skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
He jumped around a lot in that, but as for foreign workers, I strongly suspect (without any real data available) that another dynamic is at play:

That is, sometimes programmers quit their jobs. And then an inevitable process of bitter condemnation of his code begins. This is a function of distance. Once your code leaves your protection, it's likely to be declared garbage. Foreign workers suffer this automatically.
Ambient electronic music might work. there are 47 of these streams on iTunes. If you aren't using iTunes, there are 150 streams listed under 'Ambient" on Shoutcast. I like "cryosleep."

I find that low-volume news/talk radio, like NPR or BBC makes me sleepier than music.
I would venture to say that Matlab/R are completely superfluous for most programmers. Few of us do hardcore number crunching, and for those few times it is necessary add-ons like NumPy take care of the problem. Someone considering your list would be better off dropping the Matlab/R choice and replacing it with Javascript.
Prolog is disgusting. I wouldn't recommend it.
i like the joke:

Guy Lewis Stelle Jr. - NSF Fellow

Gerald Jay Sussman - Jolly Good Fellow
What about this makes it "nano-tech"?
But from an environmental perspective, perhaps people are more concerned about the trade-off between carbon emissions and distance traveled. Efficiency measures would be great way to evaluate drive sources, and would perhaps be very revealing when internal combustion is exposed as being so inefficient.

But perhaps a rating of carbon "moles per kilometer" would be a better indication of environmental impact of any motion source.

It would be interesting to compare even with walking, running, and biking (at different speeds), as you exhale (significantly smaller) amounts of carbon dioxide (and none of the worst carbon offender, CO, thankfully).

Here too, the energy source that you are plugging this module into could greatly vary your MPK.
MemJet - 360 color pages per minute by 2010
Hi mroman,

I'm a developer over at Scribd and happen to work on iPaper. Although Adobe-style bookmarking has not been implemented (PDF's intradocument links work just fine), the inability to select text in this document is not an iPaper limitation. It just so happens that this PDF contains no text data, just hi-res raster versions of each page.

As for printing, I was able to print just fine in FF on a PC (once the 10+ MB file had finished downloading). Would you mind emailing me at the address in my profile with your environment info so we can try to replicate your issue?

Thanks!!

Ed
Dead Simple Rails Metrics with metric_fu
bookmark us ... we should be opening soon!

http://Sleep.FM .... sleep music and a web 2.0 alarm clock
I've always liked Drone Zone on http://soma.fm.
I listen to podcasts when I go to sleep. That's gotta be messing up my head.
start with javascript...
How the Silverbrook's high speed Memjet printer works
+1 for jquery, and for the comment suggesting the javascript book. Javascript and DOM quirks are probably the biggest stumbling blocks if you are already a decent programmer. Douglas Crockford's videos are also worth watching, if you have the time. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/
why dont you get hold of any of these books

1) Pro JavaScript Techniques by John resig

2) Professional JavaScript For Web Developers - Nicholas Zakas

I would recommend these two books to anyone who wants to learn JavaScript and XHR. Ajax is very small part fo the whole picture if you are totally new to javascript
I found it extremely valuable, because I would like to know what exactly the term "startup" means. Not a dictionary definition, but how people really use the term.
If you don't already know JavaScript, and probably even if you do, Douglas Crockford's videos are awesome. He also covers the DOM, which is intrinsic to working with AJAX.

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/

Start with "The JavaScript Programming Language", and then do "Advanced JavaScript" and finally "An Inconvenient API: The Theory of the DOM" (the latter two can stand alone, and if you're in a hurry, maybe get the DOM out of the way). That plus spending some time with Firebug and a few interesting JavaScript applications (and building some of my own) has been the entirety of my JavaScript education. I bought the "Definitive Guide" from O'Reilly, but haven't used it heavily.

There are other useful videos on the same page, including one with Joe Hewitt introducing Firebug. I can't stress enough how helpful Firebug has been in helping me learn JavaScript and AJAX.

Note that I haven't talked much about AJAX. AJAX is a tiny piece of JavaScript, but in order to build useful applications you need to know a lot more than AJAX. So, learn JavaScript and AJAX will come naturally.

As others have mentioned, the good frameworks make dealing with browsers easier, since it hides compatibility issues as well as some of the complexity. Mainly a framework just allows you to spend more time thinking about your specific needs rather than the tedious plumbing work of getting stuff happening on the page.
There's some good companies on there, but most... are just bubble startups, especialy 90% of that contenders category.

If thats the best 25, I don't even want to know whats below that...
I didn't think either list was "hip", I just meant that your list wasn't very different than his, except seemingly arbitrary substitutions based on what you happen to use.

He explicitly states: Note that I’m not necessarily advocating using any of these languages for a real project, but I believe that learning them will make you a better programmer in whatever language you do use.

I do think the original list was better, since Erlang, Haskell, and Prolog shouldn't be lumped together in the "different" category, Javascript could be considered part of the Python/Ruby/Perl class, and I question the usefulness of learning MATLAB unless you actually need it.
Nor can we accurately quantify the genetic contribution in the first place.

It depends. Some things are discrete (eg, genetic diseases like huntington's). Most things are on a continuum--there's no IQ gene, for instance. I suspect that, in a rough way, almost every non-junk aspect of the human genome has some effect on intelligence, large or small.

The best tests are perhaps still separated twin studies. Identical DNA + different environments makes for a convenient way to quantify the genetic influence of characteristics...

Of course, once genetic engineering is in full bloom, all of this will be quite non-controversial.
I don't understand, don't they do load testing and profile their own code? How hard can it be to setup a single dummy server instance on some cloud computing platform and just monitor its performance as they stress test it?
That's $466 per day to go from 0 to airline pilot certificate.

Airline pilots make good money, but leaving one of those schools you really won't have enough experience to get a job as an airline pilot, and if you do, you'll start low (1st officer) and it will take a while before you earn enough to make that back. The big metric in the pilot industry is flight time, and in 150 days you can't get enough flight time to compete with the lifelong pilots.

A good course for many people is to go right into instruction. That way you make some money while building flight time on someone else's dime. This is actually how it works at ERAU. The Juniors and Seniors train the others.

Also, a private license is closer to $10,000 now, mostly because of fuel prices. It used to be a cool $6000 though.

To go from 0 to being able to earn money flying (commercial license) will cost about $20,000 last I checked.
Ask HN: how do I learn flash?
I want to make a simple video player in flash that can make a 4x4 grid of videos. When you click on a video, it takes over the grid. Also, I'd like there to be buttons that can scroll the video grid left and right. New videos are acquired from a URL and added to the grid when you hit the scroll buttons. After I finish this, there are a number of other flash projects I'd like to work on, that are more like generative interactive art (think "processing" (http://processing.org))

I'm good with javascript, and have the book "Actionscript 3.0 Cookbook." Actionscript seems straightforward enough. My biggest stumbling block is the Flash authoring environment. Is there a good book that covers the environment from a programmer's perspective? Everything I've seen is geared more towards designers.
Ok I get it now.

I actually have no idea what a the cost of such a system will be, because I hadn't heard much about the legislation you mentioned. I assume that once something like that passes, it will help move more people to electric vehicles. Personally, I'm saving for the Tesla Roadster (http://www.teslamotors.com/).
How to start a startup
Did anyone actually read the article? He flat out says:

Note that I’m not necessarily advocating using any of these languages for a real project, but I believe that learning them will make you a better programmer in whatever language you do use.

This is not meant to be a list of practical languages everyone should be writing applications in, or pad their resumes with.
http://trustcommerce.com or http://getbraintree.com/

Both are good for recurring billing.
what exactly is the SAI definition of a startup?

hasn't found a business model?
If you already know Javascript, all you need to become buzzword compliant is this: http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/xmlhttpreq.ht...
This is PR. I'm willing to bet that AlleyInsider's 'advisory board' has invested in many of those startups. Time to get some buyouts going...
Oh yeah, +1 Firebug. You need Firebug. Figuring out WTF is going on is nearly impossible without it, unless you're a masochist and enjoy debugging via alert dialogs.
Religion a figment of human imagination
I thought the article applied to me in a funny way. I soloed and got to ~20h before I ran out of capital. Does that qualify me as having startup experience? ;-)
+1 for Crockford's lectures. And his website: http://www.crockford.com/javascript/

He's got a new book coming out soon too. I haven't seen it yet, but I imagine it will be pretty good.

"Javascript: The Definitive Guide" (published by O'Reilly) is a good resource as well.
so now you imply that most Africans' parents are peasants or slaves or are absent?
It is somewhat ironic that you said that seeing as CPAN is a whole collection of wheel reinventions...
Crab Cake Recipe
Crab cake recipe
Beyond my knowledge as well. Isn't HN open source with the Arc package? (heard this from another topic)

Not hackernews-ly but interesting nonetheless.
Microsoft Says Yes With Mesh
Did you consider yourself bipolar before or is this a new experience for you?
If someone paid you $1 billion right now, with the condition that you could never work a day in your life again, and never start a company, would you do it?

Edit: rms is right. How about "If someone paid you $1 billion with the condition that you could never do anything productive ever again, and basically had to live a playboy's life forever, would you do it?"
Whatever you do do not under any circumstances use plain javascript. It will not work at all in IE. Isn't it ridiculous that javascript is not even functional as a language unless you extend it with a framework?

I advise prototype.
I think that's an easy question, as long as a non-profit doesn't count as work or a company.

Edit: Revised question is really interesting. I don't know what my answer would be.
I submitted the raw link but HN hacked it.
Yeah, seriously, I wonder how many b2b companies they ignored.
Things I am curious about:

1. What made you first think that starting a company is right for you?

2. Was there anyone/anything who inspired you to manage the company the way you do, and to define the culture the company has?

3. Was it obvious that the company needed to be in place X? If X is not in Silicon Valley, why not? Do you think it was the right decision?

4. Where is the best source of good people for you? What characteristics are important for them to possess (good schools, lots of experience, dedication, etc).

That's it for now. I'll add more if I think of any.
Adobe discontinues GoLive
murrayh -- i'm an author of screw.unit. Can you provide more detail of the kind of real-world example you'd like to see?
This appears to be yet another symptom of the poor Windows port; on PS3 it's much easier to quit.
I agree with jQuery. I dove into ajax a few years back using core JS. Then my friend recommend jQuery. Whatever it is that you are trying to do using core JS, jQuery should be able to handle it. jQuery is fast, and makes your code really short. I suggest you go straight to jQuery and save time. You will eventually "get" the fundamentals once you get the hang of it.
i recommend visualjquery.com
What will you do if you fail?
and yes, Firebug is a must.
the "Inspect" feature is FTW
Poll: Should PDFs and other documents be auto-Scribd'd?
Lately there have been some complaints about the auto Scribd'ing of pdfs and other documents. Express your opinion with a convenient poll click.
Keep the auto Scribd'ing
Get rid of the Scribd'ing
Keep the Scribd'ing, but show an extra link to the original document
Get rid of the Scribd'ing, but show an extra link to the Scribd'd document
Other (Please describe in comment)
rms, Scribd probably should not be verbed
Also, where would the extra link go? To the right of the domain? Left of the domain? In the domain ()?
Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?
I am new to Python/Django and have been hacking away happily with it. Any good tutorials out there that google isn't picking up in the first few pages or so? I know it's not as popular as Rails (yet!) to have crazy books with scratch to painted up pretty sites, but any good learn by doing examples out there (besides the few obvious first few pages of google and the Django official book). Bonus: If you are such a passionate python/django hacker, why don't you share with us your wonderful tutorial skills and write a b0|0k

My current comprehension level:- Damaged by Java, love at first sight with python. Hungry for more django.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

This is why people don't like speculative work.
What stage are these founders in? Have they succeeded, are they on their way there, are they just in a the planning stage? Different questions apply to different stages.
Other: a user site preference (with Scribd on by default – it is a Y Combinator company after all).
We're using Cybersource at HubSpot. They acquired authorize.net, so it's the same company now.
The thing is that technology is only a means, so ask a real question such as:

What "can" you design under $1 that solves a major problem in the world?

Example answer: packets of salt and sugar is all it takes to prevent/solve dehydration in many sub-saharan countries. Can it save the world? Yes. Is it executable? Yes. Is the UI simple? Yes, ziplock sugar packets. Marketing costs? evangelize.

Point is that the technical skills can be evaluated to a great accuracy more or less, it is the real-time thinking skill that matters; i.e. it is extremely ok to ask a question that demands considerable attention and problem-solving. An ideal interviewee knows that a good answer is not a matter of complete polarization, but careful articulation.
Make it a user site preference
Craiglist is worth less than facebook? Uh, right. Only because it's trying hard to not monetize itself.
http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Tutorials

and

http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/nov/16/django-tips-get-mos...

http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/sep/04/django-accelerated/

http://www.slideshare.net/simon/advanced-django/

http://djangoplugables.com/

Those are some sites I've come across when I was, and still am, learning Django. Good luck.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/views/web/libraryview.jsp?...

Particularly tutorial 5.

It's a pretty good/quick overview of how all the bits of Ajax (JS, the DOM, XHR, Markup, etc.) work together, along with brief, functional examples. Should get you orientated in a hurry, then you can dive into the various topics as needed.
I tried to sign up for it a few months ago, but the signup process was so buggy that I gave up on it.
I voted this up and watched all 96 minutes of it, but now regret it. There's a sudden change of focus when he interviews his own family, and talks about the damage psychiatrists have done to his siblings. At the end of the movie, he asks all of the Jims their religion, and mentions he is a Scientologist. Combined with the pointless premise of the whole movie (you can connect to other people who have nothing in common but name?), I feel like I've been cheated.
My Revert Scribd Links bookmarklet: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=134930 :)
I used to work for TC. At the time they didn't provide merchant accounts, just payment processing. Of course, they had partners that did provide merchant accounts.
What was your biggest failure before starting up?
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38704
Why not scribd every link to an HTML-based webpage so that we can go through yet another layer of indirection?
Can't legislate competence.

Feynman resigned from the National Academy of Sciences, "because that was another organization most of whose time was spent in choosing who was illustrious enough to join, to be allowed to join us in our organization [...] The whole thing was rotten because its purpose was mostly to decide who could have this honor [...]"

Well, he tried to resign but they wouldn't let him because they didn't want to lose someone of his stature!
These founders all have products at least in beta. They are in various stages of funding: some are self-funded, some have angel investors, others have institutional funding.
Socrates was wrong to state the unexamined life is not worth living
So, that article is kinda crap.
Pixar: Twenty Years and $7,400,000,000 Dollars Later, No Longer Just a Hobby for Steve Jobs
In the linked article, the first two sentences of "Step 1" are: "Before you can solicit interest in your product, there are two things that you need to do. The first step is to obtain a provisional patent for your invention..." This step comes before "design your product" and "build your product". After I saw that, I stopped reading.
How do salt/sugar solve dehydration?
That's really something I hope they can improve on for the rest of the trilogy; the repetitiveness of the challenges faced was galling, despite this being a super cool game to play for the first and last 45 minutes
Ditto the recommendation to kill the intro sound on the website, and extending it further to, "the website needs some serious work". (I understand you may not be in a position to do anything about any of this.)

It's got too many stock photos on the front page that don't describe anything about the company or its services -- they're just there fulfilling this "blueness" theme. Why is there a picture of J. Random Dude in a suit? How does that help describe or sell the service?

I use three-second test for website design: go to the website, look at it for three seconds, and then close the window. Now tell me everything that you learned in those three seconds. I find my eyes dancing around the page, finally landing on the bold "Bluefin payment systems" text at the beginning of your paragraph, and then time's up. After the three seconds is up, do I want to go take a second look at the website? Is there a draw? Well ... not really.

After glancing around some more, I finally find the navigation in the top left -- which is in light gray, in (the wrong kind of) subtle contrast to the blue theme everywhere else and dark page text -- and then I statr getting to the information I want, but I still have to drill down to it (click on the "Payment Gateway" item, which takes me to a page with all the other services that I'm not interested in, and a link to "learn more about payment gateway" -- basically a totally unnecessary middle step).

So, from a UI standpoint, the website IM(NS)HO needs a complete reworking. Then, there's the technical matter of using JavaScript mouseovers for your rollovers instead of css :hover tags, etc...

I dunno if Bluefin is really well-established, or still growing, or generally cares one way or the other about its website, but ... maybe somebody there'll find this helpful.
Now, Your Plants Can Call or Twitter You, Too
New Interface Paradigms
In my opinion, the person should be clear why (s)he wants to do a startup. Does the person aspire to (hopefully) earn a lot of money in a relatively short time, or is it sheer satisfaction of doing your own thing or some other valid reason?

It might be better if your core thinking and goals, match to some extent with your probable co-founder.

Having said that, the 'skill set' of the person should compliment yours, so that as a team you are able to achieve more.
Google Experiments With Next Generation Image Search
"No. I merely pointed out that the "differences between people" is the one factor that people refuse to examine."

That is simply not true - exactly the opposite is the problem.

Also, what differences between people would you name as accounting factors?
TC's post is a little light on the details but Peter Norvig touched on this in his talk at Startup School (Mona Lisa image search)
Also, Valleywag has an accurate review of it (surprise) - http://valleywag.com/384475/google-me-documentary-an-irony+f...
"people sat around fires for millenia therefore storytelling ability evolved"

I've read "How the Mind Works" before and really liked it, so I have good expectations of Pinker. But in general, that kind of use of evolution theory is really tiresome. No matter what you want to "prove", you can always make up a story and then tag it with "therefore xyz evolved".
Have you ever done/worked at a startup? I know you already prequalified your interviewees, but I'd still ask that.
This Week in Ruby (April 28, 2008)
Programming contest: yes, for students it is OK, that point I mentioned ("still need to practice"). After a while it becomes pointless.

"low-cost" places: well, if they want to continue living in low-cost places, sure. But in general, even if you come from a cheap country, why should you be forced to work for little money like that, instead of doing proper consulting?

Doing it for fun: sure, if you have the time... I just think it would probably be more fun to do the same thing for real money and a real assignment. What in the "contest" makes it more fun than working for the client directly?
Good link. While it is often impractical to keep all the URIs working, it sure would be nice if they were.
"The thing is that technology is only a means, so ask a real question such as:

What "can" you design under $1 that solves a major problem in the world?"

With all due respect I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs for e.g) would be able to answer this question?

This sounds like one of those textbook/puzzle questions which sound very clever but don't stand up to any rigorous analysis( imo).

I would be very surprised if answering this question "well" (your salt/sugar answer for example) correlated with any significant measure of entrepreneurial success. Needless to say, I would love to to data or studies that show otherwise.
Some more..lots more at http://del.icio.us/tag/django.

I also like the APress book Definitive Guide to Django by Adrian & Jacob.
Your sarcasm doesn't acknowledge iPaper's potential. PDFs are actually somewhat annoying to open for many people. Scribd's platform independent solution is actually pretty cool.
Try Luminotes. It's a WYSIWYG personal wiki with a focus on simplicity and ridiculously quick linking. It doesn't have folder support per se, but it does have an autogenerated "note tree" and support for distinct wiki notebooks. I apologize in advance for the lack of Safari support.

Check it out: http://luminotes.com/
OMG. Did you never heard about one spon of sugar, one spon of salt and one liter of water? It's the best for dehydration.
It depends on Flash, it isn't any more platform independent than the acrobat reader is.