Cold Calls
Yes, I know this - but life's not always fair now is it ?

In this particular case it might not be a problem since Max can keep an eye on his employees , but as soon as you have a manager - you might be very afraid to get on his bad side (maybe in an argument over something technical or a complaint about your chair) for fear of getting fired.
The case for semicolons within javascript is one that you will hear a lot. You'll hear many cries for 'readability', 'eliminating random bugs' and 'helping minification'.

To begin with readability, i'm pretty sure that programmers are capable of working out the end of a line without the use of a semicolon: Scala has no such requirement of semicolons. Surely, the best way to ensure readability is, like in spoken language, to use common terms and expressions. Finding the obscure uses of the language to ensure the forceful requirement of a semicolon just seems petty and unhelpful. It is the equivalent of being overly prolix within a natural language, therefore limiting the ability to communicate.

The elimination of random bugs is a little more tricky to discern. Sure, there are occasional issues that can be caused by the lack of semicolons, for example (taken from the quoted text):

a = b + c
(d + e).print()

But let's face it, if you're writing your javascript like that then you probably need to re-evaluate the your use of (d + e). After all, the majority of browsers now use javascript compilers that are more than capable of constant folding. Therefore meaning that:

a = b + c
var f = d + e
f.print()

should therefore be no less efficient and, on the side of readability, you could even name f to be something worthwhile.

The best minifiers (YUI and Google's Closure Compiler) are perfectly capable of minifying javascript without semicolons. If your minifier is having issues because you haven't inserted a semicolon, then—obviously—it's not doing its job properly.

In my writing of javascript, I very rarely use semicolons and the issues described have never come up. Often the expressions given as to why it is necessary are extreme and obscure to the point whereby using those expressions may not be the best policy. I'm not advocating the idea of never using semicolons (something i pretty much do), I'm just saying that the requirement for constant use is pointless.
I don't think it's that naive. He mentioned several times that he has Chinese friends and locals who will help him. A lot of the replies here have been "don't do anything without a local" - that's exactly what he's not doing, because he knows some persons.
This. The keyword is: S-U-S-T-A-I-N-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y.
Is it a game with profit-earning potential involved for the players, that kind of gambling? I have to say affiliate programs in that context would make me nervous of the sketch-factor.

If it's good, it will spread well via word of mouth - especially when starting out.
In my experience (and what I've been taught):

An engineer solves real world problems by using a methodology. e.g. the engineering method. http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED276572.pdf, http://openlibrary.org/books/OL2558084M/Definition_of_the_en...

A developer specializes in product development.

A programmer writes programs, uses programming languages.

I have never seen any reason that a person cannot be any combination of these, or none.
I don't think you read my comment correctly. The author was saying there were more interesting places to see in Asia than Europe, then proceeded to list the same asia-pacific beach circuit everyone else wants to go see. Maybe he really is interested in those countries, maybe he is only interested in those beaches. Most of my friends when they come back from SE Asia only talk about the beaches and how cheap everything is. It's hard to make a meaningful connection to a place on 1-2 weeks vacation.
Google App Engine. Until you've proven your business concept and scaled up, this will abstract the server away so you don't need to worry about it.
knowing the language of the majority makes you normal; knowing your own language and the language of the majority give you an advantage; not knowing the language of the majority sets you up to be a lifelong victim and pawn of people who seek power in your name
At the risk of confusing the question more: what about "Software Architect," "Enterprise Architect," and "Business Analyst?" They are used to cover widely disparate jobs and their meaning has become mangled.
That could be. I think it was more along the lines of they wanted us if they could get us cheap.
Why is it only for Ubuntu? Or is it also runnable on, say, any GNOME setup?
Then you aren't multiplying doubles, it would be a shame to get a completely wrong answer on an ill-conditioned problem because the implementation disregarded the spec, cf. "the fastest way to process UTF-8 is to truncate it to ASCII", "the fastest RSA encryption is ROT-13". Also note that floats are only faster with packed instructions (often not possible without changing APIs) or when memory bandwidth is an issue.
Jailbreaking your phone will not violate the DMCA
Wait 'till you hear the screams
enterprise software sales, the art of qualification.
IBM can handle the heat. After 1969-1982, IBM's bloody war of attrition... I think the world is a different place, and IBM has savvier lawyers.
"There are so many little ‘unfreedoms’ in Europe"

I must admit, China would have never crossed my mind as the country of freedoms. But then, I've never been there. Also, I weigh some freedoms higher than others - I don't like that the Chinese government has the freedom to shoot me...
You mention two important aspects of engineering that I think is missing from the discussion: the bridge (metaphorically speaking) between society and science and the detail of planning and problem solving to meet a large set of criteria.

I've spent about 11 years "programming" and have recently returned to school to get an engineering degree and this is what has been sticking out the most to me. We are expected to do much more than just code in our engineering projects with a lot of weight being placed on how we come up with our solution and it's broader reaching effects.

Finally, in Canada, we have a "professional engineer" designation (P.Eng). Once you have obtained an engineering degree you can spend an additional four years working under the tutelage of another P.Eng and take some more courses to get the designation. This designation sort of places the role of the engineer in the class of doctors and lawyers in the sense of having a duty to society. This, to me, is also a key separation.
Thank You HN Community: Free Tickets to the Founder Conference
HN is my favorite community. I spend way too much time here. Since I happen to run the Founder Conference coming up on August 17 in Mountain View, I figured the least I can do is give back a little bit by giving away free tickets.

So if you are interested, just reply to this thread. But there's a twist:

- 1 ticket for the person with the highest karma (finally, having a high karma pays off)

- 1 ticket for a new user with a really low (positive) karma (to encourage newbies too, that's the spirit of HN I believe)

- 2 tickets randomly given away to anyone who wants them

And for everyone else, there is a promo code "yc" to get 20% off.
I can't believe that he failed to mention Akamai.
How can you ignore a company with 890M in revenue ?
Lustig says fruits are good. It is the artificially added fructose (ie HFCS) that he says is dangerous.
I disagree, Flash and Canvas are not suitable for displaying large number of objets. Using zoomable maps is a good workaround for that.

Google Maps needs an API key, whereas Seadragon doesn't and its a simple JS file < 100ko.
You can downvote this comment while you upvote this thread and I won't gain any karma from this post.
Well-Rounded Accessibility
Yes, players have the potential to make money with every round. But the expectancy is in my favor.
Unfortunately, the article doesn't link to anything more specific.
Jailbreaking now exempt from DMCA non–circumvention legislation
I've looked at that and probably will do that for dev/testing. Is it worth it to stay there and start paying after you've proven yourself or is that the mark to move on?
Vipassana meditation is basically the boot camp equivalent of this, it is nothing but focused attention. Highly recommended.
Not really a very cool way to get the domain.
"Is it for real though?", I take as you don't think you have seen enough evidence in the data to support the thesis that climate change is happening or that it is caused by humans.

I suggest you start here: http://www.skepticalscience.com/empirical-evidence-for-globa...
I'm happy with bartab: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/67651/ and list all tabs menu:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12380/
I doubt the lawyer would risk his career by giving away his strategy/tactics.
"debt is virtually a necessity created by prosperity: otherwise, the folks with all the capital end up with very lumpy mattresses. Take the Japanese government debt..."

Very incorrect. It was the Japanese government that decided that instead of demanding the banks to be responsible for their risky and ultimately bad real estate investments, they would prop the banks alive by stealing from their citizen's savings via massive borrowing. Fast forward to today: Japanese elders have their savings dwindled down, the government owes 200% GDP debt to its people, and the Japanese economy/innovation stalled because the 0% rate for 20 years policy drove all investments overseas.

There are many people that think US will have the same fate as Japan, but they're also incorrect. Japan had the massive savings rate and a booming global economy to prop itself up. US will have no such luxury. And there are many other people in this thread who thinks debt is a good thing. Well, when the US government, having to pay out 65T in medicare and social security in the next 20 years, decides not to one day, you'll see why that's bad.
Engineers are constrained by physics. Programmers are constrained by logic. Developers are programmers.
AP: New government law to allow unapproved applications on your iPhone?
because of the early stage of your product without proven cash flows, it might be helpful to look at comparable transactions in your space or how the buyer (or its competitors) have bought other similar companies like yours. You might even want to look into hiring an investment banker that has represented companies like yours that have sold to larger companies, since they will probably have most relevant valuation figures.

Lastly, cash is king. Try to always get as much cash as you want, unless it is a really stable stock, i.e. Google/Apple.

In the end, get good counsel and it should be a market pricing sort of deal.
Ask HN: When to ask friends/family/testers to sign NDAs
So, today's my first day working on my startup full-time. Yay! I have a few questions about how NDAs are used in the wild.

1) I have an inner circle of friends and family who I'll be looking to for advice. I've already described the business to a couple of them. It seems odd to me to get them (the others who I haven't talked to) to sign NDAs. Is this reasonable?

2) I want to start sending out builds for testing really soon, including to friends who are outside the "inner circle". I feel I should get any testers to sign an NDA. What are your thoughts?

Thanks!
I am going to chime in here with my experience on this:

I worked my way through college, mostly as a bartender, and for a little bit as a janitor for the school. In high school I set up large canopy tents for a company. I learned through this that a lot of physical work is cathartic. I can get my frustrations out. I provides my body something to do, and my mind a trivial foreground task, so I can get lost in thought -- not the intense focus of solving a problem, but just a mind wandering, tangential set of thoughts. I learned how nice it is to be able to walk away without concern, without the work consuming my thoughts.

There are two different aspects of all of this from my perspective. One is the exercise portion, bartending can be a good aerobic workout if you let it. Particularly if the bar has good music, basically you dance all night. This really is a good way to "zone". The other aspect of it is the menial task as a gateway to meditation. I mentioned my good thinks above, most of these came sweeping or mopping. Mopping a mile of hallways at night, or cleaning up after the bar closes, provides this, and is a great way to learn to enjoy the quiet.

All of this is hard to get as a professional. I personally would take that job if I were you, just to learn about the stuff I mentioned. The skills have definitely helped me in my life. Anytime I feel burnout coming on, I have to stop and reprioritize. I don't have bars or universities to clean up anymore, and I don't go dancing much. Instead I apply these things to my gardening and yard. Mowing is almost as good as sweeping. So is pulling weeds. The exercise i get by going for long walks, or hitting the gym. Doing this stuff really helps me get centered, and allows me to be more productive than I would be without, even if I reclaimed the couple hours spent on it daily and used them for work.

HTH

edit: thought about, but forgot to mention: There was a big component of bartending: talking to people every day. I am a total introvert, I can go days without talking to people about something other than work. The bartending thing really forced me to interact with people in a social, general way. This is surprisingly important, even if it feels awkward/uncomfortable. At least a couple times a week I go to a coffee shop or bar and interact with strangers, because it really does seem to do something.
I've been using flux and find it works as advertised on helping my sleep patterns. Thanks for your work on it.
Jailbreaking is officially legal
Wow, is .25MM cheap for a domain name.. ever? I can't think of a scenario in which it would be. Could anyone enlighten me as to the economics of this?
I believe dropbox did exactly the same thing. The lesson here is that you should get a trademark in addition to the domain. Essentially, this makes squatting pretty useless without the trademark.
Knowing food basics about carbs, fats and protein, basic vitamins and minerals, calories and food digestion can help a lot. It seems like a miracle but once you know of what consists your food your brain magically adapts and doesn't sense any pleasure emotions once you eat something unhealthy. Food Inc. movie changed in similar way my view on processed food in supermarkets.

I can also recommend South Beach Diet for you (http://www.amazon.com/South-Beach-Diet-Delicious-Doctor-Desi...). The book explains in simple terms how cravings occur (it mainly has to do with insulin levels and the digestion speed) and how to get rid of insulin (carb) spikes by replacing bad carbs and fats with good ones and balancing your diet.
And exercise is my personal recommendation, don't know the physics but for some reason it improves digestion and overall feeling.
XML pioneer backs Erlang and Clojure for multicore processing
Hence the suggestion that he do it after retiring from practice.
It's cheap when your business is valued at $1 billion.
Why you can't trust Google gadgets with your location information
I think he meant that it's cheap in comparison to what they built.

They built a business with huge revenues. When I asked him if he could at least say that Groupon generates over $100 million, I think he laughed and said that $100 million is small.
No its not. Using your contrived limited example its even less code.

Evented:

int handle_connection(int fd) {
...
}

int doaccept() {
put_on_event_loop(accept(listener));
}
Check-in data
Does anyone know of a company out there which collects check-in data (and perhaps aggregates it) from all the 'check-in' companies and apps and has an API? Thanks.
The Side Effects of Liking the World
Thanks, I added the 50 score filter feed to Google reader and it works well for me so far.
Replacements for Representation: Bayes From the Ground Up
There's a github link, so presumably it's only packaged for Ubuntu. I'm hoping I can get it running on OpenSUSE/KDE4.
Founders at Work is a Must read for anyone here. Written by Paul Graham's Wife and really captures how a Startup Life is like. Plus the people she interviews are epic,Max Levchin, DHH, Steve Wozniak, PG, Evan Williams (before Twitter, a must read), etc.