skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
One thing you might try is to start by writing some small CGI webapps/scripts. Later on, it will give you an appreciation of what the frameworks are actually doing for you.

Also, if you're not married to Python, and are looking for something really simple and easy to learn, you might try Perl's CGI::Application (along with some plug-ins).
I've been thinking tis in the back of my mind for a while too without it ever really taking words. This hit it spot on. There's something a little bit "Hunt Brothers cornering the market" about google, isn't there?
Reflected on that for a minute and I'd say you are right.
I very much hope that this site is not a joke, and that its hilariousness is purely unintentional. For the first time I'm glad that HN saves my upmods. It will take me repeated viewings to fully appreciate this webmaster's unique genius.
Daily caffeine 'protects brain'
from my experience (quitting drinking), you can hack willpower with mantras. reminding yourself of something every morning and night, in a motivational way, keeps it alive as a goal over the months-long slog. the tricky part is forcing yourself to do this...so one of your mantras should be "i love saying mantras."
At a small company, I once had to put together an big order of 150 PCs for a local college. A one-man assembly line - I had three cordless power screwdrivers. We had an 8-way hard-drive duplicator (I think it was called the Octopus) that we used to make the master HD image. I made a mistake on one of the network card drivers and had to boot up all 150 PCs and update the driver.manually. That taught me a lesson.
Mashable reviews new Travel Startup Travature.com
Video: Abbott and Costello portrayed exclusively through typography
Study the source of existing sites you like. Then start writing your own Python framework upward to recreate (and fast transcend) them. Extensively study the existing frameworks, especially when you hit a conceptual or implementational roadblock. Understand everything you have to work with at each step. Keep building up.
By some definition of "prettier".
BT Phorm Advert Trial "Illegal"
The current state of the art in space defense
Arrington: 'Demo needs to die'
Didn't think there was anything wrong the way it is. Must be getting old.
Apple to New York City: Bite Me
I feel like the 'mercenaries' he is describing have left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the entire startup culture.
Ah! I was hoping somebody had submitted something about subtext.

I just finished up my submission today and subtext is relevant to the idea.

I'm big on visual tools. From everything I've read and experienced I believe we should be expressing our instructions to computers in a more visual manner.

I can get non-programmers to "just get" the tree-view/node highlighting in firebug. Those same people see one hacking at html and wonder aloud how you can have any idea what it all means.

I can explain REST to my mother and it just makes sense, but her "programming" experience stops at a spreadsheet.

I make the point about the spreadsheet intentionally. A spreadsheet to manage what furniture goes on a shipping container, and in what order based on the distance to deliver is quite a complex set of requirements for an application.

But my mother, partner in a small furniture company, does just that sort of thing regularly. I do think there is something to be said for the amazing feats one can undertake when it is required. But I'd really like to make a point about the importance of spacial thinking.

When I program I only get one dimension for my instruction set. It goes from the start of the file to the end of the file. I may have some tricky control flow structures, but I still have to represent them in a wholly linear fashion.

Whereas my mother, with her spreadsheet gets two spatial dimensions to think in. She can even put multiple planes right next to each other.

Our minds are wired to interpret spatial(visual) information. Thats why my mother can easily solve complex, unique problems with a spreadsheet and wouldn't even want to read a "real" program. And yet, if we can allow oureselves some perspective, they are really the same thing. A human's instructions to get a machine to solve problems.

I would never expect my mother to create space-shuttle software or anything like that. But she, and I'm sure untold millions like her are better equipped than some programmer to understand the requirements of their business' problems.

The spreadsheet was great when computers were for crunching numbers. But in this wild world of the web, I think it's time my mother had a better tool.
I believe in freedom of contract, but I also believe in fair business practices. Credit card companies have a lot of incentive to craft agreements that look OK on the surface but are littered with land mines. They are the ones that craft the (not) clearly stated policies, and I suspect they've tuned the agreements to maximize profits from slip-ups and timing.

Case in point: sending APR change notices, setting effective APR change dates, and requiring written responses all within one billing cycle. It's not obvious that a line in the original agreement leads to retroactive billing at arbitrary APR if a written response wasn't received. The written response requirement was only mentioned in small print at the end of a large amended agreement.

You said "Free of regulation, markets will choose the firms that provide the highest value to customers."

That may be true of efficient markets, but I don't think there's nearly enough transparency in the credit card market.

I'm for regulations that prevents excessive interest rate hikes for no cause coupled with insufficient grace periods to reject the rates and close out the account.

We had used the cash advance to bypass a liquidity issue with other assets, so when sufficiently motivated, we were able to payoff the sizable advance within two weeks after talking with Advanta reps. Even then, we were hit with these elevated charges. Lesson learned.
DDoS Packets are Two Percent of Net Traffic
Yick. I do like (and use) Jon Hicks' style for Google Reader, though:

http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/tag/googlereader/
Good idea, but is it worth it?
Kleiner's iBet: Will iPhone Software Be a Multi-Billion-Dollar Market?
I agree that you shouldn't put much if anything at all on credit cards. Ever.

But, even if you do run into trouble, a negative hit on your credit rating only lasts 7 years. Even bankruptcy falls off your credit rating after 7 years. It's just a lot harder to file for bankruptcy these days, because of the laws that the credit card companies pushed through congress. It's actually one of the reasons for the sub-prime mess were in, but that's another thread.
I just watched this last week: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/

What you're referring to as a "predatory practice". Is par for the course. It's what credit card companies do, it's not limited to your company.
Frontline: Secret History of the Credit Card | Watch this before bootstrapping on your credit cards
It's already a feature. Problem is with companies that have multiple URL's for the same page, like NYT.com
Git for Subversion Users
http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=yters
Why voice apps are failing on facebook and myspace
Would like to get some feedback from some of the founders who are thinking of building applications for Facebook,MySpace or any other Social networking.
This reminds me of "The Suit is Back" phenomena pg expressed in his submarine essay. I see so many articles that say coffee is healthy that it actually makes me question it more.
If you're serious about learning web programming, here's a few thoughts before you pick up the Django book and start wading through it:

Take a look at the HTTP protocol, and learn what it does before you start diving in to web frameworks. You'll understand what's going on inside the framework before you get started.

After looking at HTTP, try some basic CGI programming. Just google: Python CGI Tutorial. CGI is a bit archaic, but it helps to understand why frameworks developed, and what they're making easier.

Pick up MySQL or PostGress and learn some SQL and databases first. Web frameworks are essentially an "easy" way to develop a GUI for a database. If you don't know what the database is, or what it's doing, you'll be chasing your tail learning a framework first.

It's worth mucking around with some *nix and apache. You don't really have to do this first, but you're not going to be able to do too much with your web app, because I don't know of too many companies that serve Django apps off of Windows. It's all Linux or BSD hosting for Django pretty much. That means knowing at least the basics of shell scripting and apache config files.
If it means that TV gets a smaller share of the advertisement $$$, I would say it's not evil at all.
nice, that's the first time I read a recursive law...
What naming convention do you use for S3 keys?
I'm (re)doing our naming convention for our S3 keys. We have many (millions) of objects to store on S3. I'm planning on putting them all into one bucket and naming the keys to be the MD5 or SHA-1 digest of the files. I'll keep this synced with a database table which maps an auto-increment GUID (globally unique id) with the digest of the file.

Then I read this:
http://paltman.com/2007/05/29/amazon-s3-and-filename-magic
but I don't really understand the advantage of storing an object on S3 whose key is the hash and which points to the GUID.
One thing I don't want to do is store the GUID as the S3 key (to prevent massive scraping of all the assets).

How are you all dealing with this? Is anyone using a MD5 or SHA-1 digest as the key? A salted hash of the GUID as the key?
EBay Bans Auctions Of Digital Goods
(possibly misinterpreted) medical research is on par with PR fluff/astroturfing, huh?
It's a wonder why, when Django's form validation and admin panels require the Django ORM, and last I heard, using the SQLAlchemy branch required extra work.
Good luck to all the karma seekers in this thread!
It does look neat, though I don't think there is anything wrong with the current design. Sure it hasn't changed much, but that's because it just plain works.

Still, it's nice to know that if I ever get bored I have options.
Bail us out, nerds.
Hmm. I just realized that if they key is the MD5 digest, then I can't independently store/delete identical files. Maybe the best bet is to encrypt the GUID.
This time, the startup boom is no bubble
I've actually had very good experience overall with American Express. I highly recommend using their corporate cards for important purchases where you might want to extend your warranty. I've saved thousands of dollars thanks to that program alone. They also issue cash back rebates to your account every February.

Of course, this is all provided that you always pay off your balance on-time.
Next Photoshop will get 64-bit boost--on Windows only
Over time it may get tiresome, though.

Like, say, the first 24 hours, after which your eyeballs fall out of their bleeding sockets. That skin is hideous!

Google puts a good deal of effort into usability, and comparing the existing interface with this skin helps to show why that is the case.
I think this is dependant on what you're doing with S3. I'm only using it for backup and use the tarball name and date/timestamp as the key name. This ensures that it's unique and easy to understand when you need to restore.

If I were going to use them for hosting my videos or something, I'd probably just use the GUID without the need for the MD5. Just make sure there's not chance of duplicates in the database schema and it should work.

I use Bacula for network backups and it does the same thing. All paths and filenames are stored as unique ID numbers.
Chart: Seasonal search trends
Google Trends is much more elucidating than Alexa. An extremely powerful tool for monitoring points of consciousness.

"Sex" is a particularly interesting argument: http://www.google.com/trends?q=sex%2C+porn&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Note Ramadan: http://www.google.com/trends?q=sex%2C+woman&ctab=0&geo=SA&geor=all&date=all&sort=0 (...and the correlation between Saudi news stories including "sex" and "woman")

Can't wait for the Trends API.
Great! It's never been a better time to start an eBay killer.
Waiting until the last minute
Same here... Using Safari for the moment.
Apple passes Wal-Mart, now #1 music retailer in US
Intel unveils tiny chips tailored for mobile Internet gadgets
Grand Theft Auto IV Hands-on
Dude, I assure you, no one will ever beat eBay at being eBay ... their network effects are in a different stratosphere.

But that doesn't mean it's not a good time to start a sweet company that could someday eat eBay's lunch from a different angle ;)
digital goods = "huge, untapped" market
Who did the design? Because it's good.
Exchanges are much more primitive than search before Google. I'll hold you to that assertion... :)
Does C or C++ have a single or dominant implementation?
Also, this seems reminiscent of 43things. What sites inspired you?
I 100% agree with you. But Google approached search in a different way than the rest, that turned out to be more effective. Likewise, I think there's got to be a different way to think about selling that can really undermine the traditional model... go forth, conquer!
THE BEGINING OF THE END
It's only going to be a matter of time before the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) starts describing anything and everything. And, if it gets into the DSM, it's by their definition "aberrant" or a problem.

It's like ADD or ADHD was a couple of years ago, it's the current trend in news reporting. I'm sure that I have a bit of ADD, but it's rather helped my career as and ER nurse. You just have to pick the right environment. I'm sure it will help me in my pursuit of being a founder, too.
My cofounder did. I will let him answer the second question.
proof that sensationalist titles win out: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=153604
Thrilled to be in the pool, and even happier to be working on something I believe strongly in.
Why do you care?

I didn't think YCombinator was a very competitive company, and I wouldn't think you'd care about what the competition thinks.
> Dollar devaluation: It's actually a good thing for the US economy and the US consumer

I agree with everything but this claim about the falling dollar as a benefit. The falling dollar is a way to default on international debts. It is also outright theft from those who have saved in dollars.

This idea that a falling currency means boosted exports is empirically challenged. If you measure in terms of the devalued currency, then yes, more money is received. But it's money that is worth less, so the change is essentially meaningless. In terms of actual physical exports, with a couple exceptions, falling currencies have not boosted manufactured exports in industrial economies. The more obvious historical correlation is a trade surplus and a strong currency. A falling dollar will probably boost the share of existing commodity production that is exported more than it will stimulate new manufacturing. That is a bad thing in that it basically means Americans are finding themselves outbid on their own crops. It means people eating less meat because they can't afford it anymore.
OK, the single biggest problem is there's way too much happening. Do you really need SEVEN tabs for each trend? I can discern no difference between four of them (overview, the pitch, the buzz, in depth)...they all seem pretty much like the same thing. And, if you're a socially generated site, isn't it ALL talk? You should probably have no tabs and a simpler view all-around. If you do have tabs, maybe just "Media" and "Talk" with the first page remaining "Overview". All of that other stuff just seems to just be people making a few random "Yeah, my idea is awesome!" comments. If you want people to have that kind of ownership, maybe let them have personal profile pages where they can just say "Yeah, I'm awesome!" and then let the trends stand alone with just the talk and media.

Likewise for the front page..."What's Next?" and "The Wire". I can't even begin to guess what the difference between the two concepts might be. Too much going on, and I'm just confused.

But, if your users can make sense of this stuff...maybe I'm just too old. But I'm definitely very confused, and often irritated about not finding the interesting bits easily. As I mentioned, the Browse page is actually pretty cool...and made me want to click through. But once I clicked, I regretted it, as I didn't find what I wanted to find on the other side. (Partly because idiot users are not interesting, and partly because I was just overwhelmed by the number of links off to nothing...one can more safely assume that half of the tabs will lead to empty pages than that they are worth clicking.)
Yes, in the general case, but that quote is also by far the most interesting part of the article
I reckon Seth follows YC news, since pg posted his "don't wait until the last minute" message earlier today. It seems unlikely to be merely coincidence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert's_W_function

This seems related.
Benjamin Franklin, blogging role model?
Are Video Hosts Just a Commodity?
Ah, a very clear and concise appeal.

I just read http://thebackofthenapkin.com/ on a train ride last week.

It's a good read about how to solve problems and sell ideas with simple pictures like the one in that post.

Not sure what I can add to the discussion about the topic in the image, but I was inspired to share the book.

And Seth Godin(Oh really? I hear he's on Internet.) says it makes you smarter, so maybe we can use it to fight the anti-intellectuals :D
I think the guy's borrowed a lot of info from Tim Ferris(the author of Four Hour Work Week) ideas, but good stuff nonetheless.
Planning an Elevator Pitch?  Make the VC come visit you
THIS IS A AWESOME IDEA
WILL IT BE NATIONWIDE? OR ONLY IN NYC
Have to agree. The same sentence caught my attention.

I can only speak for the East Coast, and in microeconomic terms, but Google has definitely put a hurt on the market here. They are worse than all of the banks put together. The cream of the crop here---people who are too smart to veg out in a bank---are more than willing to go to Google, when they would otherwise be furthering some smaller and more important project, be it a startup, or just something else useful and in real need of a bright, computer-oriented mind. They're all funneling into Google. Google got them all right out of college, and they're probably going to keep them.

You cannot argue that we are better off this way. Google certainly is, but as a whole we are going to lose out. Clumping all those people together is not going to improve technology. It's going to make it worse, because there's a huge opportunity cost in taking all these people and sticking them in a mill. That's just how software works. If they were out in little groups in a lot of different areas, they could be making a huge difference. Google doesn't need 10,000 engineers who know Bellman-Ford and Knuth-Morris-Pratt and Miller-Rabin. It's too much overlap. And Google certainly isn't providing offerings in a quantity great enough to justify the overlap. They've hired well---too well---and now they're going to be having a great number of these people performing well below where they would if they were arbitraged out to somewhere else. The benefit of adding just one of these engineers to a smaller shop is incalculably higher than the benefit of giving him to Google.

That efficient asset allocation, and the providing of liquidity, have been grossly exaggerated in terms of their benefit to society in order to justify the poaching Wall Street does each year, is a truth generally acknowledged. Trading makes a few people much richer, but it does not make us richer, not in equal part. In fact, if you want to get nasty about it, the latest round of bailouts is costing us a great deal...

Now we've traded the Wall Street problem for the Google problem. Do we really need the top sliver of our graduates working on destructively taking market share from PayPal? Or fighting black-hat SEO fueled and exacerbated by the search-monopoly problem they created? Or contributing to an advertising arms-race at a growth rate much higher than that of the underlying market?

What project are they pushing forward that could possibly justify sitting on all this talent? I feel like if it was anything suitable I would've already heard of it by now.
> the US is a definitive leader in pharma, entertainment, technology, and education.

The technology claim is a bit dodgy. The US runs a net trade deficit in all categories of scientific and industrial equipment. The US has a few pockets of highly valued intellectual property, but even this edge is slipping away. Pharma has big profits from activities in the US, because Americans have turned sedentary gorging and subsequent suicide pill popping into a subsidized national past-time. I wouldn't put this under the "strengths" category.

The US is not a metaphorical man on an island. It is is a nation of wage earners. The best way to thing about the big picture situation is to simply observe that 200 years ago the average working man earned more or less the same wage anywhere in the world. Then the West shot ahead. Now this disequilibrium is being corrected, and it's fairly easy to argue that real wages in the West will fall and it won't be rising wages all 'round. There isn't sufficient iron in the earth's crust to support the car owning standard of living the whole planet now aspires to. As global wages rise, Americans will be priced out of their current standard of living.
Yeah, using the GUID works, but then it opens us up to someone coming in and just scraping every file we have on S3 which would be bad for us. I'm leaning towards encrypting/obfuscating the ids... any suggestions for python libraries suited to this task?
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My problem with memory was primarily caused by poor indexing on mysql tables, that once I resolved and cleaned up my queries resolved my memory problems completely. Ref Virtualmin pro, it was the claimav that used more memory not PRO per say. However, I don't need the server for email at all, so the GPL version for me is actually a god send. As I said I really do love it and would happily pay for it. I think you should offer it as shareware for 50 usd one time license, its really good (with the install script) and is a great solution for system admins who don't want (or know how to) set up LAMP without a panel.

Im in the latter catagory, having moved over to a linode, (also highly recommended) after the app was OOM the previous server that was really lightweight and over priced, (that had cpanel) and I actually prefer Virtualmin. It's more rustic and I prefer the support from your small team.

As regards SEO traffic, I'm really glade your thinking of getting into it more. Basically you need to talk to a pro if you want to make headways, I assure you it's not just a case of having the right titles and meta tags, though of course that helps.
When I started hacking in Python which was over a year ago, I started with Django. That was a mistake because Django has too much magic which leaves the newbie clueless - I switched to Pylons and it has always felt right. Additionally Pylons has allowed me the necessary space to grow my skills and the Pylons apps I build now are very customized.

That was my experience - I think you should try out Django, Pylons and a few other frameworks to see what suits your style.
Visual Tools: Marketing Dream, Programmer's Nightmare