skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Good point. If I may wager a guess on why _why left, it's because of the worship-like behavior that people are still directing at him.
Hey HN, I was the creator and lead developer of this project, and we've been rolling it out for launch over the last few weeks.

The homepage is: http://quickfuseapps.com/

We think it's really neat stuff--it basically takes the web mashup power of Yahoo Pipes and applies it to telephone calls. The technology behind it is also pretty impressive. If you have any questions, please send them to me here, and I'll do my best to answer them!
Don't you bump your head on that low ceiling all the time?
In this day and age, primarily looking good (to a point). But being strong helps maintain better posture, and helps to prevent RSI and other injuries.
The Evernote Trunk
How to Fuel Start-ups and Keep Talent in Pittsburgh
We're working on compatibility with the iPad, when we began working on this the only iOS devices were small screened and we had no hope of ever making this useful there... now that the iPad is out, well that changes things, and we hope to support it soon.

Thankfully because the interface doesn't use Flash, that shouldn't be too difficult. We'd have to rework some of the event handlers, but that should be it.

FYI, the reason we periodically reset the scroll position is because the main <body> on normal windowed browsers is meant to never scroll in this editor interface. Even if you disable scrolling in CSS, some browsers like to scroll when you do things like (accidentally) highlight text near the window border, and we needed a way to make sure the interface stayed within the browser window.
Well hopefully the bike trip was fun. :)
As a former Minnesotan I can say that it goes beyond taxes. The culture in Minnesota is very risk averse and if you're starting a software company finding able software developers is very difficult. Because of that culture, finding funding is very difficult as well which pretty much confines the field of potential startups mostly to ones that can be bootstrapped.

It's a shame because there is a pretty vibrant tech community in the Twin Cities. But it leans very heavily to contracting and consulting. I'd suggest going elsewhere to start a company and moving to Minnesota when you're ready to raise a family.
Really? So the fact that you are unknowingly casting integers to strings and vice-versa does not lead to security vulnerabilities is just fiction? Being able to escape characters? Making prepared statements and having sane exception management?

If your statement were true, then by that measure making a program in assembly would be as safe as doing it in C#. Evidently, it is not. Languages make certain idioms easier or worse, and they have a culture of security or they do not, which is reflected in development methodologies, libraries, and code samples.

PHP fails massively in all those regards.
What is the true value of an asset?

There are many theories on this, and "what someone else will pay for it" is just one. Investors are not rational!
Why the down votes for linking to a supporting document?

Haters going to hate?
What behavior is most concerning to you that's not categorized under "publicity stunt"?
My question is why do we treat students differently in exams than we do in classes?

When I was going through K-12, there was no collaborative work, we sat at our own desks, did our own work, and although cheating was there, there was a significant portion of students that did not cheat. The people that struggled were quickly noticed, and either given extra help or told that they need to work harder etc.

Fast forward to today. My daughter, Grade 7, sits in a "pod" instead of in a row. Essentially all work is either collaborative or copied from the one person that knows what's going on. The people that don't know what's going on can coast.

Quizzes are in the pods. non-final/midterm exams are in the pods. Why, given the level of cooperation that we've drilled into them since Grade 1, are people surprised that students copy off each other, use other peoples homework to get their answers, etc etc.
ROILA - a spoken language for robots
$ telnet couch.io 80
Trying 80.244.253.216...
Connected to couch.io.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /get HTTP 1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:28:23 GMT
Server: Apache
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny8
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

<html>
<head>
<title>Unknown Domain</title>
</head>

<body>

The Domain "" is not available on this server.

</body>

</html>
Connection closed by foreign host.
Because the supporting document shows total state taxes, not tax rates. In other words, the supporting document doesn't.
Maybe because you linked to a document that ranks total state taxes instead of per capita taxes? (which is incredibly misleading regardless of whether or not it was deliberate)
And it's going to get cheaper and faster thanks to a grant from the Obama administration.

http://www.sdncommunications.com/blog/?p=64
Peter: This isn't so bad, huh? Makin' bucks, gettin' exercise, workin' outside.

Lawrence: Fuckin' A, man!
The Sad Tragedy of Micro-Optimization Theater
This is exactly my experience in the Twin Cities as well. Having recently moved to Boulder for spousal career support, I can't even really describe how different the mindset is here. It's not even close to the same.
This is absolutely true. I am moving to CERN this weekend and found that securing somewhere to live was extremely stressful, not to mention expensive.

I am actually surprised that, given that housing is a basic human need, there is no mass-market apartment-finding company that takes all the horrible awkward work out of finding an apartment and makes it easy and convenient. I've no idea how you'd do it - maybe build entire neighbourhoods based on typical lifestyle choice sets and market those individually. Maybe something like that exists in the US? I've never seen someone successfully do that in Europe.
I think lines like that should serve to remind us that journalists probably only know as much about law, finance, or science as they do technology. It's just that their ignorance is more obvious when they write about topics we know about.
Heh, military + IT makes me think of sci-fi tv show scientists. Too bad those jobs aren't real...
MySpace started getting a lot of negative coverage in mainstream media in terms of personal safety (bad people out there). (e.g. http://www.ktvu.com/news/7783930/detail.html)

Facebook's earlier negatives were more in line with employers screening you out of jobs or tracking your use (http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/social-media-misuse/)

Now with privacy being the big story, this may evolve to more of what you suggest, though there are already horror stories: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256552/Facebook-sta...

It's not clear what drives the stories/cultural view, though 146's comment about having a viable alternative seems to be important in actually causing people to quit a service.

Who are the 'facebook enemies'?
Ask HN: How do you organize the monthly payments from your users?
Ladies and gentlemen,

I've been working for the past few months on a web application I intend to release soon. The basic functionality I need is working well, I've tested it on real users, and the final thing I need to do before opening the doors is to get a proper billing system in place. I intend to go for recurring payments from each customer once every month, automatically drawn from the credit card they used the first time. I've got a test account from the payment provider I'll probably be going with and made some pretty forms, but a few issues are still unclear, so I'd like to hear what others are doing.

* In essence: how do you organize billing in your system?

* How do you keep track of who has paid for what?

* What do your database tables for this look like?

* Do you bill all customers on the same day each month, or a few each day, depending on when they signed up?

* How do you invoke the billing? Is it a completely automatic process, or does a human push a button? (Have you ever had bugs in the automatic process? :)

* In what way do you notify your customers about the montly payment taking place?

Thanks a lot for your input.
Tough crowd.

Here goes, taxes are lower in South Dakota.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/37.html

"Minnesota ranks 43rd in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index."

"Neighboring states ranked as follows: North Dakota (25th), South Dakota (1st), Iowa (46th) and Wisconsin (42nd)."

"Minnesota's 2008 state-level individual income tax collections were $1,493 per person, which ranked 5th highest nationally."
That is so true. Maybe it is the reason why so many companies fail when they approach a new market: We need something like ... Twitter (lookin' at you, buzz)
Startup marketing strategies to build a buzz around your product (part 2)
I experienced this and I chose to learn a new (programming) language and get a job using it. You mention learning new languages but are you actually switching over to that language? Rather than working in your main language and dabbling at night, use the new languages and tools in your day job. It's generally within reach to either convince people to let you do that where you are or to find a new job.

Usually learning is engaging, so if that's not doing it for you, it makes me think 1) you aren't going deep enough and challenging yourself enough or 2) you truly aren't interested in coding anymore. I tend to think it's the former but only you know for sure.

I read this article from my RSS reader today and think it's applicable to your situation: http://www.fluentself.com/blog/stuckification/exit-the-middl...
Say No to noscript
Electric Cars: All Charged Up, but Still Stuck in First Gear
where are you based?
Wow, this question could have been written by me.

Here's what I've found. Starting on a new career path is a crappy proposition. Most of the trades that have been suggested do either require extensive training and preparation, or some degree of paying your dues (as with any industry). However, what really killed it for me is that basically I would be doing contract work (we all know how that goes - ebbs and flows) for about 150% less than I do now.

Here's my current solution to this issue. Change of working environment and the addition of a second job. Boy am I busy NOW!

To change environments I decided to go solo contractor, get my 3g tethering setup on my iphone, get my laptop, and now I go as far out into the wilderness as possible while still getting 3g signal, and I work from the shade of a tree in nature. I try to do that for at least 50%-60% of my work. It has helped tremendously!

I've also spent a great deal of my extra sports time brushing up on skills that I had thought would never be an actual part of my life - shooting. This is something that doesn't require formalized instruction or training - although there is plenty of that available. The additional benefit is that I can now instruct others how to properly, safely, and boldly handle a firearm - and to use it effectively. This not only solidifies the knowledge I already have (teaching others is by FAR the best way to get something deeeeply rooted into you), but gives me an opportunity to be outside doing something physical, make money, and give back in an area where there is a DESPERATE need for quality instruction without ego (there is sooooo much ego in the shooting work it's sickening).

This particular path has actually relieved a tremendous amount of stress in my life and opened up opportunities and connections with people and communities that I never expected. It's quickly becoming a secondary career path. My new mission is to find a way to bring both worlds together - find a need in the market that fits a shooting developer ;) and fill it.

I'm currently a certified instructor of the C.A.R. System by SabreTactical http://www.sabretactical.com and the civilian variant IPD Systems.

PM me - you're in my head. lol get outta my head get outta my head!!!
Suprisingly little training involved. A FOAF started doing this stuff on a dare and was well on his way 9-ish months later.
Hey, I grew up in the Dakotas many years ago - it is not empty land but flat land with lots of ten-foot-high snow drifts through most of the year. Just wanted to clarify.

On a serious note, the people in the midwest are wonderful and it would be great if there were more opportunities to launch and build startups there. But you need to build a critical mass of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, and resources that will nurture such startups and, without that, it will remain hit or miss for any given locale that supports only intermittent startup activity. The good news is that it is possible to launch from such places (where, even a decade ago, this would have been almost unthinkable). As this piece points out, though, it is not easy to sustain the company beyond the earliest phase without the connections and resources that will facilitate growth.
http://status.squareup.com/iphone-4-square-card-reader-inter...
I think that's reading a lot into this paraphrasing.
There is one really large potential problem with this study: it is just a big survey. Often there is a discrepancy between what people say and what people actually do. What if many of the individuals polled simply lied, told half truths, or were mistaken about their times? It's already been proven that men lie about their incomes, why doesn't this extend to an active lifestyle as well?

For me to really take this seriously, these people need to be observed in some non-intrusive way. We do have the technology now, or so I think.
I'm in a similar situation. Although not as athletic, I would love to have a more physically demanding job.

Somewhat wishing I had made a more vocational career choice such as plumber or electrician. I have an interest in both and have done a significant amount on my own, but they both require training and apprenticeship to be officially certified in my state.

Unfortunately it's a little late in life to make a career change like that work economically, so I'm thinking about getting a Treadmill desk and requesting more time working from home.

Has anyone tried a treadmill desk? Something like the TrekDesk: http://www.trekdesk.com/
How did it work? Was it awkward or difficult to do actual work?
Wow, what a cool tool! No need to be an expert developer here, someone who has used a Visio like program in the past can quickly and easily build an interactive voice app. I tested it to invite my family to a reunion and collected all responses real time...the Amazon simpleDB is awesome!
You mean there is no physical activity that directly builds on top of a software engineering education? Yeah, I guess it was a stretch.

But I actually think that there might be a middle ground that involves sports and engineering. Perhaps a product or service and a reason to jump on the startup train.
DONT require a sign in just to browse. I'm not going to sign up just to see if there's anything in there worthwhile.
Envolve Real-time Chat Launches Today
Hence cheap and effective justice being the improvement.

Justice that benefits only one party is of course no justice.
Yeah, I was going to say something like this as well. Make it challenging to apply.
I hope dearly that whoever wrote that graphing method isn't allowed anywhere near a system that handles actual money.
Lightning fast browsing on Android phones
Fantastic, is this release safe to run in production?

I recall there being a few missteps w/ earlier releases. Actors in 2.7.4 didn't seem to be thoroughly vetted.
HTTP/1.1 is essential for conserving our dwindling IPv4 address space, so I think it's reasonable for servers to require it.
There are several physical locations where you can get office space of that sort but I am looking for something online.

I would really like there to already be something out there, it seems those things that are close tend to trend more to the Q&A genre like Stackoverflow and Quora (lots of money in this area right now it seems) but what I imagine is really more about creating connections. Closer to eHarmony than Stackoverflow. If something isnt out there I may try to throw something together if I can figure out how to monetize it, I picked up thenextcubeover.com just because it was the first thing that came to mind.
Deductive proof is not the goal of everything. There is not proof of causation, but it is the strongest inference. Without evidence to the contrary, it seems reasonable.
Thanks for sharing, had to look the term up.

roughneck (drilling):
"A low-ranking member of the drilling crew. The roughneck usually performs semiskilled and unskilled manual labor that requires continual hard work in difficult conditions for many hours. After roughnecks understand how the rig operates and demonstrates their work ethic, they may be promoted to other positions in the crew."

"This might actually refer to roughneck duties, or to one of the other crew positions, such as lead tong operator, motorman, derrickman, assistant driller or even driller."

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=roughn...

Do you have experience with this? Likes/dislikes of the job?
It's not just you - this happens lots of people, in lots of fields.

It's an obvious suggestion, but a small personal side project seems to help a lot of people - small enough that it doesn't become a big time sink or a chore, personal enough to be fun. A new platform you're unfamiliar with (eg your phone) may increase the novelty factor. Some people like to do a library or similar; I think an end-user toy like a little game is better because you can get feedback from non-coders which will reward you for extreme cleverness, but also requires you to complete rather than offering a half-assed library and calling it a 'foundation' or something.

School (eg a part-time master's degree) also increases your value, may be financed by an employer, and may push you to think deeper into problems rather than being in maintenance mode as you describe.

Finally, ask yourself if you're getting put into maintenance mode because they don't know where else to put you? If you say 'what do you need?' to your boss, any supervisor will first think that it would be nice to make an existing problem go away. If you want to be an architect, you need to come up with alternatives to the status quo and then sell them - not just in terms of 'this will be better than what we have now, please give me permission' but rather 'rising maintenance costs will bury us if we don't act, getting ahead of (our competition) will require a team of 5 and a $$$$ budget - but will allow us to capture (quantified market share)'.
> What if I pirate it, then either don't like it, or buy the physical album? I have never purchased music digitally because the digital versions are easily available for free. That seems like business 101—if your product is easily available for free (whether or not acquiring it is a crime), lower your prices or somehow make your product more appealing than the free version.

What do you do for a living?
I have been thinking about user interfaces a lot in the back of my mind. I think that most applications could be made much more usable if the user actually had an idea about what kind of data the application is actually handling, where it's getting it and how it can be manipulated.

What I would like to see is an UI that can represent any kind of data within a consistent framework of GUI-widgets or whatnot. Everything in the UI should be searchable, inspectable,sortable and otherwise manipulable via some real programming language.
An HTML5 &lt;audio&gt; radio player
> many years ago

It must have been many years ago. Today it is part of the union and is actually 2 states, North and South Dakota.

Kidding aside, I don't see either state as a real Mecca for start ups. The money is on the coasts. The people with the know how to get big name recognition are on the coasts.

If you want to start a bank or a paper box company, SD is cool. If you want to build a startup that needs facetime with angel investors and social ties to facebook, et al, I don't think the midwest is the place to be.
Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic (A&P)? Working on airplanes involes light to heavy physical activity and regular use of engineering problem solving. It's an indoor and outdoor activity depending on the situation. It is FAA regulated so earning their certification is a must.
"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" ...people are more important than any process ..and considering them "resources" is not valuing people enough.
What i said has nothing to do with team roles
I'm in the same situation as you (although I've only been working at home for ~6 months so far). Feel free to send me an AIM: comradeb14ck
Honestly, the answer is to recruit FOR a company that is interesting and engaging that those people are clamoring to come work for you. Look at Google and 37Signals. The best and brightest aren't interested in working for some no name company that is doing boring things. Yes, you will still have to cut through the lame people, which is a skill in itself, but you have zero chance of getting the best and brightest if you're not interesting to them.
http://wiki.dropbox.com/DropboxAddons/MailDrop
Haven't tried that but I really recommend getting outdoors if possible. There really isn't anything I've found that can compare to actually being out with nature, sunshine, a breeze, yah.

Or try what I'm about to try next week (once my solor pack comes in), hike out with a kickass beach/lawn chair (cupholder a must, also recommend the ones that have a leg rest built in so you can put your feet up) and just setup somewhere... Of course the pre-requisite would be a good tethering situation (3g or better - edge is a bit rough)
Airlines, Twitter and Customer Service
How are the major airlines really using Twitter? Is it a viable customer service channel for those people who are trying to avoid the large surcharges for a phone call? How quickly can one expect a response through Twitter? Which airlines don’t bother to respond at all?
You must not get out very much if it takes a small poll online in 2010 to figure out most people carry a cell phone with them everywhere they go.
CouchDB fills an important niche between embedded databases, like SQLlite and Distributed NoSQL solutions, like riak. Also it's seems to be targeting once popular "Mobile/Offline Databases" sector (it was before 3G and even GPRS took off and when wireless bandwidth was limited and not always on (i.e. dial up).
I think about CouchDB as a modern version of MS-Access and/or Lotus Notes ;-)
>> My last few jobs have been weighted towards maintenance.

There is your problem. I had the exact same frustrations in my previous job. Now I am with a team doing development projects and it feels a lot different now.

Maintenance projects are good in a sense that you get to learn a lot by looking at other people code, but that in itself is not a good argument to stick with those type of projects. Every new development project, even if it is small, will have hard problems to solve. You will have to apply your knowledge of algorithms and data-structures more often than you imagined. In contrast, a maintenance project may give you a hard and difficult to debug problem which finally turns out to be caused by the previous developer forgetting to compare all the 7 properties of an object in the equals method. It is cute to have those problems once in a while, but there is not much chance of learning and innovation.
Are you aware that the world is not binary?
Newspapers died at pretty much the same time. Also piracy?
I've never had a tab break off when I've remembered to put one of those rubber caps (apparently aka. "strain relief boots") on the cable.

http://www.amazon.com/RJ45-Black-Strain-Relief-Boots/dp/B000...