skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's a great idea. They are using a laser to project a display into the sky that shows the real-time energy consumption of the city. Often time the key to solving a problem is to simply measure it and display the data where everyone can see it (people often subconsciously adjust their behavior, I think Joel wrote something about using this for software development)
I have worked on my startup for over a year. I hired someone in India as my developer as I did/do the web design and business stuff....

Through my experience and something I recommend all startuppers have is a thick skin and a crazy, insane drive! If little things piss you off now, how would you handle negative comments made about the work you have slaved over? The negative actually should be viewed as constructive criticism, though also learn to decipher the vicious with the constructive!

When I want to get away from my work I will go and hang out with friends.
Ummm, that statement is always going to be true. This isn't a PHP question this is a basic logic question.

You really want...

if (!(type == gif or type == jpeg)) { error }

or change your 'or' to an 'and' ie:

if (type!=gif and type!=jpeg) { error }

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Morgan's_laws
"Don't waste time."

You know what I finally did? I installed this cool little Firefox plugin called "Leechblock". I set it up so that I can only visit Hacker News, Digg, Reddit and all other time consuming websites between 8am-9am, noon - 1pm, and 5:30pm on, Monday through Friday
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476

I have a tendency to read one article which leads to another article which leads me to look something up on Wikipedia which leads me to tell my co-workers about my useless fact finding mission.

Not my browsing habits are restricted to very specific windows and it's really helped productivity wise.

Of course, I could always fire up Sarfari if I really needed to, but I just need to block out that temptation for now.
You can play the original game here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml

I wouldn't call it fun though. It's not a sandbox like GTA. You basically have to read the minds of its creators to make progress.
another source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/7205759410438...
i can't tell if one is a ripoff of the other.
If i had to pick one thing, I'd say to keep promises to yourself. Being aware of the fact that you might, say, procrastinate is huge. So, make a promise to yourself that you will follow your clear defn, etc and code for 10 minutes or whatever you can to get yourself going. Then, once you get going you're 90% of the way there. But again, keep those promises and you'll build momentum and self esteem which will drive you forward.
This tutorial really covers just the bare minimum. I would have liked to see a mention of git diff for seeing changes. Since they didn't include it I'll list some examples here

git diff master..branchname # see changes between a branch and master

git diff origin..master # show changes that are in your local repository but not in the source

git diff # show modified files that are not part of a commit, ie. before running git add

git diff --cached # changes about to be comitted

There are many other things you can do with git diff but these scenarios are the most common for me.
However bandwidth and computers and disks (storage) keep dropping every year. So if they are breaking even now, in 12 months they will be making 10-20% .
That was a pretty depressing read. I need my towel...
Hi my name is Roger Mettler and I am the managing director of www.travel-here.com. Kindly let me know more about your open position and contact me at roger@travel-here.com
Fortunatamente, gli esempi sono in inglese.
From what I hear they are going to be the most successful YC-funded company.
I.B.M., Happy men, smiling all the way (IBM company songbook)
The test video is not very impressive. It is never shown stopping, slowing down, or reversing. It is a huge machine and looks to just have too much inertia for the kinds of vr games one might like to play on it. A leisurely stroll would be pushing it.

Sadly, I must wait longer still for my holo-suite.
To state the obvious, the lack of motivation, feeling like shit and the ruminating you mention are common "symptoms" of depression or dysthymia or chronic sadness. Pessimism about one's future is another "symptom".

I struggled with chronic sadness most of my adult life, and tried many things to get rid of it. For example, I tried about 9 different prescription antidepressant drugs. The best cure for me is to have face-to-face interaction with someone early in the day. 2 hours of f2f interaction in day seems to energize me more than 1 hour, but 1 hour is enough to keep most of the sadness away. The energizing effect seems to manifest the day _after_ the "face time". This works very well for me: much better for example than any of the prescription drugs. I got this idea from http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/facedepress.

(That page and the others I read about this "face cure" say that watching video of faces works just as well as f2f interaction: I have not tried that yet.)

By the way, this antidepressant effect of face-to-face interaction is one reason I want a cofounder or two.

Good luck, and feel free to contact me privately if you have a followup question.
More like how your car can't require its own brand of oil, gas, air filters, light bulbs, etc. If Cisco starts selling its operating system on a CD and you make a clone that can run it, it's fair game. Or another company that makes specialized firmware can sell it so you can install it on your car, assuming it passes regulatory requirements for safety (I'd assume).

http://www.google.com/search?q=illegal+tying
http://www.prolexic.com
CGS: Super Game Sunday? Not yet.
Interactive Packet Manipulation: Scapy
New startup for writers - fictionthis.com
Hi, Some friends and I are really interested in writing so we tried to find a site where we can write together to create a book, and vote on each others work. After looking around we found that there wasn't much choice on the net, so we decided to create a site - http://www.fictionthis.com

It is currently in beta at the moment and we are in the process of selecting the opening verse of the book. I would really appreciate your feedback.

http://www.fictionthis.com/
I have noticed this "inconsistency" before falling asleep too. Does anybody have any idea why it happens?
I have two points to make here:

1. Your general mood - I don't think you can control it and so you might be better off going along with it rather than trying to fight it. I also work on my stuff part time, and many days I sit down with the intention of doing something and I realize that I just can't do a damned thing. Forcing yourself to do stuff at this point is likely to make you unhappy and produce no code, so it's kinda useless.

I don't know about you, but I don't know when exactly I am in the good/bad mood, so I sit down and try to get some work done. Some nights I end up working 6+hrs straight into the wee hours and other nights I close down the editor and play CS or watch TV.

2. When you're working on new stuff sometimes its hard to get started since there may be several ways to do it, and they all seem equally valid. Instead of trying to plan out too much, just start implementing one of them. Even if you chose wrongly (you can reverse it later), it'll both motivate you to work further and give you a much better idea of what it is that you actually want/need to do.

I tend to do a good amount this kind of programming and it works out well in the end (if I compare some of earlier check-ins for my current project with the latest ones, there'll be very very little in common)

As awesome as the Hacker's Diet is (I use EMA weight chart to keep track of my weight), I don't think you'll find something quite like that for emotions ;)
have you seen webook.com?
I would also ponder the possibility of dopamine/serotonin levels and the like. For some people, it makes a difference, whence it becomes less of something you try to deal with, but something you live with.
Good luck handling Google Mail cookies.
The fact that a problem is important does not make it tractable. I recommend avoiding this one.
I'm most productive when I'm training for a marathon. Amazingly when you spend 2 hours running, you end up with more time in the day. I don't know how it works either, but it does.

Martial arts training is good, too. Classes are at a specific time (which can be good and bad) and it's much more social (which is almost entirely good).
It has a similar idea..although I haven't seen this before. What we are planning is to concentrate on one book. There will also be time periods for each submission.
To get myself into my code I usually have to remove all distractions, including the internet. Either unplug, block specific sites with your hosts file or use 8aweek.

When I have your problem I usually wish I were coding, but its easier (and seems quick) to check facebook, twitter etc.

Remove all of those distractions and a computer actually feels really productive.
Web 3.0 - Making Web 2.0 More Efficient
Ze Frank made an interesting comment related to this: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/12/121906.html
Nice job. That's new startup #2 today (chompchompdead.com) - which is definitely motivating.

My only criticisms are: Really cut down on that huge red banner at the top. I think most of it is dead space, and one thing that annoys me is having to scroll down on a home page just to see the content. What you can do is move that red banner towards the center and segment it into 'read,' 'write,' 'rate,' to explain the site and have your big 'sign up' button underneath. Also, you might want to jazz up the nav bar seeing everything else seems nicely polished. I think your description of the purpose of the site is a bit confusing and not as direct as it should be, personally. I had a bit of a hard time understanding it. Maybe you should have the login form right on the front page, extra clicks are tedious.

The color palette is pretty soothing and nice to look at. The only thing I might change is to maaaaybe somehow differentiate the ads on the side from the main content of the site.

It'd be cool if you used cafepress or any other service to physically publish the book when it is complete and give those who made it in the book a cut of the book sales, but that's definitely not a primary concern.

Congrats on launch. Sounds cool.
InGameNow Launches - Interactive Sports Network
i agree. close the macbook.

meet girls.
If you're going to do a creative business card, please at least stick to the standard size and shape. It would be annoying to have to carry around some of these odd shaped objects

Also, there's a fine line between "creative" and "gimicky". I'm looking at you, chocolate bar business card...
Your not a machine. Hacking is hard, it taxes us like not many other jobs. I read here a long post about sleep problems, hackers get all excited whenever the sleep topic comes up (seems many suffer). The point is hacking too late into the night can upset my sleep, thus starting a vicious cycle. I'd suggest stepping back, don't push too hard, if your working during the day then maybe hack for yourself at the weekends of for only 1.30 a day.
Feedburner to Google: I'm crashing because of you!
Google engEdu talk on Bloom filters
I have the same problem, but what gets me through is, when I am in a good flow, i try and not break focus for many hours, PG mentions in one of his essays how long hacking sessions work really well. So I try to get up early and work non stop for as many hours as I can, I find I am most fresh and productive before I get in contact with the "outside world".
Sounds really good actually will have to take a look!
A peek at In/Out, an internal app at 37signals
Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately since we are just starting and are working a shoe string budget we had to manage with the design, I do take on board the feedback and i am currently changing the content and some styles that do have some rough edges.
We are also in talks with different publishers to get the book published once its complete .. that was the initial idea.
I like your font and color. It has a very amateur, Drudge Report-esque feel to it. It fits your open-mike style comedy site.
So, is the next big web framework going to be ECMAScript?

Obligatory: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/02/next-big-language.ht...
Double Wow, I didn't know Sribd is bigger than Yellow Pages
So does this make Manchester the "Graphene Valley?"
Five Things I Hate About Django.
So add another step: sign the pickled data and check that upon arrival.
Motivation is tricky so here's what works for me:

1. I have a short paragraph that I wrote telling myself why certain things are important to me and my eventual goal.I read it whenever I'm feeling down.

2. I always have a 4 item to do list. Why 4? It just works for me. It's short enough to accomplish and long enough to feel I actually got something done. Doesn't mean once you accomplished all 4 you have to stop, anything extra would just be bonus.

3. Turn into a morning person. It has dramatically improved my productivity. Rising early gives me plenty of energy and keeps me mentally fit.
So, what you're saying is, if the type isn't a gif OR if it isn't a jpeg, reject. The problem is that every picture isn't a gif or isn't a jpeg. jpeg images will be rejected because they aren't gifs, and gifs will be rejected because they aren't jpegs. You need to do what pmorici said and change this to an 'and' statement, or negate the entire statement you already have.
Actually, you're not far off the mark. I would add:

- pressure from friends and family to spend the way they want you to ("Why don't you help your little sister more?")

- can be hard on long-standing friendships because they can't afford to do the things you can afford, and paying for them creates awkward feelings of obligation.

But the fundamental problem with having money you have to decide what to do with it, which is not nearly as easy as you might imagine.
How much power does your laptop use?
>How do you avoid ruminating on things in your day that have pissed you off? This is my biggest issue.

Try Buddhism. Most of the things you ruminate on are probably worthless, and a religion may help you to see that better and earlier.

On the other hand, it may develop qualities in you that are not favourable for an entrepreneur.
A New Operating System -- What to Call It?
Any idea of what to call a new operating system? The other day the name Astronaut struck me. I'd want it to be small enough for one person but powerful enough to take him/her to outer space.

I wrote about making a new operating system a few days ago: http://nickmudge.info/?post=91
Fingerprinting user entry to your web site
It's one of the all-time classic text adventure games.

It's not supposed to be GTA -- it is what it is.
My professor just offered us this piece of advice as we prepare for the final:

When in doubt, put down the right answer.
Go for a swim or read some story about some successful entrepreneur who had been through this phase.
Lately I just go through my emails and find requests and do them. I would like to do a big project but sometimes making incremental improvements at least moves you forward when otherwise you might not do anything.
It was a bug. Thanks again for the head's up. You should now be able to vote for anything once even when you're not registered.
Does anyone have a medical marijuana card in SF?
Hey, I'm going to be in town for the startup school weekend (and a couple of weekdays afterwards), and I'd love to talk to owners of dispensaries about kratom. Does anyone have a friend that works at a dispensary? Or a dispensary they are on friendly terms with? Or a hippie/drug paraphernalia store that sells legal drugs that would benefit from having access to the cheapest kratom in the USA?

I think medical marijuana dispensaries would be a good place to sell kratom, since they already operate at the edge of society and kratom is edgy enough that conventional retailers wouldn't touch it.

And if anyone wants some free kratom while I'm in town, just let me know... Ping me if you want to meet up, even if you don't want some kratom.
Yes, momentum is everything.
Thanks Matt, I'm glad you dig the concept. The simple comedy article is a lost art imo. A lot of sites buried themselves into one format or another, which is why I like the concept of leaving the format entirely up to the writer. In that regard, entertainment is generic. As long as people like it, it'll get the support.

My original idea was to have everything black/white, and then have like insanely weird mouseovers on things, but it ended up looking like an 80's ode to graffiti gone horribly wrong. Perhaps I went a little too crazy on the simplicity front.
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Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it
Bleh, right before I move to the bay area, people are organizing get togethers all over the place. :(

I used to go to defcon702, but that fell apart. Its always good to go to weekly gatherings related to computers. You get kind of a network effect that you don't get off of message boards and such.
I think this is a poor example.

You can't memcopy directly into the address of an object...

This isn't STL specific... you need to learn this
if you plan on using C++ period.
What makes the Hitchhiker's game good is the writing. It's kind of like reading a book, only more masochistic. Games over time have learned to scale up the sadism and dial down on the masochism. GTAIV and The Hitchhiker's Guide are probably at exact opposites on this spectrum.

See the next game Douglas Adam scripted, which might be the most masochistic game of all time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy_(computer_game)
World's Most Innovative Companies by Region
Tools For Your Video Career
5 Elevator Pitches: What Do You Think Of Them?
These are a part of a program that HTSAA is running to help new startups learn some of the nitty, gritty details of starting a business. These 5 startups have volunteered to act as case studies. What I am really looking for are your thoughts, as entrepreneurs, on their pitches.
Startup Reactor: Advice From A VC
Haha, yeah... I literally am building canoes. see our website http://kamanucomposites.com
You can also not branch if you work on one thing at a time. Commit locally then merge with the central repository.
This isn't the only problem. Not all gifs and jpegs use that MIME [1]. Try this:

$allowed_image_types = array('image/gif', 'image/x-gif', 'image/pjpeg', 'image/jpeg', 'image/x-pjpeg', 'image/x-jpeg', 'image/x-jpg', 'image/jpg');
if (!in_array($type, $allowed_image_types)) {
$error = 'ERROR: You can only upload GIF and JPG files.';
}

[1] http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mime-types.shtml
Sounds a lot like OpenCoffee (http://www.opencoffeeclub.org/), these things are fun though :)
anyone else feel like this is drug dealing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratom
Good problem, terrible solutions.
More interesting yet, how about some of the startup founders on this site make one of these and post them here? For both yourselves and for fun.
Creating your own framework (or your own programming language, or site that does a popular thing) lets you to appreciate, or no, solutions used by other people.
"for high quality, sporadic writers, payment might mean more frequent writing."

And more frequent writing might mean lower-quality writing. There are certainly writers I'd pay to write less - to get the same ideas not buried under so many words. If a magazine had its staff writers produce, say, a maximum 500 words a day, the quality would skyrocket and I'd pay much more for it. Look at the quality of the New Yorker - it's not because they have the best writers (although they do), it's because they let them work for months on a single piece.
RealScoop utilizes leading voice analysis technology to analyze statements made by public figures.
Drug dealing has a very harsh connotation. I am not dealing in illegal drugs and I'm not trying to push kratom here. I'm just trying to see if I can make any connections that may help my business.
That sounds like a great idea. I wanted to start some discussion around this. So far the experiment has been really successful.
Since I'm already paying with my time, what's the difference in paying a bit extra in cash? So almost everybody I read frequently and carefully is somebody I'd pay to read. In technology: Mark Pilgrim, pg, danah boyd, Ian Bicking, probably dozens more. Outside technology, there are too many to even begin listing.
Zen would be a much better suggestion. More focused, and less religious. You can be as easely zen atheist or zen christian as zen buddhist.
This is a great idea.

How should we organize it? I think we should have a weekly thread that always has five elevator pitches. Maybe we can aim for next Friday?

I was also thinking of video elevator pitches. Any reason to stick with text?
i think promoting something on the 'drugs & chemicals of concern' by the DOJ alongside med-pot might be a bit of a hard sell to almost everyone
Are You Ready for IPO? Strategies and Steps For How and When to Take Your Company Public
Yes, but I don't really have a problem with drug dealing as long as the dealer isn't doing any of the many shady to downright evil things drug dealers tend to do.

I do feel like this is spam though, and this is not the first time he's spammed news.yc about this product.
For elevator pitches, there's a lot of verbiage. Here's the Cliffs Notes...

transpondr generates popularity stats for your podcast

logobid lets graphic designers bid to work for you

publicitr pushe content to websites, and tracks the results

siphs is a button to submit to digg/reddit/etc simultaneously

zambino connects advertisers to online video producers

None of them sound earth-shattering. I'm not saying they're bad: some of them could do OK if they get the business side right. Zambino seems the most interesting of the lot, siphs sounds really slight.

And they could all do with streamlining their pitches.
That could work. Nothing like reading a few pitches to help you put your own business into perspective. Taking a broader look at the landscape and all that.
Kratom does make this list, alongside mostly illegal drugs. http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drugs_concern/index.html This list only matters in that people can cite it when talking about kratom; it has no power of its own. The DEA is doing absolutely nothing about kratom right now, though they could start lobbying if they wanted. The catalyst that is making salvia illegal is a kid that killed himself after smoking salvia. I am confident we will not see a similar catalyst for kratom.

Kratom is legal. The feds can't bust you for selling kratom in the way they can for selling medical marijuana. The FDA currently has jurisdiction over kratom and they would need to argue that it was medication being illegally prescribed, or that it was an unregistered nutritional supplement, or a food that wasn't a certified food.

I think a more likely problem is that medical marijuana dispensaries are doing just fine with their revenue streams and don't want to try anything new.