skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I would think the Nordic countries would have a Winter of Startups. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed Gothenburg in December.
Ask HN: Landing pages ('coming soon' etc) that don't suck
I've built out a page for a new project but until its ready to go I need something up for those who hit the domain.

I could do some basic minimal version of the page with 'Coming Soon' etc but I'd rather do something a little more fun and memorable.

Do you know any examples of these pages thats stood out, or handled the whole notion in a good way?
Do not get distracted by the 2X+ times money he makes. Everyone has made the point: no 401k, no health insurance.

What everyone seems to forget is you also have to pay a 15% self-employment tax at the end of the year out of your pocket because you do not have a W-2. The tax liability is higher as well.

So not only do you have to get independent insurance (which is very expensive), you have no 401k or match and probably have to manage your own Roth, you have increased tax liability and pretty much no control to push back.

Now, I'm not saying you should be an employee vs. contractor - there's benefits and downsides to both. But saying that a contractor makes even 90k when an employee makes 45k isn't really saying much.
I could have used you as my professor in my recent data structures class.

I imagine you have myriad responsibilities in the course of your day and I am grateful for the time you are affording me.

I will work on this tonight.
Cool User File Systems: GlusterFS
Some companies do, some don't. Glad you were in a camp that does. I've known people who were at companies which didn't value that knowledge and would just cut cut cut.
Fail

Edit: to explain, P=NP is not about physical time, it is about the number of steps of an algorithm. Hence computer speed has nothing to do with it.

Also Moore's Law is not actually a law.

I know it is just meant as a joke, but still - at least show an understanding of complexity theory before making jokes...
It’s a joke.
Opencamp had similar issues, which only got resolved under public pressure
http://openca.mp/blog/the-paypal-and-opencamp-resolution/
Network neutrality (wikipedia)
You forgot about the great hyperinflation of 2050. Your B dollars are worthless.
Countdown clocks are rad.
I refuse to go near PayPal. We don't accept it for PadPressed. We might be losing some revenue, but I can't support paypal / leave ourselves open to the shit they pull. Same thing with a conference we're putting on in October. Not allowing PayPal as an option. I hope WePay or someone else succeeds as being a viable+robust alternative.
Well currently in Itunes you can watch/download video in 1080p? Seems like that would be the place where I would start. I'm not certain I care so much about streaming, but I do care about playback. I'm doing my best to not by physical media, so playback of high quality content is important.
I don't think we're supposed to believe this is meant seriously. But it's a nice pun on what is probably an all-too common problem :)
Ask 10 random pedestrians if they remember what the first name was of 'Wiles' and what he did.

People are far more likely to remember things such as the world trade center bombing as 'major news'.

I'm happy enough it rated a mention on the 1993 wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993
Which rule of the developer agreement disallows using volume controls for anything else than volume control?
Congratulations Chris!
It's not that much of an increase.

In the US, you're already paying half that 15% anyway. You pay the additional half being self-employed, but it's also a deductible expense.

The biggest adjustment people need to make is keeping track of the financial aspect in general. It's not that hard, but you need to keep an eye on it. Make estimated tax payments quarterly, don't spend more than you make, keep extra money in reserve, etc.

Also, as I wrote elsewhere, I'm paying $300/month for health insurance for my wife and I. That's close to what was being deducted for my group plan when I was employed (it's a bit more, but not that much more). Yes, we're fortunate as we're both in decent health, but we've also chosen a moderately high deductible plan, which keeps the premiums lower (though they still keep going up insanely every year).

I've not done it yet, but as a self-employed person, you can set up a SEP-IRA (I think that's it) and some people manage to sock away much more in a SEP than is allowed in traditional Roths or 401Ks. If you've got it and can save it, that's decent deal.

I will say $90k as self-employed vs $45k employed is a pretty big difference, even factoring in the tax/benefits diffs. But I don't normally see that much of a difference in skill levels and income. SR devs I know contracting may be making $120-$150k, but as an employee might only be around $90-$100k. That's a difference, but not a 100% diff.
it's vastly smarter to go into nursing than medicine

My girlfriend just graduated from nursing school, so I know a lot of recently-graduated nursing students. They do not agree with you. At all.

Doctors don't have to clean feces off of people who are too obese to move.
VC funding pipeline runs low, fund raising down 50% from last quarter
My wife's an Interior Designer, and I make sure we go to all sorts of expos together. It's been really good for me to learn about something totally different - and I've always appreciated that she asks me to explain what I'm doing, even if it takes me a few tries to make it understandable.
What happens when one receives a call while taking a photo and wants to turn the ringer volume down?
By the way, CA banned smoking in the workplace in 1998. I don’t think Apple’s changing policies about that can be solely attributed to the takeover of NeXT culture.
Megan McArdle: The Great Stock Market Myth
Agree 100%. Just adding:

The "dictating specs to programmers" practice seems to stem from the silly notion of applying manufacturing processes to software development. In the view of companies with this notion, programmers are little more than unskilled translators - the parallel of line workers in manufacturing jargon.

In my experience, one of the worst abusers of this "square peg/round hole" paradigm are internal IT departments.

I read a study in IEEE Computer sometime in the Summer of 2001 or 2002 that showed how bad the application of Waterfall was for software development. Does anyone know of a study on the application of manufacturing processes to software development?
99 rupees = $2
The Lean Start-Up
Foundation elements for modern businesses
Someone should let Neelie Smit-Kroes in on that little secret.
Like everyone else has said, the idea is cool. Other than that, and this might be harsh, but I don't think you could execute 99% of people's ideas and make a MVP. That's just how I feel after exploring this site for 3 minutes. The blog post about this website is a joke:

"I built my MVP (ibuildmvps.com) in less than two hours. Most of the time was spent waiting for godaddy to process my domain name and email address, and set up the hosting. Besides that, I found a free template online, built a button from a free form generator, created a Google Form, and tweaked the hell out of it. I also added links to many lean startup/customer develop icons who I admire."

This is cute, but it only makes me have less faith in you because none of it is impressive, so how would you implement my idea if it requires a little bit more than using google forms and pre-made templates? The description of the blog on the right hand side rubbed me the wrong way as well. My father has been programming since 1999, or so he would tell people, so the fact that you've been coding since 2002 does nothing for me. You don't have a portfolio anywhere to prove you know what you're actually doing. And if you're going to put your college and state that you received a Bachelors of Science degree at least put what the hell you got it in...
I like this, not because it has any sort of formal relevance, but because it reminds me that for the last 40 years or so, (actually longer), we have been able to solve O(2^n) problems in O(n) time where time < 40 years. Nice!

Probably Bill was despairing of your future, and simultaneously admiring your devious cleverness, not dreaming of publishing. But I could be wrong! If we wait 40 years, we may have the answer to my hypothesis as well.
When I was in a small city in China visiting my relatives, they pointed at some of the 50cm by 50cm "drains" on the street gutter filled with shattered stones.

In the beginning, they had metal guards but they kept getting stolen. Then they had concrete guards with a metal wire skeleton. Those covers got smashed and the metal wires taken out of them. Now they just have concrete guards but people smash them anyway.
No, sorry. As I say, it's unfinished, it's not mine, and I specifically don't have permission to disseminate it. I can talk about what I know from it, but I can't quote from it. You might email me with any specific questions and I'll answer them if I can.
What is a better alternative?

I understand Google Checkout also had similar issues in the past?
Many Entrepreneurs Charge The Hill Too Soon
Filed under Empathy :P
> If management builds a network of contractors, who are the best in the business, you bring on these true professionals who have one purpose – to get the job done. They will do it well because they want more work and a good reference.

Not necessarily true. A contractor's incentive is to work as much as possible, and often she can find ways to increase the amount of work necessary.

An extreme example is that of Oracle consultants; I know several tales of the one Oracle consultant being the foot in the door to a whole team of Oracle consultants who get management's ear and tell them what they need.

I'm not saying all consultants do this; clearly not. However, the article makes it seem as if contractors' incentives are more closely aligned to the company's than they are.
I was once waiting for my coffee in Flat White and got to overhear a conversation between the barista and someone with a backpack who had just come from Heathrow. It went something like:

"Bruno just got a X300 espresso machine for his Fitzroy location, but - get this - he's put a G2 filter on it!"

"A G2?!"

"G2!"

"Wowww. That's mindblowing!"

...

If your barista is geeking out about hardware modifications to their espresso machines, you know the coffee is going to be good.

Every Australian I know who lives overseas misses the cafe culture from there. I spent a couple of years living in West End in Brisbane, and you couldn't move for all the awesome indie coffee joints on Boundary St (having said that, West End was looking a little sketchy last time I was back there).

EDIT: Removed an extraneous word. Turns out I need more coffee.
The job post has been updated -- it's clarified that if you're uncomfortable trying something new, you're not our guy.

I get to say "our guy" because I was the original author of the job post!
Thanks for the W link, it was an interesting article. The part that you quote caught my eye, too, although I strongly disagree with the idea expressed. This is a very narrow definition of "hack". As far as I understand jugaad, it is pretty much equivalent to what hack is, in its original form.

Edit: Edited the W article and put a note in the Talk page, let's see how people respond.
They do, it's called vitsoe.com. The thing is, the feature isn't dead simple. Implementing it would completely break a solid rule of the HIG of the iPhone. The quality of the UX on the iPhone exists because of those rules, just because something may seem like a good idea doesn't mean it is. Allow this and they're not volume buttons anymore, they're just general purpose buttons whose action is context specific.

I'd like to reduce the volume of my music but I'm in the NYTimes app so that will favorite the article instead.
Eric Schmidt does wear a suit, that is true. But I always thought that the type of professional CEO chosen by yahoo and google essentially told the story of the future of the two companies. Eric Schmidt has a PhD in CS (according to wikipedia, he wrote his dissertation on solving problems in distributed computing). Terry Semel has a BS in accounting and worked in the entertainment industry for two decades (warner bros).

I don't know much more about the two men, but I'm 100% certain that Schmidt did a colossal amount of programming in his day, and I really doubt that Semel ever did, though I can't be sure of this. This has to have a serious effect on the hacker culture. If nothing else, Google's choice sends a message to programmers that technical ability matters all the way to the top. Yahoo's says it doesn't, at least not enough to be a required attribute of the highest ranking person at the company.
Robust Statistics Suppress Anomalies at the Cost of Concealing Emerging Trends
I clicked on the link hoping there was some interesting technology involved, but it appears to be just someone offering contract work. Best of luck to him, but I'm not sure it's a very novel idea (I do it frequently, I imagine you do, too).
Did you type all this for a reply or did you copy and paste it from writing it before?
No, these people are not "smart enough" to think of marketing strategies of this kind for TOC :-)

I think the proof either has some elements that might be helpful in settling the whole issue, or is so complicated that has become an interesting target for researchers.
I guess you can read the volume change without using a private API (like, a music player could use that function). If the volume changes, the user pressed the volume button.
Makes you wonder if this app also works with the volume on the iphone remote..
Previous submissions of relevance:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1597650

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1595995

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1595526

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1592416
I think that Cs should go back to being average. Even at the college level at MOST schools the average grade is a B. C is the middle grade on a 4.0 a scale so that is what most people should receive. It is a shame that a 3.5 in non engineering and science majors is considered "ok" or "good". If a student has under a 3.0 in business they might as well drop out because they aren't going to get a job. Grade inflation is a facade though. It is doesn't make it easier to get a job with your higher GPA because everyone is thrown into the upper bracket of the GPA scale. It is much harder to differentiate yourself when everyone either gets an "A" or "B".

To fix this I believe that grades should be given based on your points earned divided by total points. I think that grades should simply be giving to where you finish in a class. For example in a 10 person class the top 2 students get As, the next 3 get Bs, the next 3 get Cs, and the last 2 get Ds. I do think that Fs should be reserved for those that don't try and or show up for class or tests in a system over time. Obviously, you would do better in some classes than others and if you were truly exemplary or truly average you would get the according grade.
> Internet traffic has to prioritized on the backbones and local networks before it gets to the local wireless transmitters therefore it will be available in a prioritized order to local wireline consumers too.

Is this true? Given that this is the main argument of the article, the author could have elaborated a bit and I don't know nearly enough about the inner workings of Internet providers, so is this actually true or just some senseless punditry?
First-timer entrepreneur symptoms and cures
May as well call it the iTelly in that market.
Where Racket has a clear edge on Clojure is learning about it. http://racket-lang.org/ is very good, and the included IDE means you can hit the ground running and start typing code from a tutorial within minutes.

Clojure by comparison is like moving to a new city and trying to make friends (with emacs).
I call fake. No hard core Linux developer showers enough to get a girlfriend.
You don't need experience with Ruby specifically, you just need to be able to "pick up a new language faster than your laundry" and likely have experience with a similar language. If they interview a candidate with a decade of experience in Perl, Python, and Java, but no experience with Ruby, that would be fine as long as he is a fast learner who would be comfortable adapting to Ruby.
I think two other variables needs to be factored in: cultural influence of the native speakers of the languages and the age at which you acquire the. I can attest to the second factor because I learned four languages before I was six (typical if you grow up in India) and still use three of them almost every day and I do not feel any discernible personality change when I shift the language I speak or think in.
How to add a Django app to Python's Cheese Shop (PyPi and setuptools)
How can we use this knowledge to build higher temperature superconductors?
So Apple should abandon their rules and guidelines for popular developers? How is that fair to all the other developers in the app store? That's the exact opposite of what Apple should do.

Imagine if you were competing with Camera+ who, because they sell a lot of apps, were allowed to use the volume button as a shutter trigger. You come along with your camera app and try the same thing, only to be shut down by Apple just because you don't sell as many apps. That is definitively anti-competitive behavior and is the antithesis of what an app store should be.
I agree - the fact that you have to actively unlock this feature should mean that you are aware what you are doing and thus, the risk of confusion is not an issue.
This doesn't seem to gel well with the HTTP verbs like PUT and DELETE. I also think the name is somewhat misleading. At first I read it as JSONP which is completely different.
Use of Technology to attain Food Security in an Indian State
Typed it. Thought a bit, clicked edit, typed some more, thought a bit, etc.
While I'm proud to see the cafe my sister manages get held up as an example to be exported elsewhere, I'm skeptical. The fact is, when scaling up a food or beverage franchise, food quality takes a distant back seat to consistency, supply chain management, leveraging economy of scale, and all kinds of unglamorous factors like that. The truth is, on average, people don't care as much about quality as you might think they do. Starbucks, McDonald's, Chill's, Olive Garden... the examples of mediocre, but consistent winners go on.
Scaling Startups
Well, I do feel much more saucy when I speak Spanish ;D

I tend to become much nicer when I switch over to Spanish, mostly because I usually speak it in customer service situations. Spanish is my language to help people. That and I always love the look I get when the pasty Russian girl starts sounding like a Columbian.
This may be an overly simplistic approach, but if you're worried about something in a fixed position getting stolen, isn't it easy to stake the location out for a day or two and nab your thief? Even if it's a systemic problem, making an example of a few criminals should discourage others from stealing.
Can I just say, kudos to WePay for picking up the drop and landing the account. These guys kick ass.
Quantum physics is business as usual, but it is still counter-intuitive. Though I don't think physicists would call it spooky. Leonard Susskind (Stanford) explains why very well in the beginning of this lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eeuqh9QfNI (Approximately from zero to six minutes)

BTW, he's a very good lecturer. If you are interested, you should try watching some more of these videos.
I await this with great anticipation! (I have been there but for a conference without much chance to get outside and experience the city - I am determined to return, however!)
The amount of horror stories about Paypal significantly outnumber the horror stories about regular banks or credit card companies.

I surmise this is because you're a techy and you talk to people who run businesses online on a regular basis. If you spent a lot of time on, e.g., credit card discussion boards (they exist), or spoke to "regular people" about their payment issues on a regular basis, I suspect you would come to the opposite conclusion in a hurry.

Paypal is not a scam which achieves profitability by freezing accounts. That is crazy talk.
The best self promotion you can do is to talk at user groups. Find a Python/Django/whatever user group in the nearby and propose to present a speech. You don't need anything particularly sophisticated, any technology/framework you have used is just fine.

Often user groups are struggling to find people willing to do presentations, and they'll glad to give you the opportunity to speak. And they are the best place to network and find new jobs or contracts.
It's bad to nitpick, but I take issue with the quote "It's hard for anyone much younger than me to understand the fear Microsoft still inspired in 1995.":

I was born in 1981 and I clearly remember the fear and awe Microsoft inspired in 1995 :) .

There were articles about how Bill took things personally and crushed competition.

I read the 1992 biography "Hard Drive" ( http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp/... ); Bill was kind of a role model back then (a successful and well-known technologist).

Edit: See also ojbyrne's comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1596737
Their profits pale in comparison to Apple's BILLIONS.

Also, you don't throw away your own rules for one successful developer.
Compared to "I adore working at Google", you have to agree posts such as these are a rarity. I found the post informative, yes, perhaps a bit PR-looking, but it was a great read just a day after pg's article on hacker culture.
There is probably a reason that coffee is thousands of years old and the most popular drink in the world...
We'll agree to disagree then, both on the structure of the minds of people who make true breakthroughs and your views on epistemology :)

I don't take anything personally at all, and hope you didn't either :)
Two Cities, a Tech Startup, and a Big Acquisition: The Arbor Networks Story
What did you find when you searched for the address in your conversations?
You can also use it for typesetting CVs and whatever people use Microsoft Word for.

The syntax is a bit antiquated, but its bearable.

I just which web browser would get the typography right one day.
I agree. But also ... just ... something inside me tells me this isn't a good idea. Instead of creating a whole new HTTP request like PATCH to merge all the requests at once, why don't you just send a JSON object to a script with an array of tasks that could be done on the server?

{
"myfolder": [ "move file1.js", "del file2.js" ]
}

etc?
Circular Lists with Clojure
"Lisp is like the villainesses present in the Bond movies. It seduces you with its sheer beauty and its allure is irresistible. A fleeting encounter plays on your mind for a long,long time. However, it may not be the best choice if you're looking for a long term commitment. But in the short term, it sure is fun! In that way, Lisp is...sin. "
Oh, is it? I think it is exactly the opposite.
Waiving fees and giving higher interest is out of fear of you taking your money somewhere else.

Uh, exactly? When you buy useless crap from Walmart, that's bad for the bank. When you save your money, that's good for the bank.

Yup, they make money off of your good habits and bad habits. Hedging. :)
>What we're teaching companies to do, then, is avoid publicly holding themselves to any standard of responsible behavior.

Wtf? What should we be teaching them if when they do "publicly hold themselves to a standard of responsible behavior" they just break it anyway?

>If you're starting a new company, stay the hell away from any hint that you will try to do the right thing.

I have a better idea: be an ethical company, don't lie about putting your principles first when you know that's not how it works.