skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask HN: Can a person considered an "asshole" succeed as an entrepreneur?
I am interested to know your thoughts on this question and how you formed your opinion on it. I foresee people citing Steve Jobs, but is there a certain point in one's trajectory before which being an asshole smothers one's chances of success? How much harder is it to succeed with those personality traits?
Case Study - Infochimps 90 second pitch for DEMO
http://www.stevejobsisanasshole.com/
Few kids in grade school pay for their own texts. They are provided by the district, and new sets aren't purchased every year. Cost is a less salient issue than politics and changes to the curriculum.

The 'solution' to expensive textbooks for university students is, increasingly, piracy. I'm surprised anyone is still buying books these days. Almost any undergrad text is easily pirated.
I am sure these are probably just Apple hardware, what's a few extra off the production line off the books?
>> And if I estimated something incorrectly, I didn't charge for the extra work.

> Very honourable, and a really good way to show your customers you are confident and willing to eat your mistakes. Things like that will create a bond of trust between a supplier and a customer in a very short time...

Things like that will create a systematic overpricing of contracts. That's not a criticism of the GP, by the way, just of fixed price contracts in general.

One alternative I have heard of is to present a list of estimates along with their uncertainties and possible risks. Keep the client up to date as any risks come to pass or are eliminated. That should also help to build trust between the client and supplier.
I used SoftLayer for a few years. They're a great dedicated server provider. Perhaps even the best in unmanaged. But.. I downgraded to Linode to save some money and was amazed at how performant even their small VPSes are. I could run what I ran on a $200 box at SoftLayer for about $80 spanning 2 VPSes at Linode, no trouble.
It's netbook specs all around, it even has a 1.66Ghz Atom processor. Also, it comes preinstalled with Windows 7, even though the screenshot on the main page shows Mac OS X.
Jobs is an anomaly, no?
GC should be disabled for proper benchmarks anyhow, honestly. Or at least measured. REE has handy switches to measure that sort of thing.
Source code is not tainted beyond reproach after the patent expires in the existing patent system, though the source code does reverts to whatever copyright the producer might have.

Source code that's been patented under the proposed system becomes open source at the expiration of the patent; the covered source code or the escrow source code becomes open source code under the proposed system.

Pointing these details out can be quite useful; it definitely helps refine ideas or elevator pitches.
Happens all the time. I would cite references, but that would preclude me from working for them ;)
Vancouver had a big housing bubble, and now their sales have plummeted, so I would imagine the state government might struggle a little bit.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/07/vancouver...

However, overall Canada is in good shape financially compared to the other G20. Not alot of public/external debts. Here are the stats, as well as the other countries mentioned in the thread

Canada - 833 Billions external, 75.% GDP public

US - 13 Trillions external, 52.9% GDP public (~70T owed in social security/medicare uncounted)

England - 9 Trillions external, 60% GDP public

France - 5 Trillions external, 77% GDP public

Germany - 5 Trillions external, 72% GDP public

Israel - 84 Billions external, 78% GDP public

Netherlands - 3 Trillions external, 62% GDP public

Chile - 60 Billions external, 6.0%!! GDP public

Poland - 201 Billions external, 46.5% GDP public

Singapore - 19 Billions external, 113% GDP public

China - 340 Billions external, 16.5% GDP public

India - 223 Billions external, 58% GDP public

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_d...

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...
What's the visa situation like? Can you get a visa to stay there for 6 months or more? What I'm seeing online is that it is a large amount of red tape, requiring a local business, for instance, to sponsor you. Which is probably pretty hard to do if you're not their employee.

Would appreciate a specific link or name for the visa you're using and how you went about getting it...

I'm reading your blog post and you talk about the level of regulation in germany... but my impression is that in china it is worse, and further it is impenetrable. Of course, I've never been to china.

Actually, it is likely we will domicile our business in another country. What we're looking for is a location where costs are low and the spirit is high and where the infrastructure we need -- namely a good connection to the internet-- is available.

I'm glad to hear that renting is easy. I would have assumed that foreigners were unusual and thus it would be hard to find someone interested in renting to one.

It sounds like my preconceived notions about mainland china are wrong. Thanks!
Wow. I can't believe that idea has never crossed my mind..! (I'm not being sarcastic.) Do you do this? A blog post or two about this and how it's worked out for you would be awesome reading.
http://twitter.com/tos

>You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).

So if you're using their API in the correct way you're indemnified as a "partner" of Twitter.

In most cases a tweet will not be considered to be a work for the purposes of copyright, IANA[IP]L and this will vary by jurisdiction and content of the tweet. Compare it to quoting someone, you don't [ordinarily] need my permission to quote me; especially true if it can be considered to be reporting of current events.

As for morality; you'd need to be more specific, probably if you're not sure then it's going to be immoral to some extent.

You do mention:

>some topic that is similar to some random highly followed twitter user's account (but he doesn't have a website associated with it) / and there is room for users to generate similar content. Would it be technically incorrect to register that domain, and create a website for similar content

which sounds like you might be considering a trademark infringement of an unregistered mark or possibly "passing off" to some extent - ie masquerading your registered domain as if the content came from a particular Twitter user.
What does this mean? That Akamai commonly provide free services to high profile, high traffic sites that need their levels of throughput? Or..?
And the winner is...
Bing and Google in an Arms Race for Features
Holland has some very good tax breaks for start-ups. To encourage innovations income from innovations is taxed at 10%. Also if you a foreigner living there, there are some over tax breaks. You can also get tax breaks on employing people.

Berlin is cheap, but hiring people is expensive, but there are loads of start ups there. German Tax laws account for 2/3rd of all tax laws in the world. Somewhere there are tax incentives for R&D investment.

For corporate structure you should look at using a Irish company, as this is far simpler than starting a company in the Netherlands or Germany.
@lzw This is very interesting, please keep us informed. Can you post your shortlist / decision when you have made it? Thanks.
NotionInk relocated to Bangalore recently.
"You need a conceptual foundation to understand the black magic going on over here and most people simply don't have it."

The people executing the trades don't understand them, either.
Here's a good article and the HN discussion about Russia. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409194

Basically, you would probably want to stay away from it. You can find decent engineers there but everything else is terrible for business: corruption, taxes, banks, cost of living, visas, etc.
I see your points, and they are valid in many cases. But if you're from morocco or south africa or vanuatu or fiji, etc it may well be the case that finding others to work for your company is near impossible or there are external factors like lack of security or rule of law, that make relocating reasonable.

Our business is a consumer internet play and so local industry isn't a big help, but the language barrier might be an issue. We'll certainly be taking these things into account.
>donates 50% of profits to children's charities

With these claims I always wonder "gross profits or net of wages and deductions".

How much, as a percentage of gross revenue, do you donate and to which named charities.

Is it Cafepress or some other?
What exactly is the "shadow banking industry" that the article mentions?
Incredibly weak evidence.
Things on the frontpage of a University website
This stuff is all amazing and I hope I never take it for granted.

Don't get me wrong, but usually people say they don't want to "take it for granted" about something that has a high level of intrinsic value.

For example: other people, our relationships, running water, principles for living, etc...

Streaming movies and reading on our $700 iPads generally falls into the category of "useless consumerist things we could do without"
Interesting. I bet this rate would be a useful element in a corruptness index for countries.
Can anyone recommend the best tethering app for a jailbroken iPhone 4?
I can see an arXiv paper coming:

"An Equational Logic for Automatic Text Summarization via Term-Rewriting: Or Lambda, the Ultimate TL;DR"
You know how they're talking about using earth-based lasers to power satellites, or, alternately, satellite-based power collectors to power the Earth? I'm no engineer, but why not combine the two ideas, and create a network of power reallocation satellites (essentially mechanically-operated mirrors in space?) If the satellites could reorient quickly enough, you could basically get "packet-switched wireless electricity."
Notes from useR 2010 - Google Open Source Blog
Thanks, that's good advice. We'll probably do tourist visas for 60-90 days initially.

I appreciate seeing the results from your subscriber base. I also see the list of cities for which you provide info as an interesting shortlist ot consider. For instance, one city in France and Japan but three in Germany!
Just doing this now on girlfriend's iPod touch.

My question: how are they kicking off this process from within the browser? It's pretty seamless.
It cost $10.69 to have issue 2 sent to me here in the UK. Unfortunately the receipt isn't itemized but I don't think the shipping was much.. it arrived very quickly too. I assumed that MagCloud does have a EU based printer, but perhaps I'm wrong.
Original source: http://xkcd.com/773/

Why wouldn't you just link to the original? At least they didn't try to pass it off as their own.
It didn't even need a restart. Cydia is on the home screen, and all the previous data and user configuration is intact. I'm quite dumbfounded with how easy that was. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds.
I developed some of the tech used for cellular exploits and I can confirm this claim.
Or use xrandr to virtually hold your screen upside down. :)
Lots to recommend singapore, but getting a work pass looks like it will be fairly difficult.
I don't think there is a connection. thisweekin.com is one of Jason Calcanis' projects and is separate to twit.
I seriously doubt that. In this case we see that the company doesn't purport to have Apple innards, and beyond that, the chassis itself differs noticeably in port configuration, among other specifics.

Definitely does happen in other situations, of course. Lots of lovely grey market goods to be had, but this is not one of them.
They should expect a bias, since Wikileaks have stated that some information has been held back deliberately. From http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010

"We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits."
There's no sure way to win with everyone, but usually you get more points by asking the interviewer what sort of answer he or she is looking for than by blindly making assumptions. Part of the point is to see whether people have good communication skills and can deal with ambiguity.
Whats stopping you from running Linux on Apple hardware?
It's not weak evidence. There's no evidence. The guy doesn't seem to know how significance testing works.
Indeed. I think they got away with the $100 billion property bubble collapse, sovereign default and people thrown into debtor prison, but the business world will really notice this one!
I was perplexed as to why berlin kept coming up. Last time I was there everything was expensive.

However, the last time I was there the soviet union was still in existence.

I'm glad to hear that reunification has resulted in cheap rents, even if it is only on the eastern side of the city.

I think think that means Berlin might be close to ideal.
If only someone was producing OSes with the look quality of Apple software too!
Actually, no; the valuation is the one thing definitely renegotiated every round. (Prior numbers are only psychologically important to the insiders; there's no expectation later investors need to respect them.)

Instead, the terms referred to are all the other things that make stock 'preferred', and having an existing set of preferred stockholders makes it a little harder for later VCs to introduce new and different preferences. (And if they do, they may need to cut in the prior preferreds.) The transcript has more details.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/27/news/newsmakers/gross_bankin...

My Pimco colleague Paul McCulley has labeled it the
"shadow banking system" because it has lain hidden for
years, untouched by regulation, yet free to magically and
mystically create and then package subprime loans into a
host of three-letter conduits that only Wall Street
wizards could explain.
No, simply because they are from different domains and by extension from and for different systems. And as such, a natural ID (or arguably a GUID) can also be said to be more fitting to establish that kind of relation.
Damnit! Why did I click on this link... I didn't even need this...

Talent does what it can, Hackers do what they must :)

(Apologies to Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
I wonder if there's a business model in this?
Creator of PHP talks to Digg about performance and security
I'm in Manila and running my startup here. Email me.
... like a pumped hydroelectric station.

Could wind farms have local pumped water storage work available (eg for water towers) or dedicated lines to pumped hydroelectric stations so that the power output could be chosen and excess power diverted to pumping water for later use (use for power gen' or water transport).

Or would fly-wheels or heating be more efficient.
From what we know it's an exploit linked to the way PDF files are handled. So it's courtesy of Adobe, lol. Steve is just gonna love this.
They did the same thing with Tiff files back in the 1.1.1 days.
I'm a Droid owner but no one can deny that no current Android device is as responsive as the first gen iPhone. I'd really like to know what the secret sauce is in ios.
How to Patent Inventions
One underrated source of storage in the grid is water heaters, fridges and A/Cs. With some "demand response" technology (part of the smart grid), this could be tapped.

See: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/smart-grid-demand-re...
GoGrid supports Windows.
There isn't a connection, one network (TWIT) is fronted and owned by Leo Laporte, the other (This Week In) by Jason Calacanis.

Laporte doesn't seem to like how Calacanis has diluted the TWIT brand by launching a similar sounding network, so Calacanis is essentially banned from appearing on Laporte's network.

Not really a fan of either though. These days, TWIT seems to focus on shows that are opinion heavy, rather than content heavy, while Calacanis' podcasts feel a bit too "pie in the sky".
I voted you up, but please explain to others how hydro can work as a battery with windpower.

I can also see GP's caution as a way for power companies that rely on non-renewable resources to curtail this type of renewable energy production.

"It will destroy the grid!"

If I had considerable investments in coal, I would make certain that wind would destabilize the grid for a bit, and point my finger and say, "You can't use wind. It will destroy the grid!"
I don't think Simpsons paradox plays any role here, if I understand this correctly.

In the first graph, the leading digit counts are not the things being summed up across all the regions. The weekly report counts are summed up across all regions and then the leading digits are counted.
Once it's jailbroken, you don't need an app. Just install the correct "profile" and it enables tethering natively.
what a random rant...
Berlin is certainly the big surprise for me here. I am very happy to find out it is inexpensive and it has so many other qualities to recommend it. I was completely unaware.

It's going to be high on the list.
A smart grid + demand response could help with storage:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/smart-grid-demand-re...

Basically, if you can control lots of water heaters, fridges, refrigerated wharehouses, A/Cs, etc.. You have a way to store power (f.ex. you make the water a couple degrees hotter, or the wharehouses a couple degrees lower). Not enough to affect what's in it, but enough to use that extra power and "store" it (which buys you time, and means that you can use less power later, ie. shut down a gas plant or whatever while all those things revert to normal temp).
>Unlike packets in a tcp/ip network, you cannot control which wire an electron will travel upon (except that you can deny a wire any electrons by severing from the grid)

That's not quite true, true at an electron scale, but you can alter the resistance of a particular line to alter the current (the gross electron flow) that passes on it. Severing is just the extreme (operationally equivalent to infinite resistance added).

[Electronics was always a weak point for me.]
I am curious about you theory because I've been in NYC since web 1.0 so I like to see how your theory is.

Would you like to share it?
Giant lasers? What could possibly go wrong? :-D

I have no idea how plausible something like that might be.
>> Connection Partially Encrypted.

>> Parts of the page you are viewing were not encrypted before being transmitted over the Internet.

I won't trust a bank with this error.
Is it difficult to get residency permits for foriegners? what is the cost of living like in Korea in general? How is transportation?
Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer (2008)
Ask HN: What technologies do you use in your startup?
I'm interested in all startups using linux and windows environments. What do you use to scale to app to millions of hits per day ?
Step 1: classify stupidity as a mental disease.
Thanks for your tip, I will read it. I've asked because I recently found a popular .Net webstore software called nopCommerce (I think it's even the most popular open source solution for .Net) from a startup located near Moscow.
readwriteweb is really turning into a spambot...
You don't need to be the best either. You can be a salesman on the adjacent street.
Interesting, had not considered lisbon. Amazing broadband connectivity.

Any thoughts on what a 2BR 2BA apartment would go for?
I came here to say this - the History of Rome is a phenomenal podcast, and easily the most interesting history text I've read or listened to. The narrator does a good job of trying to reconcile the sometimes wildly varying accounts of the source material, and he's clearly extremely passionate about the subject. It's very to interesting to hear about the progression from early kingdom, to republic, to empire, to military dictatorship with a very thin republican veneer.
Funny how you say digg instead of dig.
I believe you, but my experience has been the opposite, both at Matasano and at Arbor Networks before that; in-house counsel has a bad habit of being stubborn as a way of demonstrating value.
It's pretty typical for employees to be strictly forbidden from signing contracts; that doesn't mean your firm refuses to be bound by them, but rather that anything you sign is going to be reviewed.
Do you know if this will attract attention or fees from AT&T under their newly-priced tethering model?
ARTIFICIALLY-INDUCED INTELLIGENCE DETERIORATES AT A RATE OF TIME DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE QUANTITY OF THE INCREASE.
As a poster mentioned down further, Waterloo is where RIM (of BlackBerry fame) is headquartered, in addition to having one of, if not the best, computer science/engineering programs in Canada. A great area to find smart, young minds.

And if you're bored on weekends, you can come up to Toronto, only 2 hours away.
Smith Mountain Lake around Roanoke, VA.

656MW of power generation/storage, built for $103 million in the early 1960s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Mountain_Dam

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
Alas, Russia has not embraced Capitalism the way, say, Estonia has.
I would also love to hear from someone who can give us their experiences in these three countries / cities. Can someone help?
If I'm not mistaken, the unsigned configuration profile fix comes with the carrier unlock (not out for the iPhone 4 yet), not the jailbreak.
Apple knows what you want and what you need
The iPod, iPhone, iPad, Macintosh, Mac OSX are the worlds most popular products, all developed by Apple inc. The man behind these award-winning pieces of technology is non other than Steve Paul Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple inc. Steve Jobs will tell you that he knows what you like and want, and from what i can see he is absolutely right.
That actually makes sense... now to find out what makes it think it's after my first visit. A non-crashing browser means I leave it running for days at a time.
Ask HN: What are some good GoDaddy alternatives?
Hey HN'ers,

I was just about to register a new domain and before going through all GoDaddy up-sell BS I thought I'd ask HN if there are any good GoDaddy alternatives.

Any suggestions?
I know of a studio in Costa Rica that makes these really well really fast and do not cost a ton.
This has to be the most entertaining of all the videos so far.
Bill Gates is widely regarded as an asshole. Likewise Steve Ballmer.

Counter-examples include Warren Buffett, who is regarded as a sweetheart. Larry and Sergey are famously nice, though they've apparently had their moments of being assholes. Sam Walton was nice to his people but ruthless in every other way.
What would a nice 2BR 2BA apartment go for in downtown Kuala Lumpur? Or if expensive there, how about outskirts near public transportation?

It is hard to get a read on Cyberjaya... but it seems to be a small development focused on multinationals and not really set up for startups. Maybe I'm wrong?
I tried 'tether' just now, but it fails when you try to switch apps or if the phone locks.
How do you change the profile? I don't see the tether option in Settings > General > Network
This American Life