skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Hacking 'nuclear winter' is not hacker news???.. :)

You want to bring labelling ('survivalists' = 'red necks') into the discussion because you disagree with what they say?

There are Nobel prize winners among this institute's founders, so obviously 'survivalist red necks' they are not.
Fleshy headed mutant, are you friendly?
If only they had a bigger selection of downloadable content, I could ditch my cable...

Also, I'd rather not stream in (potentially HD) video. My internet connection is flaky enough as is. It /will/ die during the movie.
Welcome to GitCasts
Meet the economists who know why we buy what we buy
I heartily recommend the book this is drawn from-- it has a lot of great interviews with some pretty impressive folk. It's sadly out of print, but should be fairly easy to get used, I imagine.
A Tale of Four Kernels
Does it matter whether or not global warming is man-made?

In case anyone has forgotten, there are plenty of other benefits we get along with the switch to cleaner sources of energy.
Unlikely millionaires
Absolutely. I've (unfortunately) done some work on a vertical market app for homebuilders that is mostly written in Excel. If you're using the Office COM API, there is some syntactical sugar that VB.NET handles for you that makes it far easier to write VB.NET over C#, as much as I'd prefer to use it.

Theoretically I could abstract it out and have VB.NET wrappers, but considering the rest of the app is written inside of Excel using VBA, it just seemed to make more sense to leave it in VB.NET (read: lazy programmer).
And calling a place nicer than a shopping mall is like saying that my squalid, decomposing first apartment was nicer than a prison cell; true, and irrelevant.
> I can imagine with your atrocious rate ratio of returns

Or, another perspective: Imagine you go to a shoe shop, and you try on three or four pairs before you buy. For Zappos, that would be a return rate of 3:1, reduced only by the inconvenience for the customer to return the shoes.
Don’t sacrifice your blog in the name of productivity
Microsoft is often late to the market on new technologies and when they are they shamelessly will try and buy their success or use their position in the market to attain what they want

But to even question that their strategic idea of bundling software for decades on CD-rom is flawed or would have been better spent trying to have been a leader on internet technology sooner (then may have been its deserved time) does not show complete understanding that for two decades Microsoft was one the most profitable business of any company of their scale, with profit margins that exceeded 90%.

As well given connection speeds for a long time during the 90's, trying to get any form of large files (media,information,software apps) on anything other then CD-roms would have been any awful experience and since not all people had modems but everyone did have CD-roms, I would say Gates attention paid to CD-roms did work out for Microsoft and was the wise choice.

Now of course thats a different story. My CD-rom drive was broken on my laptop when I bought it off of ebay and I don't think I've ever even noticed. Simply because I don't get my information or software by floppy or cds but purely online.

Things have changed and Microsoft has been wrong lately and therefore we have seen them slow to adapt with users, but thats not to say given CD-roms time that what they did was a bad thing or that internet during the 90's without the faster connections could have done it better.
Ask YC: Office space - cheap or creative?
I am in the process of looking for an office space to move my business so that I can hire some employees. I've looked at a number of spaces, and it seems that the ones that I like (the creative, interesting spaces) are expensive. The boring, plain and uninteresting spaces are more in my budget.

My issue is that I want to get one of the creative interesting spaces, and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth the extra cash. My company is currently making $ but it's all in consulting fees that could evaporate at any time. I still have cash from an angel investment,and I'm hoping to start making money from my core business in a few months. (Hoping)

Any advice?
Netflix box streams "the kind of DVDs you would see in the bargain bin at the 99 cent store"
The mere appearance of "PhD" next to a name doesn't impress me. Especially when there's no mention of where each of these learned doctors got their PhD from, what the subject matter of the PhD was, or what institutions the doctor is affiliated with now.
The Wikipedia article links to an even more informative piece on SourceWatch:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Oregon_Institute...
When to Invest Vs. When to Help.
Eggs Thrown. Steve Ballmer Scrambles.
This is a great example of concrete advice Tim Ferriss is good for, and I really enjoy reading. As opposed to some of his shadier/"douchier" practices found here:

http://www.ivygateblog.com/blog/2007/05/timothy_ferriss_outv...
Browser cookie restrictions
If deleterious means harmful in an unexpected way, wouldn't it be meaningless to sign a petition saying no unexpected problems are expected.
benefits that include rapidly rising food prices because of all the farming resources being shifted towards producing biofuels.
I Hate to be Rude But…
Will you be bringing clients to your office regularly? Or is it primarily a workspace?

Either way I would say go for the cheaper space initially. I think aesthetics do matter, but only to a certain extent.
The original title was drug dealing for fun and profit! The book isn't necessarily about working 4 hours a week.
Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mtBQ4UCXQeo
PhD in what?

Figure 1: Surface temperatures in the Sargasso Sea, a 2 million square mile region of the Atlantic Ocean, with time resolution of 50 to 100 years and ending in 1975,

So their first graph stops 33 years ago?

Many of these estimates are from the decrease in atmospheric carbon 14 after cessation of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, which provides a reliable half-time. There is no experimental evidence to support computer model estimates (73) of a CO2 atmospheric "lifetime" of 300 years or more.

The average exchange of carbon with biomass is has little change in the net levels of carbon but it does change what isotopes are in the atmosphere.

PS: Water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide are the three most important substances that make life possible.

They are surely not environmental pollutants.

Based on what? Oxygen above the normal range has significant negative heath impacts. It also kills of wide ranges of the planets life forms.
i think, you can make creative use out of boring office spaces with "creative interior decor."

Maybe concentrate more on "interior designer" on a "boring office space" for a change.

When in startups better to be frugal and creative.
Not to be too critical, but if you are asking this question this is a possibility you are feeling pressured to get an office because "that's what professional people do" and not because it actually provides much tangible value. Get an office if you NEED one but make sure you absolutely have no other option (find contract/telecommuters/etc)... An office can seriously affect you burn rate which is usually bad news unless you have a clear path to profitability.
Netflix/Roku box threatens Apple, Microsoft plans for streaming video
Great question, but no. I have been doing the non-office thing for almost a year. I have 35 contractors working from me off-site. But my business has hit a point where I need to hire two full-time people (to keep it running) and my partner is soon going to be joining me....so we need a space.
Yes, it's the same article.
Yes, clients and potential investors.
Why Did You Hire Me?
PhDs were not the point.

Geri Halliwell was (or rather wasn't).
What is relative to what, precisely?
The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome
Show those hippies who's boss!

I didn't read the entire article, but this seems to be a great example of how you can take an assumption and manipulate data to fit that mold. Good example here: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/05/selective_data_and_...

Crichton has a book about how this happens all the time in environmental science. If you haven't read State of Fear, I strongly suggest it.

I think that the data is a non-issue. This is a rare occurence when interests are aligned from two sides of the spectrum. Reducing carbon emissions through less consumption is no longer some flower-child's dream; it has to do with US national security, global stability, and economic security. It may seem like alliterative nonsense, but it's what I believe.
From what I've read, the founder of plentyoffish.com might have been doing much of this before the book was written. I've heard he only works 2-4 hours a day on the site.
We've got 2 full-time people working together on a development project. One (me) is in London, the other in Kansas.

Office space is overrated. Just give everyone an allowance to buy a big desk and a decent ADSL connection.

Daniel
New Light Source Lasts 15 Years Without a Recharge
Every space (office or home) has an impact on those who occupy it. The top things to consider when choosing a space for a small starting company: collaboration, privacy, lighting, noise.

collaboration - depending on your type of business, choose a space that either promotes or discourages collaboration.

privacy - choose a space that lets your employees have a sense of privacy. Its not fun having the boss being able to see you all day long.

lighting - beware of bad lighting, from overpowering flourecents to blinding sunlight.

noise - internal (ie, deafening air conditioning) to external (ie, youre located next to a railroad crossing)
"cheap or creative?"

Both.

Take the cheaper space and make it creative cheaply. There's lots of ways to do this (beyond my expertise). Home Depot and Ikea are your friends.
I think it is half true. Apartments and low-cost housing options have come up in price while homes and higher-cost housing options are a great rent opportunity.

Basically, people are migrating toward rentals because they don't want to buy. That means that well known and easy to find renting options are in higher demand. But it also means that a lot of nice properties are sitting fallow. These properties may not be marketed very well--that isn't the focus of the people holding on to them. So there are great deals to be had in the higher end rental market.

We ended up selling our home to move into a town for a short space of time (two years). We found a beautiful property and have been renting it for only a small percentage of what PITI would have been, which means that we are paying for a 5 bd 3 bth home in a beautiful neighborhood with a great yard about 10% more than people are paying for 2 bd 2 bth duplexes in mediocre neighborhoods.
Investors might even like a bootstrapping startup. They know their money burns well...
I think you need to answer not what appeals to what you want, but what you need; and I come to that conclusion based on your very word choice "plain", "boring", "uninteresting". If you need the space, find out what your budget will allow and what meets the accommodations of your team.

Solve your problems first, and the rest will follow. 37Signals has been preaching it, and so will I because it works
Flashmint.net - What's The Source of All This?
Flashmint.net - is it a clone of Flashmint.com or just competitors' trick?
Oh yea, they definitely have appeal up until the very point where they start putting out more noise than beneficial information when the attention goes to his head. Which is just where I think this guy is headed.

Hate to sound like a pessimist, but sometimes it's a necessary evil.
This is a great simple example of social engineering.
Another factor right now (in the U.S. anyway) is that financing is more difficult to get, even if you have good credit.
Just make sure you know you're reading a wiki:

>SourceWatch is not uniformly peer reviewed; while readers may correct errors or engage in casual review, they have no legal duty to do so and thus all information read here is without any implied warranty of fitness for any purpose or use whatsoever.
PLEASE ban TechCrunch links. And the people who post them.
I have no doubt once Geri's name was found (and made public) they removed it from the list as it was obviously fake or just plain wrong.

My point was mostly humor, but my underlying point was that there is simply no verification as to the qualifications of any scientist, phd or spice girl on this list.
Java haters, gtfo
The answer is neither one.

You are on automatic pilot.

"I am in the process of looking for an office space to move my business so that I can hire some employees."

It is 2008. Hire your employees. Where they work is not your problem any more.
Yes, I know that, and I'm insulted by your misinterpretation. My point still stands. The article is tautological fluff. "If we explore the most obvious implications of a known phenomenon, and pad it with numbers, people will know we were awake, we'll still have jobs, and really foolish people will think we've discovered something."
Aesthetics are pretty important to me but I think I'd be more impressed with a startup making creative use of a boring space than one working out of, say, a generically hip loft.
Yes, very good point there. Because I came here to win a popularity contest. So it matters to me when people downmod me. It matters a great deal.
Congrats, and that is a great forum design on your site. What did you use to build it?
RepStrap Personal Fabricator at tomorrow's Providence Geeks Dinner
There are no "creative spaces" only creative people. Reminds me of the Mac vs. PC creative work argument. Find good people and they won't care if they work in a cool trendy "loft" in San Fran or a boring grey cubicle in a converted strip mall in Idaho. My workspace is exactly the size of two 19" LCD monitors.
Katrina wasn't caused by global warming

It's not a good idea to make statements like this. Weather systems are very complex, and we don't know if Katrina was caused by global warming or not. We just don't know what an increase in atmospheric CO2 will do - that's what's so scary about it.
Have you ever met anyone who both mods classic cars and builds robots? Those seem like hobbies for drastically different minds. And, one is decidedly provincial, while the other isn't.
In addition to the filtering element, this strategy probably has a long term benefit. Those who reject the offer and join are likely to stay committed and enthusiastic in order to be consistent with their original decision. The desire to be consistent is a hugely powerful force - read Influence by Robert Cialdini if you're interested.
The Fundraising Process Is Flexible
Ad hominem ad nauseam...

The signatures are results of a nation-wide mail survey first undertaken in 1998. The respondents were selected based on their scientific credentials of publicly accepted quality. All the signatures are done in writing and are available for inspection on your request at the institute.

Since you've just attempted a mass character assassination, do you mind sharing the results of your inquest into the validity of the signatures/qualifications with us?
From consulting experience, I can tell you that VB.Net is still HUGE amongst smaller companies. They often started with some custom application years ago that had an upgrade path of Excel > Access > VB 5 or 6, and ultimately landed on VB.Net.

It's easy to forget that there are a ton of applications out there that have been homegrown by the "office computer guy"; which is to say a developer that has never had any real training and fell into a developer position by necessity more than anything else.

My assumption is that for the shade tree developer, a book with "Visual Basic dot anything" on the cover is going to be more "friendly" seeming than any other language, especially one that uses glyphs right in the name (C#).
Bias is not the same as "bias against", also I never even mentioned IT. What is your problem with bias? Also bias is merely an expectation, not a judgment. If I expect women to have longer hair than men on average, it is not the same as discriminating IT women at the workplace.

The way I was quoted, I interpreted as if I have some negative attitude towards women, which is not true.

As for women in IT, to be honest I haven't even met one for years now. Do they even exist?
How to Make Accurate Time Estimates
Steve Sears, Product Marketing Manager, has just engineered one of biggest product turn-offs of the year.
Probably more important: the location. Pick something in a nice urban environment close to public transit
I was wondering why this was so long - wouldn't screenshots have cut out 1000 words?
Sine when do "frugal" and "interior designer" go together?
To some extent, Apple’s (AAPL) share of this market is growing by default. Companies like HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Lenovo ship enormous quantities of PCs at price points between $500 and $750, whereas the only Macintosh that sells for less than $1,000 is the $599 Mini

When I first saw the title, this is the first thing that crossed my mind. Apple seems to be in the business of selling expensive computers. I'm not saying this makes their growing market share less valuable, just that it's less of a win then it might seem at face value.

Plus, like others have mentioned, this is only for B&M stores.
I'm not sure why Katrina is a good example anyway. It wasn't an incredibly powerful hurricane, it just hit a poorly-prepared place. Unless you think global warming causes people to build a city in a valley below a lake held back with a concrete wall.
Hi Paul:
As always your essay is right on the money. I've worked for big companies and I've worked for small ones, and let me tell you, small is better. I've heard it described like this. A big company is like an engine with a monstrous flywheel. If a couple of cylinders are misfiring (or not firing at all) you really don't even notice. In fact EVERY cylinder can loaf along at pretty mediocre performance, and the flywheel will still spin. The problem is, most companies interpret a spinning flywheel as a useful function in itself. They don't realize there's no useful load attached to the engine.

Eric
Is it in the realm of possibilities that you can buy a bigger house with more bedrooms and then convert them into office space? That's what lots of folks do... There are many, many advantages of doing so.

You mentioned you needed to bring clients and investors to the office. As someone said, investors often like to see the bootstrapper be creative so you'll get bonus points. Some clients will be put off; others will think it's great - only you know. Sorry if this takes you off the track of your question.

To answer your question: you know what the best thing to do is. Asking for advice here is futile since, as you can see, you get so many different types of answers. Trust your instincts; no one knows the business better than you.
(I find it strange that so many people devote energy to thinking about what the numbers don't mean rather than thinking about what they do mean.)

I think it's just a general aversion to the practice of cherry-picking criteria to post bigger numbers.
Hi Paul:
As always your essay is right on the money. I've worked for big companies and I've worked for small ones, and let me tell you, small is better. I've heard it described like this. A big company is like an engine with a monstrous flywheel. If a couple of cylinders are misfiring (or not firing at all) you really don't even notice. In fact EVERY cylinder can loaf along at pretty mediocre performance, and the flywheel will still spin. The problem is, most companies interpret a spinning flywheel as a useful function in itself. They don't realize there's no useful load attached to the engine.
I thought that was outstanding. Thanks for the link.
"You’re seeing a lot more cases where people can afford to use C, instead of using assembly language."

Wow! How far we've come.
Exactly _what_ is scary about not knowing? The post makes a point that no matter what the mechanism is, none of the variables involved is out of the "normal" range for the last 3000 years. Excuse me if I don't "act now!" about every thing that looks normal but is unexplained.
Weren't those biofuels a scam from the beginning? Not sure you are blaming the right things here.
Hackers and Founders Meetup tonight in San Jose
Please, feel free to drop by. We still have room.

http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737
This should be intuitive to CS people. You spend your whole life packing stuff into memory. Eventually it gets too large for your RAM, and some of it gets swapped out to secondary storage. ;-)
How are you defining diameter? http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Diameter.html only defines it for circular and spherical objects.
Microsoft announces: "Screw it, we're doing Web 5.0".
I think a per user blacklist would be nice.

Some people want to get the socially filtered "nuggets" (aka "kernels of corn in the turd that is techcrunch") so they don't have to subscribe to tc's feed.

Also, pg might be reluctant to ban them, because he needs to keep the publicity tc gives his hatchlings/investments in mind.

Personally, I would blacklist tc in a split-second.
Does shipping a pair of shoes really cost them $15 each way? I kind of doubt that, too.
Don’t Mess With Facebook And Its Potential Advertisers
I'd err on the cheap side, but avoid space that will impede productivity.

Your employees are costing you $50+ per hour (with burden and benefits) - if you have a more expensive space that'll result in 15 more minutes of productive work per employee per day (due to privacy, quiet, whatever)... Well, it's easy to do the math.

Creative spaces are good. Everyone loves a clubhouse, and that'll help with loyalty retention. But you can do a lot by getting a crappy space and then giving each employee $1000 to decorate their space how they will (including paint!).
I am not exaggerating.

There are many library functions that would take a day to write. If you need one, and you are missing it, then you will spend a day when you could spend 10 seconds. It's that simple.
You scare very easily. Are the terrorists scary also?
Go look at one of those charts of perceived risk vs real risk.
True, but I think people are entitled to know the truth from scientists, rather than propoganda being thrown around by politicians in order to further their own agendas.
Department of high irony, Napster edition
Fibonacci Functions in different languages
How "safe" a city is to whatever you're comparing it to.

You can make pretty much anywhere look safe just as easy as you can make anywhere look unsafe. Studies like this are virtually meaningless.

I'm surprised I've being downmodded so much, I figured the crowd at hacker news would be a little less reactionary than that.
I love the dumpster-diving part. "In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating system" is deeply enlightening.
CNet’s Allure for CBS: Both Are Laggards
Anyterm - A terminal anywhere
Freeman Dyson signed it. Is he a 'scientist'?
"Part of the problem is that few recent movies are available on Netflix's streaming service. That's a major shortcoming because nearly one-third of the rental requests on Netflix's DVD service are for new movie releases, Friedland said." -- AP

If I'm reading all of the press releases properly, at least today only 10% of the titles are available for streaming, and hardly any new releases. It's a HUGE step in the right direction, but there is a marathon ahead to catch up.
Paper Money Unfair to Blind
> http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737

ahh, if it was only http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1337

;~)
For me its all about keywords. To start with some phrase that captures the essence. Then to move on to the peripheries of the subject. Then to bring in the context within which I search for that topic. By that time I have usually found what I want...