skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ogilvy on Advertising is one of my absolute favorites, and I go back to it regularly. It's also a beautiful book with lots of large photos of campaigns. It's not specifically "marketing" of course, but it covers that area, as well.

The funny thing is that a lot of folks in the business writing books today like to present themselves as being innovators and mavericks going against the "old school" of advertising and marketing...but Ogilvy covers a lot of the "new" techniques that folks like Godin and Ries and many others in the web era are pushing. Stuff like directly talking to your customer; the power of personal messages, for example, is covered in great detail in Ogilvy's book. Sure, the technology wasn't there yet to tweet and blog, but the ideas translate quite clearly and easily if you just think about it for a minute.

Another "old timer" (who also considered himself a maverick fighting the Ogilvy ways) is George Lois. His book "What's the Big Idea?" is full of great stories of reaching a market on the cheap.
There just wasnt any sources yet for Science -> Healthcare.. I have someone populating the categories as we speak. In the meantime we made it fallback based on similarity and parent categories...

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Needs? What benefit would Iceland get from more diversity?

Iceland's success proves that diversity is not necessary for their level of success. If you want to argue that they'd do better with more diversity, you get to provide relevant examples.

Or, are you suggesting that Iceland is obligated to do worse to have diversity?
He was trolling by being sarcastic, move along
Brijit runs out of money and shuts down
I don't know, nor do I think a good metric necessarily exists. Teaching doesn't fit in neatly with the typical production metrics we use in industry, eg. widgets per hour. Those outputs are directly measurable.

But what is the unit of output for a teacher? Test scores could only hope to measure teaching quality indirectly. It'd be like using record sales to assess the quality of a musician... and we'd all agree that Britney and Mariah aren't the best musicians going around.
The Billion-Dollar MicroBluff
You win! I'll say this in my defense though: The causes of happiness are so foggy that, really, anything goes when coming up with wherefores. No surprise that a socialist rag determined that socialism is the answer.
Rejection by potential customers or investors is not the hard part. Folks who can't face that don't typically try and start something new. Here are some things that are much more difficult to face: laying off employees (not firing poor performers, letting good ones go because you can't pay them), shutting the business down and negotiating with creditors, and getting fired by your investors (or co-founders). These are not uncommon outcomes that get much less press, conference time, and blog posts. I don't say these to discourage anyone from an entrepreneurial career, I mention them because many founders seem less mindful of the real possibilities of failure: most of the really painful mistakes are made after initial success.
Great article about a great visual hacker.

“Pascal is actually an unwritten author of what is leading the newest areas of contemporary image-making.”

"But this world is not reality—it’s about drawing people toward an ideal vision, if we’re talking about fashion photography. You have to think that celebrities are playing roles the same way they do in movies.”
Most of the points raised here about Iceland (my home country) and your so-called "socialism" apply equally well to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Look them up in the happiness, education and economic statistics. They are multimillion populations that are doing quite nicely, "socialism" notwithstanding.
Interesting, we've chatted before via email.
I guess I should of said "the number 3 guy thinking he can win" instead of each of them (yahoo doesn't want this fight).

I can't think of any, but I would imagine there are cases. There is no way this hybrid frakenstein beast would be one of them though.
If Many Worlds had come first
It's kind of like the whole foods buffet.
I think that we will see excessive commercialization as something evil in 50+ years, along with the whole institution of corporations. So, going on this train of thought, how can you be a slave to any corporation where the huge number of employees are making very few very rich and die happy? On my death bed I will not look back and say 'I am really glad I worked for X and sacrificed time from my friends and family to make the company extra money.'

I just want to be proud of my accomplishments and know I worked hard and played hard. Whether or not I got by with ad revenue probably won't factor into it too much for me.
It is much easier to find a top notch web developer than it is to find someone top notch who is good at C++. This is the case anywhere in Silicon Valley where C++ programmers who actually know what they are doing are needed. VMWare, for instance, pays like $160,000 starting salary to C++ wizards.
Ask YC: The Business Side of using AppEngine versus Desktop Programming
Here's the story:

Through a friend of mine, I'm a key prospect for a developer contract position to produce software for a company (what this software does I am not permitted to discuss)

I was going to develop this in .NET, however a buddy of mine who I discovered to have a job at Google got me into AppEngine, and I think as far as logistics go, using GAE, and setting up the company domain on Google Apps is a great idea. I honestly don't know how many companies are already using GAE for things, even if it's a very small process but after looking at the company website I think they could really benefit from making use of the web technologies out there.

Logistically, it's a win-win situation. I plan to develop this locally using the SDK and even deploy it on a local Intranet in the off chance that something horrible happens to GAE. The benefits here is in favor mostly of field technicians (which this company has a lot of, maybe 5 field techs per housed employee). Developing software on GAE will mean updates will be instantaneously accessed when I upload code changes, and those who need them wont have to download them or come back to the office to obtain a new disk (since some guys have to travel out to other states).

So from a development standpoint, I think this will make things easy for everyone involved and I've gotten some support from developer friends of mine who think it's a great endeavor logistically. However I have no idea how this will fare as far as business is concerned. Ideally, I'd like to think this is a huge money saver as it will eliminate the need for an extra server to handle bandwidth from developers downloading software udpates, as well as a cost to manage this connection from an ISP, which my early estimates would probably mean getting a T1.

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
I once emailed Steve Jackson (UK, Games Workshop, worked on Black & White) about a signed copy of Warlock of Firetop Mountain (paperback first edition). It had a 'dedicated to' the best guest house in that region of Scotland, and he actually remembered it. It's a pretty cute treasure.
My ex-wife left me for her WoW guild leader. It's a rather addictive game, but I wouldn't exactly categorize it as social, because the 'social' atmosphere evaporates as soon as you quit the game. Social as long as you keep playing, perhaps, like drug addicts' societies, or IRC.

As for avoiding distractions, I agree with Paul that the Internet is like crack, it's really bad. Like Paul, I never watched TV. (As an aside, I think the reason most people are so dumb is because they watch a lot of TV). The Internet is like TV -- it makes one dumb, it's like crack, but it's also unavoidable when working as a programmer. I used to deal with the Internet by removing the wireless card from the laptop, and physically walking to my 'work location', which didn't have a LAN port, to get work done.

The problem with that now is that I need to use the Internet frequently to SSH into servers, download libraries, programs, and so forth, simply to get work done. I suppose I only have about 15 libraries that I use with the typical program that I'm writing. So maybe the overhead cost of me browsing the Internet and wasting time doing so is high enough that it would be better to go back to the old setup.
I know two people who are keen Internet users but don't have email. One plays World Of Warcraft extensively. The other just accesses the web. Any website that requires a working email address is guaranteed to turn away these users.
You couldn't be less correct. 230KV is actually a low-voltage transmission line in the utility world. My father works for a regional utility in the northeast, and I know that their above-ground lines start at 350KV, and go as high as 750KV. Larger distribution networks may go higher.

But hey...why believe me, when two seconds of Googling will provide the facts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission

"Due to the large amount of power involved, transmission normally takes place at high voltage (110 kV or above). Electricity is usually transmitted over long distance through overhead power transmission lines. Underground power transmission is used only in densely populated areas due to its high cost of installation and maintenance, and because the high reactive power produces large charging currents and difficulties in voltage management."
> It is much easier to find a top notch web developer than it is to find someone top notch who is good at C++.

I disagree with this. Top notch people in web development are extremely rare. You can find a lot of mediocre people, or motivated people, but finding people both motivated and talented is hard.

It's also unfortunate that Google limits itself to C++, but that's a whole different story.
"First, the underlying cause of any shortage is the lack of a free market, since genuine shortages cannot appear in a free market."

What?
Hardly anyone gets to do the 20% time. Google has done a good job keeping its engineering hiring relatively top notch, but it has not done the same with its management hiring process. Thus there is a good chance your manager will be a complete psycho.
I had a similar experience at Amazon.com. I was at an internal conference brainstorming "the next big thing" at Amazon. Google's perks were brought up constantly as needed for retaining employees.

Jeff Bezos responded that the reason Google got so much attention and talent was not because of the perks, it was because they were the "Agenda Setters" of the day, and Agenda Setters come and go.
There are US cities with more people and there are more Swedes in Minnesota than in Sweden.

We'll see how those monolithic countries cope with an influx of "other". I wish them the best.
Well-matched non-obnoxious ads don't make people worse off and aren't a 'trick'. For example, for many Google queries, the paid results are more interesting to me than the natural results.

Since ad revenue makes other content possible, the better ad people do their jobs, the better off audiences are. If only dumb and ineffective people worked on ad systems, we'd lose a lot of quality web content.

Not all work has to be 'soul affirming' work like a missionary might perform. There is honor and dignity in just doing something people want at a price they're happy to pay. Especially so if applying your smarts makes things wildly cheaper, better, or more plentiful than before.
I wouldn't call that "outside the bubble of SV/Google"; I would say that is "inside the bubble of working a crappy job". There are many companies outside SV/Google that offer far more perks than free coffee in the morning (and there are even SV companies like Intel that don't offer even that).
Perkins Coie is great. Wilson Sonsini is the premier firm in the Silicon Valley. I use both.

You will not get any free advice since it becomes a liability for them. Their rates might be out of your intended range but doing things right is worth the money.

Call the firms and see what they can do for you. I can recommend specific people I have worked with but the people you need really depends on what specifics you need help with.
If you live in a highly-developed country, 'the whole institution of corporations', legal fiction/invention that it is, is probably responsible for most of your modern comforts. The institution of corporations is certainly responsible for the startup opportunities cherished by this community.

On your death bed, you might wish somebody had worked harder at their company to cure whatever's killing you.
A few, though none outside of a casino. Still, even those are not really haute cuisine.
Not sure of "eastern" in general, but most of the influenza viruses (virii?) come from Chinese agricultural practices. the 'flu is far more damaging globally then any food poisoning effect.
The perks at Facebook are basically the same as those at Google, but with a lot more freedom for your work (in the form of a lot less supervision). Plus brand new options that aren't nearly underwater.
Tectonic Plates and Microfoundations
Social Media Growing Pains
China allows bloggers, others to spread quake news
Working endlessly without a break. Very, very dumb.
I run into people all the time who smirk "sorry, its a NDA thing" -- whatever dude. In all likelihood your idea isn't that good. Secretly you don't want to tell anybody because they might shut you down. So nobody will find out about it and you'll just be smug and self-righteous until you wake up one day and realize your 43 and still working at GeekSquad.

I worry more about getting discouraged and giving up. How do I stay focused? I tell everyone who will listen. New Competitors? None. Advice and connections? Tons.

And the best part: Once people know what you are doing you can't just quietly give up-- you have to fail spectacularly! Besides, what is the point of life if you can't share your life with the people around you?
""70 percent of people will be good," he says. "20 percent will dabble with evil, then be good. Only 10 percent will choose to be evil all the way through. What's fascinating is that this is very regionally dependent. It's different from Germany to the U.K. to Asia.""

So, what is the regional dependence?
I don't understand why Microsoft has to acquire yahoo. Most acquisitions are pretty disastrous in terms of clashing company cultures, new power struggles, and the best people of the acquired entity leaving.

The main argument for this acquisition seems to be "to compete with google", which further seems to boil down to "to compete with adsense".

Why then can't MS and yahoo just do a joint venture ad network to compete with adsense instead of MS trying to swallow yahoo whole?

My only "answer" is that MS a) has too much cash they need to get rid of (fast?), and b) doesn't realize that some people find them as repugnant as the proverbial creepy child-molesting uncle.
25 Years Old and an Offshore IT Manager
The Violent Truth Of Opportunity
List of movies featuring appearances from NMAP.
Why is MySQL more popular than PostgreSQL?
Why we can't stop playing computer solitaire.
25 Reasons to Convert to Linux
Man, that was one really poorly written article. I do agree that tv makes people dumb, but really what a circumlocutory way to get to the point. Might as well been wiser off agreeing with the article's headline and buzzing away.
The Pirate Bay Enters List of 100 Most Popular Webites
I think of job satisfaction as a function with weighted attributes. There's a "perks at work" attribute, a money attribute, an attribute for how much you like your team, how many weekly hours the work culture demands of you, how much you like your boss, whether the work is meaningful and related to your life goals, the opportunities to advance in the company and to grow as a person, whether you can live in a location you like, etc. etc. Google's problem relative to this article is that for many people, the "perks at work" weighting isn't that high. So no matter how good Google's perks are, other factors can dominate.

I think there might be a bit of an effect where people don't appreciate what they don't have to pay for, too.
I apologize for being vague. First off, Scandinavia is not socialist. It is pragmatic, if anything. Secondly, when I said socialism doesn't scale I was thinking about countries with at least 20 million citizens. However, it seems likely that some of the policies employed in Scandinavia in general simply wouldn't apply to a country like the UK. It seems likely that larger populations are more difficult to organize, and one has to resort to a more "greedy" approach.

That said, Scandinavia is not all about homogenity and scale. It's also about culture: work-ethic, egalitarianism and a culture where people don't just screw each other over to make a fast buck.
http://www.viddler.com/
In other news, one fifth of (U.S.) Americans don't get SPAM and have empty inboxes.
Lack of perks, by itself, does not a crappy job make. It may be indicative of other crappiness, but not certainly not definitive.
In Reversal, Microsoft Proposes New Deal to Yahoo
Microsoft Kevin Johnson's letter on updated online strategy
> The problem with many types of procrastination is that they're not even all that fun.

There was a period in my life, at my first job, where I was so fed up and bored with what I was supposed to be working on that I just avoided it by surfing the net all day, for months. You would think that goofing off all day on the internet and getting paid for it would be fun, but honestly it made things even worse.

Procrastination seems to be like a drug... it can be refreshing (or at least not painful) in small doses, but after a while you just get strung out and depressed. I had this huge weight over my head about what I "should be doing," but absolutely no motivation to actually do it. It took a conscious act of avoiding my web browser to stop that pattern of self-destructive behavior and get some work done again.

So yeah, anyway, just wanted to add my data point. Procrastinating can often make your mental well being worse off, by throwing in guilt on top of whatever was bothering you in the first place.
Mike Moritz interview on BBC (podcast, 8th May)
Kind of the same question as the original but what about for videos that promote a product/etc? At work, I shoot and edit a lot of videos (A new one each month or so) on products we carry. Right now, we have them all on YouTube but the quality DOES shrink down a lot

I looked into Vimeo but they do not allow videos that promote a product (basically an ad). Anything with the quality and easability of Vimeo out there without that restriction?
Twitter will go mainstream as those who text rather than e-mail take over the planet.
Executive  Resume
That's a very good viewpoint. Kudos to the author and poster.
Javascript badges powered by JSONP and microformats
The title positions Google as a nice resort no one should want to leave. But for most engineers (who would have pursued a different career if they were purely money motivated) salary and perks are "hygiene factors", which can dissatisfy if they are inadequate but can't really satisfy. See Hertzberg's "Two Factor" theory of job satisfaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_factor_theory
Despite the technological differences, it often is just an issue of compatibility. Which one is more widespread? I HATE servers with postgreSQL because I can't, for example, install a Wordpress blog.
In Defense of Steve Vinoski and Erlang
If you are willing to go paid, take a look at http://lightcastmedia.com.
And both are largely useless if you can't bake bread.
Someone's got to step up and become THE competition to Analytics. That's perhaps the only way to get a behemoth like Google to respond with better innovation,
Facebook's perks are better. I've seen both. Still dreaming about that damn candy and drink station.
www.conotes.com is up and coming.
well, this speaks directly towards the point you made about corporate culture clash, but Microsoft's culture places a lot of value on control, so it might not really be an option for them to put a deal in place withou control over it, and since Yahoo would be unlikely to agree to such a thing, acquisition is the only option in their eyes.
Just because testing was a reaction to crappy schools doesn't mean that it leads to improvement.

* * *

I don't have time to start my own alternative school and report back to this thread. But I note that

Brin & Page, Jeff Bezos, Jimmy Wales, Will Wright

all attended Montessori or Montessori-influenced schools.
I agree that it is harder to find top notch people than mediocre, that just seems natural, following the talent bell curve(most in the middle level of ability, some very poor, some excel) but how does Google limits itself to C++? I read a lot of noise on Google using Python:
http://www.python.org/about/quotes/ (and this is just a starting point of the info on Google using Python)
Thanks for the mentions of Go BIG (this is Wil, the founder) but keep in mind you can pick up some other broader searches through indeed.com and simplyhired.com - most of the sites like ours do syndicate those feeds. Also, check out 37signals and techcrunch for their job feeds which are often pretty sweet and pretty targeted. Not sure if you're looking strictly for tech startups. Some people want tech jobs in non-tech companies (imagine that!)
Google Treasure Hunt 2008
I don't think there currently is a better social and economic system than capitalism and corporations. What I was trying to say wasn't really anything more than most people who work for ANY corporation (not just advertising) probably can't reflect and say they lived idealistically in regards to morals.

Also I was trying to say exactly that: I want to do all I can regardless of what I am doing or where I am working.

Current stress is crushing my writing skills, especially coding.
It's probably ion (could be wmii or any other tiling wm), and the irc client is irssi.
I'm Giving Away Domain Names
Fruit Salad Recipe
Recipe for fruit salad
Google doesn't limit itself to C++, they just happen to need C++ programmers at the moment.
Plot summary for Kurzweil's "The Singularity is Near" movie
In high school I started doing something that has worked really well for me and helped me to create good habits for college and work in general.

What I would do is keep a notebook by the side of my bed. Every night I would think of ~5 things, 'goals' maybe, that I wanted to do for the next day. Maybe they're school related, work related, or related to something else, social perhaps, whatever. If there was something bugging me that I had been putting it off, I would plan out a timeline or schedule, and come up with a reasonable 'goal' for what I thought I could - should - accomplish the next day.

Then, the next night, I would review my day and 'check off' what I had done, maybe write down comments to myself or revise my plan if I needed. But I would either feel happy and pleased with myself if I had done what I thought I needed to do, or I would feel disappointed and frustrated with myself if I hadn't.

Of course, everyone is different, but this worked for me. I don't like the idea of setting up firefox tools, different computers, whatever, to try to trick myself or punish myself or block myself from the Internet or some other 'time sink'. It seems too easy to simply flip a switch, turn that all off, and slip back into a bad habit.

Instead of even thinking about wasting time online, in front of the TV, whatever it is you waste time on - stop yourself and save it for later. Just do it. As it happens, for me anyway, if I can do this, then by the end of the day I don't really even care too much for those time wasting activities - they really aren't all that entertaining. (-:
http://omnisio.com