skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
American Consumers Spend More Money On Cheese than On Computers
Japan does have an Apple though. It's called Nintendo.
Interesting how people want to feel safe, instead of actually being safe. If people act irrationally, doesn't economics theory break down?

Also I think the article ignores the possibility that drivers of quick and nimble cars could be (on average) more skilled than drivers of large SUVs. This could have caused the difference in safety statistics.
Not a bad comparison, but I feel like there's something off about it that I can't quite put my finger on it.

I think maybe it's along lines of the fact that Apple is the type of company to create an object that you kind of revere for how it makes you feel to own it rather than for what it does for you. For example, the N64 controller is the definition of ugly, but it was a great step forward in controller design. I can't see Apple releasing anything ugly or uncool looking, no matter how advanced the technology or the ideas behind it.
I love LaTeX for docs that simply use one of the built-in documentclasses -- and which use no extra packages or custom commands or environments.

I strongly dislike it for anything else. Getting anything non-default to work right has always been a major headache for me.

Also, conversion to html should be easier. Last time I looked, latex2html was pretty much unmaintained and also a bear to even get installed (if your OS doesn't already provide a package for it).

Texinfo might be a good substitute for LaTeX, but it's a bit clunky with manually specifying menus (nodes and sections)... though I know that Emacs will do that for you.
Ask YC: Why don't you write a blog?
I have many friends, who read blogs actively, but don't write their own. I tried convincing them how blogging is a great process to define and refine your thoughts, how it is a great platform to meet new people and build a community, how it is your a new type of resume, and lot more...

But still, they don't write a blog. They agree there are lots of advantages, but they still just don't act on it.

Are you also who read lots of blogs, read all YC News, but don't write your own thoughts? If so, why is that? What's stopping you from writing a blog?

Why do you just consume the information and don't produce some?

Please discuss your thoughts.
From Win32 to Cocoa
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Could Be In Trouble
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang Tries to Save Face
I do have a blog, although I am not very consistent with posts. Mainly I dont really have the time to maintain a blog.

On a side not I am very active on twitter http://twitter.com/dodeja (micro-blogging seems to work for many non-bloggers)
The graphic is excellent which is more than I can say for any of the substances described as cheese I have been offered in the USA.
You are right they are doing amazing open source stuff and innovation on the open source front. That ultimately helps the community.
Although it is not building any value for shareholders. At the end of the day Yahoo is a public company and they need to add more revenue streams and have more profitable strategies/products.
FriendFeed Has Moved the Conversation Away From Twitter
Why decentralizing Twitter is so important
Ok, so now what? - Yahoo! Blog
My Blogging Workspace
For those that may wonder what my workspace looks like here are two shots of my workstation. As you can see its nothing compared to Darren Rowse’s setup or even the average blogger’s setup.
I am surprise that people speculate about the end of Ballmer when in fact it's the end of Jerry Yang that we will see very soon. I can't wait for the stock market to open in a couple of hours, my popcorn is ready. (It's not so much that I wish Yahoo to go down but more that I am exited to see what will really happen).
Gotta hold something back for the next press release.
Installing WAMP on Windows XP Home Edition.
Windows XP Home Edition does not come bundled with IIS as part of Microsoft stingy capitalist policies. Windows Professional edition comes bundled with a crippled IIS version for development purposes only.
Good advice, but very American-centric. Being overly friendly and outgoing does not fly with a significant percentage of Europeans, I've found, whereas these sorts of things work great in America (probably why I'd rather live there, but well..)
Ask YC: Where are the opportunities for students around campus?
Well so here is my rant.

I am at Portland State University, Oregon. I attended Bar Camp this weekend in Portland. I was one of the only two people from my university there.

The thing I am trying to get at is the tech industry needs to get more involved with local universities/colleges. I consider my self very active in terms of seeking events, conferences, camps, lunch2.0s etc. related to tech/startups in my locale. Most students on campus don't work that way. They try to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them (career fairs). To be honest our tech/engineering career fairs on campus suck. Last one I attended had only a few tech companies (Intel and Techtronix) that sounded appealing. Students do make an effort to attended that relate to their major or potential career path. I am not saying this is a problem at all universities, I visit UC berkeley, CA all the time and they have plenty of opportunities, startup fairs, 100+ tech companies at their career fair, demo days, meetups etc Stanford and many other bay area schools have similar stuff.

I would just hope many startups and bigger tech companies take an active role in their community. Talent just doesn't exist in the Bay Area. Smart and driven students are everywhere and companies need to make a better effort to seek this potential.

How many of you have faced a similar issue?
I wouldn't want to be in is shoes tomorrow morning specially when when the top story on the front page of is own web site is: "Yahoo CEO on hot seat after rebuffing Microsoft's $47.5B bid"
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080504/microsoft_yahoo.html
links, screen readers, mobile, and sometimes see gap between flash 7 and 9 on linux not the current version.
Run OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2
Funny how the biggest startup (by far) of all YC-funded actually IS NOT a CRUD-powered website but a classic algorithmic software that solves your problem.

Congrats guys.
I write a blog, it's in Russian and not very programming-related. No blog in English, because I haven't found my own voice in English. Everything I write seems obvious and silly.
Writing a blog takes dedication and time. It is not for everyone. I've started three, and couldn't keep up with any of them.
Check out https://www.miroguide.com/ for one of the most comprehensive listings of video feeds you'll find anywhere.
Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.
It has to be gradual, there has to be some easy way to get pulled into it. Right now there's too much upfront investment of your time with almost no feedback for too long. And it will get only worse, as more blogs will compete for your attention.

I hope that twitter like services will break this trend.
Flash is good for more than just video. E.g. I think http://samorost2.net cannot be reimplemented with existing "open web" technologies. At least I haven't seen any compelling examples.
Why do you assume that people who don't write blogs just "consumer the information"? I know plenty of people who produce information far more useful than the majority of silly blog posts (like code).

For some people, written communication can be quite challenging, but that doesn't mean that they aren't producing information, it just might not inside your view of the world.
99.9% of blogs are crap, including mine. I write it mostly for myself and to polish my English (not my native tongue). I don't believe one should be looking for "advantages" when deciding to start a blog. I hate to see what blogs are turning into: they aren't personal anymore and look more like expanded resumes. Blogs used to be just that: a personal diary of what's going on. And silly things like "Rails Blog" or "Java Blog" just don't make sense: why would someone keep a blog like that - nothing is happening in their life besides Rails or Java?

In fact, let's be honest: a blog is just a buzzword. "Homepages" have been around forever, why rename them into something which isn't even a real English word. Before '03 corporate websites had a page called "News", now they call it a "blog" and make it look a little bit more personal.

After about 3 years of this "citizen journalism" I went back to slashdot, they provide more than enough of daily time wasting material. Real news are in books, never mind that they happened in the past, at least they're true and delivered to you professionally.

And finally, I don't trust "blogs". Even my modest page with 40 daily accidental readers attracts an email from a PR firm every once in a while, asking me to promote some BS they're getting paid for. I can only imagine how it's like for someone with 10K+ monthly uniques.. Most of these "bloggers" are cheap part-time journalists armed with inflated egos but lacking skills/time to check their facts and, sometimes, their spelling.
From who would Microsoft have bought Yahoo?
If Yahoo would have agreed to the Microsoft offer, where would the money have went to?

Since MS did not try to buy shares from the shareholders - I guess that the shareholders would have kept their shares, right?

So how would MS afterwards have "owned" Yahoo, without owning shares?
"Why do you just consume the information and dont produce some?"

Blogs are not an appropriate medium for publishing every kind of information. What about people who write books, essays, reports or even user manuals? Are they just "consuming information"?
> Writing a blog takes dedication and time.

Yes. I've also discovered that blogging has to be done very frequently to obtain a significant audience. For example, Paul Kedrosky ( http://paul.kedrosky.com/ ) sometimes posts three times per day, seven days per week. I'd rather spend my time doing extended programming sessions. I'm also inclined to write 4000 word epics rather than 100 word stream-of-consciousness posts, so the medium isn't optimal for my style. Finally, I'm not keen on blogging's inherent chronological structure. However, the advent tagging has offset this issue.
Anybody working on a decentralized open source version of it? I'm starting a twitter-like project (with erlang / ejabberd) that can work with existing IM clients, contact me if you're interested.
If Hacker News is going to be mainly posts where Michael Arrington pulling shit out of his ass, what's the point in staying here?
You know, given the context, I'm going to throw out a spurious analogy:

Maybe writing a blog bears some small resemblance to doing a startup. It takes more time than is reasonable, in the average case nobody else really notices, and once in a while it will propel a (partially-random) someone to fame and fortune. In other words, it's only really worth it for the sense of personal satisfaction it will give you.

Maybe it's my sense of self-preservation, preventing me from maintaining too many irrational behaviours simultaneously?
I pretty much get everything I would get out of blogging by posting on news.yc. Unless your blog has upmod/downmod arrows, it's hard to beat the feedback here.
In the GE transportation systems twin diesel-electric locomotive vs. Boxster crash tests, the locomotive came out ahead a remarkable 100 percent of the time. Of course, it's MPG is somewhat less than the boxster, but the soccer moms involved said that nothing was too good for their respective munchkins.
Ask YC: Bayesian filter for NSFW content ?
I've just launched No-NSFW (NSFW content warning system) which relies on user feedback to determine site ratings.

I'm now thinking of introducing a Bayesian filter to determine site content. Does this make sense ?

Also, where do I hunt for seed data - I'm using nsfw.reddit for NSFW data (thanks kirubakaran), what do i use for SFW data ?
The desire to write a blog (and keep at it) comes from within. You must have a desire to consume the information and then spit it out again in a manner which you see as unique from other people. In some cases, that comes out in different ways (e.g. some people would start a podcast, but not a blog). Also, some people just aren't that into writing extensively.
RSS needs to be integrated into email clients, not web browsers. RSS's "notification" use cases are closer to email, even in the terminology ("subscribe"). If there was better support in email clients, RSS would see more use for things like ecommerce shipment notifications, website and ecommerce "newsletters" (which often get marked as spam when sent as email) and the like. The user remains in "control" then, unlike email spam, because they can unsubscribe by grabbing the feed anymore. Reach statistics would be more accurate too (for the same content that was traditionally delivered via email).
Triage (though I bet it kept popping into his head at inopportune times).
I haven't used them, but be careful of their offer. If you look at their pricing, the $1 is for one credit, and they charge you a certain number of credits based on the size of your file. Here's the catch: it could get very expensive for you if you have a site that is long-tail with lots of files, but on average few views per file. If you have a few files that need to be served, or a few popular ones, it's probably a good deal depending on the quality of bandwidth you need. However, CDNs are a good example of you get what you pay for. If you need Grade A bandwidth and a CDN with a ton of POPs (e.g. for video), my bet is that they won't hold up since it looks like they are more budget and new at the game.
Because serious blogging is very hard. I write a blog and it's hard. It takes a lot of time, dedication and effort. But I still like it.
Doesn't Yahoo as a company own part of its own shares? My guess would be that MS would've bought those shares.

Also, I would've thought an infallible deity such as yourself would know correct syntax: "where would the money have gone to" ;)
Jettas are safe because they make their drivers feel unsafe. S.U.V.s are unsafe because they make their drivers feel safe. That feeling of safety isn't the solution; it's the problem.

So much wisdom in so few words.
Google safesearch might help... http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguide...
Makes the big assumption that Twitter is "so important" in the first place...
Installing Linux guest in Windows host and configuring seamless mode
Having just gone through the pain I would like to offer free advice (at your own risk, duh):

First, figure out among yourself few things:

How much money, IP and time do you put in?

On what conditions do you break up? Firing for cause/without cause? Is there a vesting schedule?

These questions will take quite a few long and awkward discussions but it is a lot better to have it now rather than later. Really-really. Start early.

Second, find your local startup community and ask for references for a good, inexpensive incorporation lawyer. Pick one with best references and take the outcome of previous step to him/her. Make sure to read and understand everything (especially the deadlines) before you sign anything.

Small Business Development Centers could be a source of cheap advice, cheaper than asking same questions from a lawyer.
Company upgrades the entire internet to web 2.0 standards (really!)
"really caring" I think applies to not just start-ups but to life in general.

so many of us ask "how are you" without "really caring" that it's startling to find someone who "really cares" and wants a truthful response when you ask.

I'd also add "like people." If you genuinely like other people, and you like yourself, your attitude will most likely rub people the right way.
out of curiosity, with David being fluent in French, any reason you guys don't have a French version of Weebly out? (Pardon if I'm mistaken on this)
this is so ludicrous it's genius. i'd almost think it's a parody, except it's clearly a scam. can anyone wrap their head around 'upgrading the entire internet to web 2.0'?
Yeah it needs to have its encoding specified. In Safari I set it to Unicode (UTF-8) manually and it works like a charm.
PHP: <?echo "Hello, world."?>
http://www.confreaks.com/

Mostly focused on Ruby so far.

Click on one of the events in the right sidebar.
What are the best CRM for Web 2.0 sites ?
Most sites are covering nice Web 2.0 sites but it's very rare to see articles about CRM or good back office support apps. What are the most popular ones used by successful Web 2.0 companies ?
Frustrated with mod_python: is there any complete documentation out there?
It me an hour to figure out that to not get 404 errors, you have to make the primary function called index. Now I'm trying to pass a variable in the URL and retrieve it. This is simple in PHP, and in Python I would think it would just be a dictionary.

The official documentation from mod_python is virtually useless. Even a list of classes and functions and how they work would be great.
I blog, but not for any of the reasons you mentioned. I blog because I greatly enjoy writing and I greatly enjoy explaining my ideas to others.

It sounds clichéd perhaps, but you should write because you enjoy writing, not because you want to achieve all the secondary stuff that comes after you've written stuff for a long time and finally accumulated all those bells and whistles.

Daniel
Lightning speed wordpress with lighttpd and wp-supercache
An update on the popular rewrite.lua that allows serving cached pages with lighttpd.
so do you agree asperger's is not inborn, and can be "cured" by learning alternative modes of behavior?
When I first saw the title I thought it might be an app that added various AJAX-effects and gradients/betatags to websites and images.

Sort of like http://pornolize.com, just Web 2.0.
NIN Releases Yet Another Album Completely Free Online
expecting MSFT to beat a company and expecting them to be competitive are two different issues. as you've said in another post about all that $$ their sitting on -- they should be competing in several different markets, but showing up with a bunch of cash is simply not good enough to beat a well-worn competitor like Nintendo.

Game consoles are as much about the franchises as they are about the consoles themselves (Marios, Zelda, Mario Kart, Metroid, Smash Brothers, etc. for Nintendo ). That being said, it's nearly impossible to build a game franchise from nothing. Most best selling games are multiple-edition franchises (see: GTA IV, Halo, Mario, Smash Brothers, Call of Duty, All Tom Clancy games, Final Fantasy,etc.) MSFT hit the jackpot with HALO, and has a couple other interesting original titles such as Gears of War, Mass Effect and others.
I use Highrise by 37signals at my company. It's ultra-simple and cheap. Adding records by bcc'ing an email dropbox is really helpful.

http://www.highrisehq.com
Valley-ho
More discussion on where you should be for your start up.
meh, posting every techcrunch articles to hacker news is now just plain karma whoring.

alternatively you can think of it as comment thread to techcrunch articles with Hacker News analysis.
By what metric is Xobni the biggest YC startup "by far"?
Yahoo is a publicly traded company, so Microsoft would have bought it from ALL of the shareholders.

YHOO is currently around $28-$29/share. Microsoft was willing to pay a premium of almost $10/share on top of that.

There is a lot involved, but the process generally goes like this:

Buying company (MS in this case) meets with Buyee (Yahoo) and negotiates some price.

Buyee board accepts buyers price.

Press releases and such go out. Much rejoicing.

EVERY shareholder gets a chance to vote, but things are rarely voted down. Common shareholders generally end up voted the recommended way (in favor of the buyout), and large shareholders generally control enough of the stock that this isn't a big issue.

Sale is approved, and Buyee stock shares are exchanged for Buyer stock shares, at the ratio of their current prices. If you held 100 shares of YAHOO, you'd end up with about 125 shares of MSFT in this case. (Yahoo being supposedly worth about $35/share, MSFT being worth about $28/share).

In some cases, these buyouts can be "hostile" where the Buyee can attempt to buy enough of the shares on the market to effectively control the voting.

These points are over-simplified, but it gives you the general idea.
An Under-Appreciated Fact: We Don't Know How We Program
It is an excellent article. However I don't really get the hoo-ha about most Facebook apps being just for fun. I guess if you asked most of Facebook's users why they use Facebook they would say to have fun and connect with friends, not manage their schedule.

I guess that isn't good for Facebook's secret evil world domination strategy (is that still a secret) but not an issue otherwise.
Walking away from over-paying for Yahoo is probably the smartest thing Ballmer has done since becoming CEO. Did Yahoo manage to convince anyone that they really have a strong go-it-alone strategy? Why pay now when you can pay half in 12 months time.

My prediction is Ballmer will still be comfortable in the CEO suite by the end of the year.
This isn't really true for all software development. If you write a detailed design, the process for writing the software is as simple as "write what the design says you should write, then test it conforms" It's only true for the sort of software development where you design while you write, AKA hacking.

I'm not against hacking per se. I'm doing it right now. But to take it as the de facto way the software industry functions is wrong. Hacking has certain problems, like unanticipated problems tend to stall the process (My own recent encounter had me blocked for three days, trying to think of an adequate solution to the problem of how authentication should work in an environment where HTTP servers and clients are essentially "decoupled", that is a solution to the problem of where presentation and application data are coming from two different sources, how does the data provider verify the presentation logic is trustworthy? It's a hard problem to which I have only a partially satisfactory answer... but I digress.)

The process for writing code tends to be unwritten, simply because in the best case it is so trivial that writing it is an insult to the reader. I guess the industry's collective problem is that the best case happens so seldom.
It's the only thing they have in the online/offline integration space. If not a direct competitor, it still has relevance. Google doesn't use Flex or Silverlight because they can reproduce complex interfaces in just javascript and it's usable offline with Google Gears.

If Google wanted to compete with Flex/Silverlight, they could release a GUI widget toolkit for javascript and combined with Google Gears they would have a contender.
I write a blog that I take fairly seriously and maintain well. As others have said, it's a huge commitment. At the moment I've been dealing with final exams and now vacation, but usually I spend 4 hours/day on my blog. Not that I post every day or multiple times per day, it's just keeping up with the news that might be involved in a later post, building something to write about, reviewing something, etc.
Loopt. The market for what they are doing is going to emerge suddenly in 3 years or so and they will be well positioned to conquer.
In this release, they are emphasizing that it is free to download. It's not even for sale. Last time it was legal to download from another website because of a CC license, but you had to pay $5 to download the album from the band.

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4173117/Nine_Inch_Nails_-_The_Sl...
Sun adds support for Amazon Web services, targets start-ups
Hi Josh.

Try Django? I think you'll be much happier.
Instapaper: Simple bookmark utility
Internet marketing for technology startups - Interview with Bob Massa
Why should anyone be interested in your personal happenings?

On the other hand, if you have some perspective to contribute about Rails development, the value proposition to the reader is much clearer.

Daniel
The Yahoo - Microsoft drama is going to make a Better Yahoo