skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Paul - moving your i-net access to a separate PC is only avoiding the real issue - yourself and what you're doing with yourself (e.g. your life).

If you get your job done, even with all the distractions included as part of it, then your problem isn't either of 1) getting your job done and on time or 2) distractions of various types.

Your "problem" (allow me to be presumptive to illustrate a point) is you aren't "feeling it" anymore for your job as a techie. You learned the God language - Lisp - you know you can get shit done with it, and above all - you DO get shit done with it. Distracted or not.

What you want is to set yourself up for a bigger game - and when I say a "bigger" game, I mean find something to do where you "know" you are going to fail or something that makes you feel uncomfortable enough to think you might fail at it. Reason I quoted "know" is because you don't know you're going to fail until you do something, however, you have (luxury of) the pretense of "knowing" because the thought of doing something other than what you superbly know how to do and have been doing for a long time, gives you the willies and makes you feel "uncomfortable".

When you begin to feel uncomfortable about doing something you haven't done before, you will cease to be distracted, because you will be preoccupied with overcoming the fear of failing at your new endeavor (and being in that state will offer you excitement without distractions).

Now - does that new game have to be creating yet another Lisp dialect (e.g. Arc, or whatever you called it..?)? No. I know you can write the next Lisp, or whatever...

Try this on - set up a program in your neighborhood where /every/ weekend you get a /firm/ commitment from 5 or 10 people to pick up garbage or litter from the common areas...

Or try to get a homeless guy to 1) shave, 2) clean up, 3) buy some new clothes (or you buy him some) and see that getting a job as a a bagman for 8 hours a day at Wal-Mart or Target pays better than begging on a street corner...

Or use your imagination ... and find something to do that will inspire you and those you are involved with.

I promise you will not be distracted whatsoever when you put your efforts toward doing something like this. You don't have to believe me about this. Try it on. See how it fits. Then come back and tell me you are still feeling 'distracted'.
Let me give another perspective. I'm from one of the developing (an optimistic term) countries mentioned.

While I was still in my home country, I worked in an IT consulting firm. My boss' boss was female, her boss (a VP) was female. A lot of the other bosses were female. More than half my teammates were female. 30% female / 70% male seems awfully low, it was more like 45%-55% female.

The company would occassionally send people to the US. Over time, over a hundred of us have moved here to the US. So you have a sample of men and women who are good at math and picked IT while they were in a country with few economic opportunities, and took them to a nation with financial stability - the two environments the article mentioned.

What's happened so far? In time, some of the women changed careers. Some went to medicine, going back to school in order to switch. Some went to completely non-science fields, like real estate. None of the men have switched careers.

I know some men still dabble in computers in their spare time - open source projects, linux, etc. None of the women do.

From what I've observed, the article is spot on.
Sites that trust their users
Google Launches Medical Records App
Wow, random IM conversations recycling tired XKCD jokes are now front-page news here?
Facebook Not Selling-Well, Not Yet!
Productive jealousy
One caveat, in TFHWW, Ferriss often comes off as sort of a douche, but that doesn't mean there aren't great concrete ideas and references throughout the book

I agree. I do recommend TFHWW to people, but never without embarrassment.
Sergey Brin Speaks with UC Berkeley Class
If you don't have children then two people can live off of one person's income far more easily. It is children that are the huge money sink. Just saying.
Exactly. In an important statistical sense, men are taller than women, despite the existence of short men and tall women. And so it goes with other gender generalizations.
> variation within a gender group is much larger than the variation between genders.

You're measuring the wrong thing. If you look at the top percentage of performers in these fields then the differences become striking.
Safest City in US < Most violent anywhere else.

Point being it's all relative, hence next to meaningless. :-)
Pairing Facebook's closed data with a general search engine is probably a good idea, but what's missing from Scoble's post is why MS would need to buy Yahoo's search engine in order to do this. MS has their own search engine, which isn't as technically advanced as Google's but is probably on par with Yahoo's, despite it's much lower marketshare.
Once you are IN the industry, you probably won't have that problem much longer.
There is still debate over whether slaves worked harder even than other paid farmhands. The last great volley (slaves do) could be said to have won its author a Nobel Prize.
You are very wrong to suggest that men are not discouraged from taking this career path as well.
Although I did find the joke funny the 1st time I read it, I too was kind of curious about the 'first page merit' on this one... Also, and on a related note, I have noticed that the front page content has somewhat changed over the previous months. Used to, when hitting hn, I was greeted by pretty much 99% programming/hacking content... not so much anymore... makes me a little sad on the inside (still holding the knife on the outside, so I don't think sad is whats coming across... we will say conflicted...).
When will machines outthink us?
Small open source projects are a far better measure of this phenomenon. It's completely unaffected by salary, no one gets paid, completely free of bias, you have to do everything yourself. And yet the disparity is enormous.
It's not just bad press; engineers (of any stripe) are often frighteningly socially incompetent.

It's not always their fault. A lot of these engineers have ADD.
Magnificent Graffiti Animation Video
Burrp TV - TV listing site for India
Why we like Burrp TV. Hey, do not start cribbing immediately about no innovation from India etc, before reading the post. Remember, it is still tough to start up in India.
Here's the real question -- when will Facebook let me customize my profile with a Tila Tequila themed background?
Very funny read - mostly because of the hyperbole and awesome formatting (including dead links). That said, I don't exactly agree with any of it!
Congratulations on the first invoices!

I know, it's pretty hard to work on something alone. Sometimes you feel great, but sometimes you simply feel discouarged. A friend is also quitting hist job now, but he still has to prove that he has the skills to join me, as he once remarked he already wants 50% equity from the start. (Idea, prototype, first to quit etc nautrally all come from me :-))

Oooh god, please let cofounders rain! ;)
Debian, OpenSSL, and a lack of cooperation
Strong AI (the creation of a general intelligence capable of learning new things in the way humans can, as opposed to weak AI which includes programming machines to do specific tasks that are usually considered to require intelligence, such as playing chess or flying a helicopter) is about 20 years away...and it has been about 20 years away ever since the 1950's.

The traditional approaches to build a strong AI all involved forms of explicit knowledge representation: where facts about the world would be stored in memory and then pieced together to come to new (hopefully intelligent) conclusions and plan actions. Most people quickly realized that this approach doesn't scale at all: most knowledge that humans have about the world is very context-dependent and fuzzy. The new approaches around machine learning and probabilistic modeling are more promising but almost all of them involve building mathematical models around a specific problem rather than building a general learning machine.

Most leading AI researchers in academia aren't even trying to build a general-purpose intelligence anymore, instead focusing on solving domain-specific problems, and the field of AI has been much more successful over the last fifteen years or so as a result.
Database data models that can use as a starting-point
Here's an excerpt:

But Valentini thinks that the stalemate could be broken by analysing the cosmic microwave background — the relic radiation left behind after the Big Bang. The cosmic microwave background contains hot and cold temperature spots that were generated by quantum fluctuations in the early Universe and then amplified when the Universe expanded.

Using the principles of quantum mechanics, cosmologists have calculated how these spots should be distributed.

However, Valentini’s calculations show that the hidden-variables theory might give a different answer. “Any violation of quantum mechanics in the early Universe would have a knock-on effect that we could see today,” says Valentini.

Almost all measurements of the cosmic microwave background seem to fit well with the predictions of quantum mechanics, says Valentini. But intriguingly, a distortion that fits one of Valentini’s proposed signatures for a failure of quantum mechanics was recently detected by Amit Yadav and Ben Wandelt at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (see 'Deflating inflation?'). That result has yet to be confirmed by independent analyses, but it is tantalizing, Valentini adds.

“It’s far too early to say that this is definite evidence of a breakdown in quantum mechanics — but it is a possibility,” he says.

I don't get it. If a theory has great predictive and explanatory power, it's not really "wrong". Better, more accurate models are a good thing, as is nipping bad ones in the bud before they have a chance to take root. But when you have a theory that is pedagogically viable and empirically verified, that's a much better point to progress from than rejecting anything which isn't completely bulletproof and without flaws.

Didn't Einstein say "all models are wrong,some models are useful?"
I wonder if one could buy out the citizens of an existing country instead.
No thanks, I've suddenly developed a taste for more vitamin water.
Breaking News: it's not necessarily or completely men's fault.
Ferriss suggests:

1) Reducing information/news intake (Peter Drucker said that)
2) Working ON the business (automating it) rather than IN the business.
3) Pushing the envelope on how much mundanity you can outsource.

You don't have to look far for people who've had success following these ideas.
We are a fresh new startup called Arkalux. My co-founder, a brilliant engineer and hacker has developed an efficient, low-cost, full-spectrum, solid-state light engine that we believe represents the future of light. Expect to hear more about us soon. :)
Microsoft proposes to buy Yahoo search: source
Santana row is a cheap immitation of a city street. The immitation of italian architecture is really gawdy and cheesy and very aethestic displeasing. The people that go there are also have a certain attitude, that is far from simple and humble, but more of a show off type.

Santana row is a clear manifestation on what's wrong with modern american architecture.

Please travel to other countries, to see real town centers with real people (that are not trying to show off).
Ask YC: Is google mail down for anyone else? 
It seems mail.google.com is timing out and so is the username password dialog box at http://www.google.com/analytics/

The search seems to be working!
The Amazing Money Machine
An interesting discussion on reddit for the same... [http://reddit.com/r/programming/info/6jywj/comments/]
Why your story does or doesn’t deserve my vote
It is not down for me. A helpful site - http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ - although ironically it doesn't seem to be working.
Ask YC: Where do you get international startup news?
Techcrunch is great for reading about US companies, and the occasional Canadian/UK/Israeli/German site, but it bugs me that I have no idea what's happening in other large markets like China, India or Russia. Not speaking the respective languages obviously doesn't help. Are there any good resources for English speakers?
FWIW I haven't seen any problems with their WAPID system lately.
Growth, Syntax, Ruby 1.9, and That Bad Smell You Smell
Tactical nukes hidden in the capitals of potentially aggressive countries should be a good enough deterrence from state actors. Robot Sharks with lasers should be enough to stop the pirates.
I've read the four-hour-work-week, and at its core the message is that if you work hard and focused towards building a company that actually makes something people want and structure it in such a way that that you can offload support, etc to third-parties .. well then you can go do something else and macro-manage it in a few hours per week.

It takes a lot of effort and focus to get to that point, though.

Tim Ferriss is hardly a snake-oil vendor. The marketing of the book might suggest otherwise, but to me he seems like a guy who found a novel way to structure his business and wrote the book as a "here's how I did it".

The book's worth picking up if you're reading this site, though comments along the lines of programmers being a dime a dozen (or words to that effect) might put you off.
Electrical Engineering is the worst in my experience. Then Computer Science. Then physics. Then math.

Math people are probably as introverted as people from Electrical Engineering, but they don't proudly carry their social incompetence as a label.

Biologists who, say, monitor and log the behavior of animal life also wait for hours in pure concentration, so they won't miss anything when (or if) something happens. Usually introverted people sign up for that kind of thing, but not really socially awkward ones.
I love that your sentiment is meant both as an attack by skeptics and an obvious answer by believers.
Self-Healing System Applied to Aviation
Microsoft Wants the Milk Without Buying the Cow
Debugging Web Services
Google Health Goes Live
(1) Where are these third world countries supposed to get the money to subsidize agriculture? Is spending it on agriculture subsidies really the best thing that they could do?
(2) Unless they're also paying the subsidy, a subsidy from the consumer's point of view is exactly the same as buying from a more efficient producer who passes on the savings. Lower costs allow said consumer to spend money on other things. This is good.

The US became better off when it needed fewer people to produce food because those people produced wealth. If the US and the EU insist on providing cheap food, third world countries can use the savings to produce other things that they need.
Your comment reads as: "go ask some women if they've ever thought about their future, and they'll say no because they can always just get pregnant." And now you've just asked, "isn't it equally true that women don't think about their future as to say that women have boobs?"

This explains why you've, "never felt or seen bias against women in IT." You can't hear it even while you're saying it.
7 Essential Web Design Principles to Earn Trust
Simon Wardley: Reputation, SaaS and Marketplaces
MSResearch: Digital Photography with Flash and No-Flash Image Pairs
hmmm I didn't feel that Ferriss was espousing laziness. Instead here's what I thought his major ideas were:

1) your time is very valuable; you only live once

2) it is stupid to spend all your time working so you collect and hoard expensive toys that you won't have time to play with. instead use your money to expand your free time and freedom to do cool stuff

3) you can delegate some of your work to expand your free time

4) there are unconventional solutions to conventional problems
Ferriss never claimed to be writing his book for money. The book is his hobby: he enjoys writing books. He enjoys promoting his book. That's one reason why he's so good at it!

I do agree, though, that the book's advice is not for everyone.
I remember long hours with difficult homework sets while my liberal arts major friends would go out and party. I only know a few engineers who could get their homework done and party. Engineering doesn't give you a lot of free time to party - I spent years of my life in the engineering building - liberal arts majors on the other hand...they can have a different college experience. Most of the girls who were in my program were smarter. Why would you choose a major that puts a major crimp in your social life?
Jwz's old rant about how the Web should scale down gracefully
I experience the same thing as I haven't gotten many chain letters in a long time. This is due, I think, to two things:

1) I trained my family to either stop emailing this stuff or stop emailing me this stuff. I would do a quick search on the topic which usually ended up with sending everyone a quick sentence asking to read the snopes article I linked.

2) I am in a different social network that is insulated from the "main stream" social networks (I'm just saying different, no more no less). The people who are connected between networks are my filters. I assume that most of them are literate enough to stop forwarding this junk from one group to another. There was a technology magazine article I scanned a while back which explained visualizing social networks that better illustrated what I have feebly described.
Could you put your email in your profile (or shoot me one)?
India:

http://pluggd.in
http://www.venturewoods.org
http://www.startupdunia.com/
http://www.webyantra.net/
http://www.contentsutra.com
I have got a lot of benefit from Leechblock too. I use it to reward myself my allowing 10 minutes of fun every hour.
Our genes (via our brains) drive us to succeed. But why should we listen to our stupid mammalian brains? Maybe the Buddhists have it right after all, and the best goal is to transcend desiring.

OK, back to my startup.
Reverend Ted: Is AGPLv3 Too Radioactive?
http://www.killerstartups.com does cover non-US companies in bursts but they go overboard, imho, with what's considered to be a 'startup' so there is a lot of noise there.
How tough is your project? 5 leads.
The Pi You Know Is A Lie
The information in FHW is simple but not easy. It takes a lot of initiative to create a Muse (Ferriss' term for a semi-autonomous business entity). However, it's not black-and-white - choose to apply what you may.

I'm confident if you successfully applied FHW you wouldn't just have a blog post - you could have a blog e.g. ihaveafourworkweeknow.com where people would pay to subscribe - to learn how you did it. For added value, keep a detailed blog while you are figuring out how to apply the FHW (e.g. Day 25 - Boss negotiation) and timecapsule so you can unveil it to paying subscribers once you achieve the FHW.
What these numbers mean is that apple is the only 21rst century computer company. Dell, HP are 20th century computer companies.

It also means that most people who are desirable customers (spend over 1,000) who buy for themselves and look at a product first pick apple. Thats huge. Which means apple had won the hearts and minds battle and just has to wait for these effects to trickle through the high end market.
BSDCan 2008: Stream Control Transmission Protocol
This is one of the first questions to ask.

I feel like this article gives a good method to find out.
Wikis Are Now Serious Business
I appreciate that he is using largely recycled ideas. What I am looking for, though, is someone stating that Four Hour Workweek is the tool that they used to get them from point A to point B.
I would add 'Internal politics' - how many stakeholders
In the book, the author explains how he used Google Adwords to test the marketability/flash of book titles. 4HWW won.
If everyone shuts up, how are people supposed to figure out where to move to? I hate the idea that no one should ever be critical of anything.
If food is expensive, sellers will transport it even at great cost in order to reap the profits

Maybe too general of a statement to draw any definitive conclusions; it's really interesting how the cost of transport is a major underlying factor which is often overlooked, especially for food. However, the economic realities surrounding food are very different from those surrounding coffee.

Rather an issue of supply and demand, the demand for food seems to be becoming more of a distribution issue than a supply issue. Doesn't the US have more obese people than just about everywhere else? And even without modern technology and "globalization", demand for food (or coffee, for that matter) could easily be a distribution issue at the local level, evidenced by the OP. The opposite of globalization is localization.

The parent RE: "The Perils of Free Coffee" . . . for coffee (the only US state that grows coffee is Hawaii, afaik, which is quite interesting considering how much of the stuff Americans drink), the transport/distribution issues would indeed be pretty relevant. But again, at the expense of what? Starbucks' promotional hype for the hope of getting more people in general hooked on coffee being > the minor irritation of its self-proclaimed loyal customers?

From the OP: "Here I was, a loyal customer willing to pay good money for a product similar to the one they’re handing out for free, and they didn’t want my business." And then: "As it happened, there was a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby, but since I dislike DD coffee, I made my walk with no coffee whatsoever."

Just maybe had its intended effect.
Fans of entertainment? So they're entertained by things they find entertaining. Great headline!
This was almost 3 years ago! ... I like how he is totally distracted by a printout of his Wikipedia biography.
ha! i will be spending the next 3 days at work researching this claim voraciously, and celebrating a (tenuous) chance to use the word "voracious"
Yeah man. I love this paper. All of the equations look so much prettier without 2 in front of pi everywhere.
Here's a link to the first page of the article (instead of the third page): http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200806/obama-finance
Absolutely. The higher you can make V from the beginning, the greater overall value you will create by applying Metcalfe's law. The lower your V, the higher your N needs to be.
1. Scrape Merck Manual.
2. Render lists.
3. Add that google *sparkle*.
4. Data Mine FTW!!!
Have to agree. I used to reply (basically) "You're an idiot, here's a snopes link explaining why".

When that didn't work, I used Reply All, which basically added "and now I've told all your friends that you're an idiot".

Haven't received a forward in a long, long time...also have a lot less email-only 'friends'.
Schools, businesses must adapt to 'thumb generation'
Is self-employment more secure than a full-time job?
7 Pleasurable Ways to Improve Your Reading Ability
Steve Ballmer egged in Hungary (not our Startup School)
How many programmers own a half share in their own business at 25? None.

I must be the only one then. We also haven't taken any funding and are profitable.
Not just Free Coffee - How Starbucks funds nearby cafes.
Top 50 Tech Visionaries
I independently 'discovered' this a few years back, basically on the grounds that there are infinitely many shapes with constant diameter but only one (the circle) with constant radius. It stands to reason that the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter contains a spurious factor of 2; it must be that the ratio of circumference to radius is the more fundamental quantity.

This discovery was almost enough to make me want to memorize an embarrassing number of digits of 2π; 6.28 is really pathetic. (What's embarrassing, you say? Try 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399...)
The size shouldn't matter once you have a good algorithm for solving it :)
Canada: http://www.startupnorth.ca/
You've gotta work with what you got. If you don't try to hide the fact that it's a foreign written blog then people will be a lot more forgiving in regards to the grammar.