skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"3. College Loan Repayment Reform: If anyone files for bankruptcy, the student loan should go along with it."

No, no, no, no. This penalizes the people who pay back their loans far too much. Who wouldn't just go into bankruptcy if they couldn't pay back the loan? Unlike other loans, the bank can't take your degree back. Interest rates will go up for everyone as it becomes a riskier loan. Suddenly people who had fully intended to pay the loan back will be crushed under higher interest rates.
40k? heh- after being a struggling freelancer for the past ~18 months I'd be happy with 25-30k.
"Don't intern for free. Your time is worth at least minimum wage."

I second this. Part of my assignments the final semester of college was to intern in an IT related business. With no previous contact, I was able to get an internship paying a bit more than minimum wage.

It was invaluable experience. Not to mention that once the internship was over I had a great job just waiting for me to say yes. :-)
How would you market it? How do you find and attract people who's advise and knowledge is worth knowing? The value in a site like this lives and dies by the quality of the people using it.
Disclaimer: Renting everything doesn't work if you're broke.
Who Owns You? 20% of the Genes in Your Body are Patented (Video)
I use a receipt document scanner for this. Unless this will categorize and store receipts, I'm not sure how useful it actually is. Paper receipts are a pain point, expense categorization isn't.
The problem is not with Async IO.

It has all to do with the various Callbacks. If you want to do async things inside those callbacks, you can't with how OpenSSL is structured today. Twisted, for exmaple lets you set various options:
http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/10.1.0/api/twisted.intern...

This makes it so the actual callbacks are just checking variables to make their decisions, but you can't implement a session cache backend for example in twisted, you are pretty much stuck with the built-in openssl one, for a single process.
Well, you don't have to take dance appreciation or basket-weaving, but there is some value to liberal arts education in addition to vocational training.
DeviantART Muro, HTML5 drawing app
> The shareholder's only interest in a company is its stock performance,

I think this is where you and he differ.

For instance, I'm a Microsoft shareholder. (2 shares, but still...) Many Microsoft decisions since the mid-90s (when I first started holding MSFT) have made life overall worse for me, even if they may have increased the value of the stock I held.
"Ultimately, Mah lacked the funds to keep buying equipment ahead of demand, and shut the company down."

They couldn't keep up with demand, so they shut it down?
Where are you? What are you looking for? Do you have code samples somewhere?
You are not entitled for Google to fight your battles for you.

Half-hearted? people seem to forget about their bid for spectrum 3 years ago, also you don't know what happens behind closed doors, the telecos lobbing budget is many times that of Google.
I might be old fashioned, but if you want a career as a software engineer, why not attend college for a degree in computer science? When you are done, you'll likely be heavily recruited and face a much less hostile employment environment.

Despite what some say, college is good for most people and will help round you out as a contributing member of society. I put myself through college as a part time developer and had more fun than I can remember.
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
for(int i = 1; i <= 100; ++i) {
if(i%3==0 && i%5==0) cout <<"Fizzbuzz ";
else
if(i%3==0) cout <<"FIzz ";
else
if(i%5==0) cout<<"buzz ";
else cout << i << " ";
}
return 0;
}

Cool. Assuming you knocked that out as quickly as you suggest it shows that you've got good basic skills. Design and control of larger tasks/projects is untested, but it looks like you're well ahead of the basics.

Now here's a question: Do you find anything "unsatisfactory" about that code?
Screw with a sysadmin
Simple hack to make somebody think you're the l33test person on Earth.
Knowing Some Descriptive Essay Guides
A descriptive essay describes people, events, experiences or places. In describing anything description must be clear. So the essay should be written in simple language so that the reader gets a clear understanding of the item being described.
This crisis won't be the same at all, because you can't discharge student loan debt. There is currently no reason for a lender to bother examining the loan because repayment is virtually guaranteed. Having the federal government take over the loans will only make the problem worse. Educational institutions are able to raise their prices precisely because they know that with a combination of federal and state grants and loans, anyone can go to college so why not inflate the prices sky-high?

That's what happens when you mix unlimited government subsidies into what used to be a free-market system.
Lessons From Finland's Summer of Startups
There are definite advantages of dedicated software over spreadsheets (as a spreadsheet grows it comes to resemble software more and more anyway, so why build software that yourself?), but you're right about the education problem.

I use FreeAgent, a UK-centric product similar to InDinero, and the tagline for their very successful referral program is "free someone you know from spreadsheet hell".
Expecting them to be able to get away without any compromise is naive. They are a company, not the supreme ruler.

Thus I fall back on my grandma's old adage; a good compromise leaves nobody happy.
The only example I have seen is plentyoffish.com. According to this: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rol... the guy who owns this works barely an hour a day and earns more than 4M$ in revenue of it.
Rare 3D film shows Warsaw devastated after WWII
Hmm... That's odd. The general principle in law enforcement is "life over property." Can anyone corroborate or confirm this info?
> Many Microsoft decisions since the mid-90s (when I first started holding MSFT) have made life overall worse for me

That has nothing to do with your being a shareholder.
Very interesting. Are you also planning to go after the eBook market?

On the technical side: are things like hyphenation and justification also on your todo/feature list? I've been thinking about putting my work on justification and hyphenation [1, 2] to good use, as the "rendering engine" of a HTML/JS based eBook reader. I haven't given much thought to page layout and scrolling, but I like the direction you are taking it for mobile and iPad users. I would personally prefer a different layout for reading on my desktop machine though (granted I prefer reading on my Kindle.)

[1] http://www.bramstein.com/projects/typeset/flatland/
[2] http://www.bramstein.com/projects/typeset/
Ask HN: If you can change one thing in the educational system, what would it be?
I see education as one of the primary influencing factor (beside parenting & culture) in shaping people. Unfortunately its one of the hardest thing to disrupt or change.

So, lets not talk about constraints and feasibility and just get on with it. What is the single most potent nugget of change that will improve a nation's educational system?
If you have good experience, it should be doable. I got my first coding summer job at 16 working for a small startup.

Some tips:

* If you don't have quality code on GitHub, change that. Fork something that interests you, hack together your own small-but-cool project, etc.

* If you're not in a tech hotspot (the Valley would be best), consider moving. Most companies want full-time workers to be on-site. It's probably better if you can move now, that's probably better, but you should definitely be willing to apply to jobs in the Bay Area and move if you get one.

* Startups that are pretty early in their lifespan are usually pretty open to hiring people without degrees. Apply to a bunch of them. Do the YCommonApp[1]. Apply to every python job at on HN's jobs page[2]. Look at other job boards that are heavy on startup jobs--Github[3], Startuply[4], etc. We're in a field with a huge demand for labor. If you're capable and apply to enough places, you will find something.

* Network--a lot of people get jobs through acquaintances. Even if you live somewhere lame, networking is still quite possible. If you fork a project and provide a string of quality patches, you can easily build a rapport with the maintainer. If the maintainer knows a lot of other people in the Python community, he probably always knows at least one person who's looking for a good Python hacker.

* Put your email in your HN profile. There are probably several people who will see this thread and want to shoot you an email with opportunities.

1: http://ycommonapp.com/

2: http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs

3: http://jobs.github.com

4: http://startuply.com/
Exactly. The ONLY plan worth taking would be graduate high school with no assets, take out a big student loan and live off that, graduate college, and file for bankruptcy. Tada, 4 years of your life absolutely free, and a degree they can't take away to boot.
Inflation is a rise in price levels relative to currency. I.e., $1 today should be able to buy $1 / inflation factor in the past. However, people buy more today with wages x inflation factor than the previously bought with supposedly a higher level of wages. That shouldn't happen.

No matter how you cut it, that's a problem with the numbers.

Regarding point 2), we also work considerably less than we did in the past. Hours worked per capita have not gone up significantly.
You seem to think because you had a down payment, had a job, bought a house you could afford, you "deserve" to be screwed over less by a falling housing market, because you were "responsible".

Just the opposite! The migrant field worker who got a 0% down interest only loan on a 500K house is far less "deserving" of the screw than you, because he has no money to be screwed out of.
This is my second year as a Dreamit mentor, and I really like the program. All the startups work in one big room, which fosters collaboration. And the partners really try hard with the mentoring portion.
I'd store it on BetaMax tapes :)
They do say history repeats itself
Forrester: Congrats Open Sourcers, You're on the Winning Team
I voted you up, though I disagree that it shouldn't be here. I think it would be interesting to take the article and have an interesting discussion around its main points. These kinds of rational and intelligent discussions at HN are what make it so worthwhile, regardless of the topic. With the caveat that I don't want a Repub vs Democrat or Apple vs Android flamewar, but I don't think this qualifies as that type of piece.
Actually, I think it's worth considering the other side of the coin. Either work for free or ask for a wage that is comparable to your skillset (i.e. well beyond minimum wage).

Working for free is a great way to build your portfolio of projects and get some "experience" to put on your resume. Go find a startup or small business and basically tell them you can build stuff for them for free for a month. After that period, if they like you then they need to hire you full-time.

However, I do agree there is a fine line between doing this for portfolio/resume building and being used for bitch work.
Two disadvantages I've seen to this while working for this sort of beast (in my case 3 friends bought out the last founder of a fairly old engineering services company and as part of the plan one of them ran a subsidiary that was essentially a startup):

As others have mentioned in other topics, you lose a filtering function. When the company evaluates your idea(s), their opinion will be contaminated with their presumed desire to keep you. They will also evaluate you as a potential startup founder but from what you say there's no reason to believe they're any good at that (and the skills required are different and quite a bit beyond consulting).

You'll have a safety net. Sounds nice, but it can become a dangerous crutch.
Readshout.com nice for Internet junkie
like me. Enjoyable!
I actually just created an account (pretty grueling process, I deserve some credit) to add my 2c: while focusing on professional skills and experience is a great thing for any curriculum, there is a value in "broadened horizons" that cannot be ignored.

Specifically, I found that the networking (meeting those outside your potential field) and ability to see things from other perspectives was invaluable in my college experience. This breaks down the "siloing" effect that I see a lot of talented CS majors have problems with, an effect that is consequently ruining the business world. Taking off the blinders once in awhile is a good thing, regardless how seemingly useless that Drama 101 class is. It's all what you make of it...
Peoples Republic of Korea has a strong website.
You'll have to forgive some of us for believing that Google was a principled company when it came to fundamental issues such as carrier control of content and services.

"Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success...A number of justifications have been created to support carrier control over consumer choices online; none stand up to scrutiny."
- Vint Cerf

Google Chief Internet Evangelist and Co-Developer of the Internet Protocol

http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality_letter.html
I am currently going into my second year university in Canada, but we have a similar situation. 60%-75% of first year course material was largely useless and/or so basic I was surprised people didn't already know what was being taught. My four year degree could easily be a 3 year degree. I personally believe the best thing to pursue at university is a double major, because it cuts down on the "broadening your horizon" courses.
For some reason, a '.com' domain nearly always looks more reputable than an alternative. Some people even expect it. Furthermore, '.co' might be confusing. It looks like it might be typo. I don't know what domain you want, but it might be worth your time thinking of an alternative. Otherwise, '.net' is better than '.co' in my opinion.
I'd say it's a combination of your #1 - I 'relearned' a LOT of stuff in my first year- and the same phenomenon inside the university, between classes.

It's terrible, and eats a lot of time. Essentially, your professors can't completely count on what professors of pre-req classes have taught you, and often have to review some things. This problem is compounded when the school admits community college students, whose classes inevitably never match up well to the University courses, so they wind up trailing.

I've also been in classes where a class that was NOT a pre-req SHOULD have been a pre-req; for example, I took a class in sensors, and learned a lot about filters in the process. A huge component of using electronic sensors is filter design, so it was a very appropriate class to learn about filters in. After that, I took quite a few classes that used filters, but didn't require any pre-existing filter courses, so the professor would have to (briefly) teach filters again every time.
This is my biggest annoyance with my RSS feeds, I'd love to see this have a solution.
PostRank extension for Google Chrome & Reader (Also HN and more)
annual insurance about $100 for a bike ? I'm assuming this is a typo.
Node and its ecology of libraries are asynchronous from the ground up. With Twisted or EventMachine, you'll eventually call a library that performs blocking I/O (probably sooner than later) and that will be your bottleneck.
Your response appears to make an assumption I do not hold as true, namely that conditions we observe are a steady economic state. In other words, if we observe people shopping at Wal-Mart and they appear to be healthier and happier today, that this has always been the case and will always be the case.

I believe instead that many economic phenomena offer temporary advantages at the expense of far greater long-term disadvantages. A trivial example would be the recent housing bubble. We had a certain credit environment which led to people buying a lot of homes, which appeared to lead to great prosperity, and all was well until the bubble burst.

In the case of Wal-Mart, my personal and unfounded opinion is that it is a symptom of American (and by this I include Canada) economic decline. It's all very nice now, but as the factories close and the jobs dry up, they are not being replaced. China's billions of consumers might buy iPhones. Maybe. But if they do, how many software designers are needed in California?

That being said, I am not agitating for a change from Capitalism or that we close Wal-Mart. I was responding to a comment asking why Google might do something to disadvantage America. My point was that corporations do things to disadvantage nations all the time. Does this mean we should get rid of Capitalism? I'm not saying that. Does this mean that Capitalism overall is harmful? I'm not saying that either. I think Wal-Mart is an example of something harmful that corporations do, that's all.
Aren't the rates set by the government? At the very least, there should be ways for some of it to be forgiven for specific reasons, health reason would be on top.

Also, there are some programs where people who work for the government can get loans forgiven after a set amount a years. Maybe a similar thing (through tax breaks) could be implemented to help employers pay student loans with the student.

But the best solution is by far reduction of tuition. I'm glad I went to school in Florida, tuition was very low for a state that isn't very egalitarian usually. Education is something I feel they are doing much better than others. I now live in Canada and I see American students come here because the out of country rates are cheaper than their in state rates. And I'm all for free markets and all but the reality is, education is far from a free market. Highly subsidized and yet they still charge crazy rates for tuition. Harvard is now cheaper than some states schools, that's ridiculous.
Seconded... Unless your situation requires it, don't be in such a rush to grow up.
Astronaut teaches high school students to fail
Exactly the opposite is true. People who make their payments get low interest rates. People who don't, get higher rates. That's the way it works.

Think about cars. Car dealerships know almost anyone coming in the door can get approved, but only if they hold prices down at a reasonable level. Beyond that level, the banks won't loan the money because the loan isn't guaranteed to be paid back. There's no such mechanism in education, because loans can't be discharged and they're guaranteed by the government, so there's no reason for schools to sell their education for a reasonable price.
Seems false.

1. Housing market debt dwarfs higher education debt in notional value. >14 Trillion vs 830B.

2. Most mortgages are non-recourse, meaning you can walk away. Most education loans are not. So people can't just leave banks on the hook without much more severe penalties.

When a homeowner walks away from a 600k mortgage on a house only worth 500k in the market, he/she is implicitly trading credit for 100k in cash. For some people that trade becomes much bigger 900k loan on a now 500k house. A lot of people will trade credit for 400k.

If walking away from an education loan was easy(which it isn't), I'm selling my credit for the value of my loan outstanding. That number tends to be a lot smaller, and most college-grads don't find it worth losing your credit for it.

* edit for readability
You say that as if Wal-Mart foisted this upon an unsuspecting and unconsenting American public. This cannot be further from the truth.

Wal-Mart shipped billions to America's greatest economic and military threat because - drumroll - people demanded it! The Wal-Mart-ification of America can squarely be blamed on Americans. Wal-Mart is giving the general public what it wants, and the general public wants more cheap crap made in other countries.
> in my generation, most UK students got their PhDs around 24-25 years of age; for the US students it was more like 27-28

The programs were not quite equivalent. US Ph.D. programs have traditionally included more courses and include a comprehensive examination in addition to a dissertation. A US Ph.D. candidate must demonstrate a broader understanding of the field and cannot just jump into thesis work upon starting their Ph.D. program.
Ask HN: what's the next booming industry or technology field?
What will the next booming industry or technology field be? I'm looking for a new area where technology can solve real problems for people, and which will require problem-solving skills. Where do you think great innovation will happen in the next few years?
Bankruptcy isn't exactly fun. You won't be living the high life afterwards.
Facebook at Odds With Google, Verizon on Net Neutrality - Digits
Well the problem with this vulnerability is that many spammers have millions of email addresses, only a fraction of them with the full name. With this Facebook issue they will get tens or hundreds of thousands of names connected, and will further resell this database.

This seems like quite an asset to me, because spam mails with the real name will have a much higher engagement.
And 7 years later all evidence of this is gone from your credit history.
Just write an own logarithms and encode this in that way. Rent some dedicated servers with enough HDD and RAID, store them there, grant various persons access. :)
Clickable: http://getvouched.com
Google is not there to "get a discussion going" - it's there to guide things towards its own interests, just like Verizon et al.

The point here is that Google is just another huge, evil(1) company among others like it, and that all its recent talk about openness is just PR-bullshit.

(1) Whatever your definition may be.
Vimperator?
WordPress Frameworks
I'm afraid i'm not a developer so i'm not able to fully understand what you mean, but to further expand i dont necessarily mean the OS has to be re-written in terms of development, it can just be re-written in terms of the UI, or the rules, or the user experience, if that makes sense?

I guess im using the word 'written' out of context.
This is a meme "I learn this, and you should learn it too!"

There are alway value to an education, in anything. The question is if it is really worth learning about?

Beside, people can learn to appreciate basket-weaving and dance appreciation in their own time. All they need to do is get rid of their TV and get a hobby. People don't need an overly expensive course to do that.
I doubt the banks would give a loan to someone with no assets who could discharge the loan with little trouble 4 years later. In all likelihood, banks would require co-signing of loans with parents.

While this would definitely limit access to post secondary education, it might also have the benefit of causing people to a more honest evaluation of their education options.
You're in your early 20's fresh out of college. You wouldn't have been living the high life anyway.
Curious, since the content has to re-flow based on the available space is it possible to reference locations within the content without needed to manually page to the content?
Here's one comparing Java and C++, and where Java wins:

http://www.lanl.gov/projects/CartaBlanca/webdocs/PhippsPaper...

And there's always the Script-o-Meter:

http://merd.sourceforge.net/pixel/language-study/scripting-l...