skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My point -- and I apologize if it was not clearly made -- was not that Facebook can't be beaten, but that Diaspora isn't the product to do so. My position isn't that there isn't dissatisfaction with Facebook, simply that for all the hue and cry about privacy, I don't think intuitive privacy controls are going to be what makes a mass number of average users switch.

Facebook beat MySpace ultimately by being easier to use, with a cleaner interface. It also struck at a time when social networking technology (and broadband access) had matured to the point necessary for mass public acceptance. The normal lifecycle for every major social network before Facebook was about 18 months -- that's about the span of time MySpace was king of the hill.

I in fact predict that Facebook will eventually fade to AOL-esque irrelevance. I just don't think Diaspora has the right value proposition to slay the Facebook dragon.
"As it turns out, most god-awful piss beers are pretty much the same"

ftfy
How to Become an Affiliate Millionaire in 3 Years
done, read about it here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646290
I feel like they would have said 'too big to fail' about myspace, too, but Facebook won because there was social cachet in being 'exclusive' and because myspace pages were butt-ugly (too much user control). You never know what's going to or not going to be the achilles heel. Perhaps, in the end, people simply yearn for change and any excuse will do, informed or otherwise.
Then you might also like: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/cs655/readings/smalltalk.h...
I took it as extremely dry wit. The writer can't not see it.
So that means open-sourcing it would be a bad decision, despite my personal wishes. The suspicion part is very difficult to understand: if they just suspect I am infringing, can they sue and force me to disclose the tools?
One of the most important take aways is understanding the rules of the game. It's important any time humans organize. A French professor I had in college gave me the sage advice, "Know the rules before you try to break the rules." It's a little out of context to the situation at the time, but still applicable nonetheless.
The mighty reflog and the amazing bisect
What do Java developers really think about the Oracle, Google lawsuit?
Does anyone remember what happened to Myspace? Of course it was complicated, but I think the primary driver in the exodus from Myspace to Facebook were the perceived privacy benefits of Facebook. People do care about privacy, but will only act on it if there is a reasonably convenient alternative - if Diaspora can make itself convenient, I think it has a chance.

Also, add in a slow news week with some sensationalized mainstream stories about privacy that mention Diaspora, and I think the odds increase even more. People love to have something to be paranoid about with their friends.
Is The Tablet Market A Mirage?
A pity, the date-based dating idea sounded really awesome.
schedule minimum work time, schedule minimum social time, and the rest is flexible.
GenJuice Acquires STUNT Marketing for Sour Candy
So you were starting a business with someone, and you don't even have an address or phone number for them?

That's right. In retrospect it definitely seems like a bad idea, but at the time I didn't think of it. I'm most interested in the coding side of things, and didn't think so much of the business aspects.
American light lagers amuse me as a brewer. They're pretty bland and watery, but it's one of the hardest styles to get right, and yet it still became the mass produced swill. Every flaw stands out because there's no major flavors to hide behind. It's a beer where expensive process became the most profitable because of volume sold (because it's probably the cheapest set of ingredients for a beer style).
How can Facebook's "500 million user" base be the impediment to
people adopting Diaspora?

Because you're going to stay where your friends are, unless it's really easy to switch. It's not going to be easy to switch to Diaspora when you have to host your own node. Then when you do switch, you won't be able to find any of your friends. Diaspora has no solution to the discovery problem. There's no way to search for people, you'll have to ask all your friends where their node is; It will be like exchanging emails again. Sounds like a lot of hassle for not much gain.
Selling stuff on Twitter
"It needs to at least compete with Java/PHP ect."

Why?

And you know what? It never will. Rubyists need to give this up. It's a pipe-dream. Microsoft can set up large/local conferences, charge $75, and make a sales pitch. Dozens of vendors lined up to hand out schwag and pitch their product.

For management, they don't get the best tool, but if it meets requirements, then it's a no-brainer because the most expensive component license is (usually) cheaper than the dev time to meet the basic requirements in-house (those are usually a small subset of what the component might do).

The bigger issue is that that sort of buy vs build scenario manages risk very well.

Ruby has a lot of strengths, but providing a strong story for managing risk isn't one of them. Especially if you don't bill by the hour.

The world of software development isn't winner take all. The same things that can make Ruby and Rubyists great are some of the same reasons it likely won't ever be a good fit for some of the mass-market issues Java and .NET are a good fit for.

That's OK in my book. I die a little on the inside every time someone tries to sound smart by saying "use the best tool for the job" when often there are clear and obvious winners and losers in software. But in this case... Use the best tool for the job. Or maybe just the tool you like most. If Ruby works for you and your company, you're already doing the risk management thing very well. No reason not to use it.
Give me a break. Is he making closer to $150k a month, or $5k a month? Both statements cannot be "equally true" coming from a human pen.
Droid X Rom by Birdman Released
The Facebook privacy debacle isn't about privacy, it's about trust. Facebook is a company people trusted to keep their party photos private among a close group of college friends, then one day their aunt says she can see those photos. All of them. "Why??? I didn't change any settings????"
Write yourself an strace in 70 lines of code
For encryption to be worth something, it needs to be unencrypted by the end user. However, I don't see how they'd do that. Browsers don't integrate this functionality and one could write a plugin, but that's a big barrier to adoption.

I'm not sure why a plugin is necessary. Javascript can do encryption. Actually, I'm not even sure why airtight end-to-end encryption is necessary. Most people will use a "standard" install. The "standard" install will honor the good-faith deletion requests. Those not using a standard install are SOL. Those who have gotten hacked -- there will be a continual arms race just as there is now. This is nothing new. It's still a far cry better than Big Company Has All Your Data Just Trust Us.
LazerCatz - 8-Bit Multiplayer Shooter - NodeKO Entry
The suspicion part is very difficult to understand: if they just suspect I am infringing, can they sue and force me to disclose the tools?

It depends, and you should consult a qualified attorney if you really need to know.

That said, the US in particular has very broad disclosure rules. I don't think it would be much of a stretch to say that the vast majority of evidence used in civil cases is obtained via disclosure after the lawsuit in question has been filed.
So, actually he is saying that real estate and having your own beamer instead of renting one has no cost? He doesn't pay for buying it? There will be no problems after using it for some years that need some further investment?
I admit that I have no idea about effectively running a real estate business. But when somebody talks like that, it seems he knows so little about it, that he probably would get better results with renting from somebody who knows how to run this kind of business.
Maxklein is so Meta, I'm not sure if the story is true, but there's almost always something to learn from those posts, like: If you are looking for ideas to build something, hack all the creative process/brainsstorming etc... and do port your brainstorming to freelancer boards for ideas, it's ok to do what you enjoy doing, no matter how rich you are or the financial reward. I agree to both.
Such software could be hosted online for cheap using Amazon as a back end.
It is very hard to get started with a dating site, since you need a large user base if you want members to be able to find people that they will be compatible with.

Dating is much easier to build onto a site which already has a user base.
Technically speaking, both can equally be true.

Every month, he makes more than $5000

At the moment he’s making more than $5000 a day

If one makes more than $5000 a day, clearly that person will make more than $5000 a month.
Rules for supervising projects
Technology Aside, Most People Still Decline to Be Located
It's not that every restaurant obeys this law. I know two pigs who eat Chinese every night, and they love it. Their owner gets it from a local restaurant.

Feeding your own dog/chickens/whatever your own leftovers is not illegal fortunately.
I have to say that the idea of prldr.com is very nice. Of course there are multiple RSS readers but I have not found any which preloaded my pages and had very basic, yet very functional, keyboard navigation + interface.

The simple left frame containing all my news items is clean with the color coding enabled, and browsing through with "j" and "k" is simple and fast.

That having said I do think this idea is very dependent upon the _preloading_, without it this is still a decent and useful idea but the preloading was the cherry on the cake.

Looking forward to see preloading back in and maybe some more work on the listing of available content in the left menu.
We aren't speaking technically. It's a story.
Snake Robots Can Now Climb Trees
I wasn't worried about conversion rate, just number of responses. I planned to run it for a week but stopped after 3 days. My CPM ended up being 1/3 of what I budgeted per completed survey, again b/c Facebook ad targeting was already so specific. My survey was about trading card games, and I limited it to people interested in Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, etc.
The UK is not Europe, as anyone in the UK or Europe will tell you ;)
Thanks for the post Andrew!
Thoughts on taking the leap - Starting a new chapter
Ask HN: Start-up idea in existing company, what compensation should I expect?
Hacker News focuses mainly on start-up ideas that receive outside funding but I have a question about creating a company from within the company I work for.<p>Let me preface this by noting that I had this idea before I joined the company. The product/service would combine a web interface with manufacturing. My employers existing manufacturing infrastructure is a perfect fit; we would just need to build is the web interface (and obviously market it).<p>If I bring this idea to my company what kind of compensation should I expect? A raise? Equity in the new venture? If an idea is "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration", how about at least 1% ownership?
youre right, prldr without the preloading isn't worthy the name ;-) Will be back in a day or so.
The interesting thing about this is that it boils down to sales. The CEO sells/evangelizes a vision internally and externally. The sell the idea of working at the company (recruiting). Early they sell the dream to investors and the earliest revenue deals (whatever they are). Later, their sales efforts might be limited to bigger deals/partnerships and recruiting other leaders for their company.

I wonder how many founders on Hacker News (who are aimed at big growth) want to be this type of CEO. And I wonder if there are any other types of CEOs at the top. I've never met any.
I did quite a few perception mapping exercises while I was in business school.* They get really interesting when you take experiment a level deeper and seek to understand how different customer segments perceive your brand/product.

For example, the beer study would get much more interesting if one could assess the results by segment - say "beer expert", "college student", "joe blue collar", etc. The outcomes can really inform positioning and message...and can lead to product extensions based purely around marketing. Diet Coke (for women) and Coke Zero (for me) are a great example.

*Yes - I have an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill. Please flame as necessary. :)
What was the other one? Do you have a link to it? There doesn't seem to be any reference to it on the site.
Why make it necessary to switch? Make it an adjunct to FB. The more secure super-hip adjunct. I can imagine someone getting their circle of hip friends on FB because they want to share some racy stuff, and they no longer trust FB. It's entirely plausible that they could still keep track of their school chums and parents on FB.

People in protest movements would gravitate toward such software. They have reason to be paranoid about a centralized corporate service.
What kind of person do you think you'll get for those peanuts? $6 per hour is below minimum wage here. A PA is a skilled worker, not a cleaner.
I have worked for many male and many female led organizations. Since life is too short, I only work for high achievers who do amazing things. Nevertheless, I have observed that the rules of workplace status differ between the two organizations. Actually, the rules of workplace status differ in every organization as the leader sets the tone. However, since we are generalizing, I wanted to express my thoughts to see what people thought.

Steve Blank describes this as a competition vs collaboration model. I think it's better to take it to the school yard and it's about play fighting vs. social belongingness which are each expensive strategies that require total investment and exclude each other.

Men (let's say) usually play fight to determine the pecking order. Aggression for men is like a status bubble sort: continuously comparing and swapping status with your peers. This strategy consumes energy continuously, but transactionally.

Women (let's say) often mistake play aggression for real aggression and respond inappropriately, thereby losing the game.

Women (let's say) have a different status game. While it's usually described as building relationships, I think that's not quite it play fighters build relationships too. The other game is about constantly demonstrating support of other people around you. This is more like neural networks: reinforce connections or prune them. This strategy also consumes energy continuously, but over time.

Men (let's say) often make a mistake of not responding correctly and come off as insensitive.

If we are truthfully generalizing, none of this really matters since every leader is different so you'll have to adapt skillfully to your situation. Trust me: gender is not a true signal of which strategy is in play.

Lessons:

1. Learn how to be acutely aware to your organization's status game and play accordingly.

2. When you're in power, make sure you create a productive status game and enforce accordingly.
So Rails gets the blame for the terrible executive leadership described here?
Has convertible debt won? And if it has, is that a good thing?
The advice here is not specific to the subject at hand - there are several lessons to be learned about startups, interactions with people, interactions with colleagues, and yourself.

I found this highlighted some of the things I knew, but didn't know how to express.
I am sorry for being harsh... but I think is the present neglected version of yourself that does not want to hang around with your parents.

And yes, it would be foolish from them to expect, having not devoted enough time to your infant/child version, to try to compensate by devoting unwanted attention to your adult self.

However, it has been proven once and again. Children were not meant to be put in daycare. They were meant to be grown within an extended family environment (complete with elder siblings/cousins to look up to and younger siblings/cousins to look after).

That's why we are so SNAFU these days.
"gust", not "guest"
Review our startup updated per HN community comments (Thanks): Presence
Tell HN: My rule of thumb for initial estimation
I think it was Fred Brooks Jr in "The Mythical Man Month" who said that when planning a project he spent 1/3 of the time on design, 1/6 of the time coding, 1/4 of the time on component testing, and 1/4 of the time on system integration and testing.

I've found these estimates to be remarkably accurate and use them all the time. If I think something will take a day of coding, it usually takes a week of work to get it properly done. That's not one day from midday Tuesday to midday Wednesday because I turn it into 3 mini-projects and run around the design/write/test/integrate cycle as fast as possible, but it's a surprisingly good predictor.

I now use it when estimating other people's work. If they say it will take a day, or a week, I multiply by 6. If they say it will take a month, it'll never be done.

Unless they're using the same rule ...
If I've Won Cronkite, I've Won America
5 Reasons Your Web Development Process is Broken
HTML5 in action: "The Wilderness Downtown" Chrome Experiment
Lots of languages are fashionable today, but most of them don't overlap with the use cases that are traditionally handled by C++.

Even so, it fares pretty good. What it lacks in expressive power it makes up in speed, libraries and industry support. C# is in my opinion a realistic C++ alternative or complement.
I love how the dissenting opinion just gets a single-line mention at the end of the article:

> However, another expert claimed that the plumes may have diluted or moved.
On what is their competition based? How is the winner determined?
I tend to take this approach with medicine too - the human body's a pretty complex machine.
Writing fast Brainfuck interpreter is one of the best optimization exercises I've ever encountered. Trivial to start, easy to improve and then it gets progressively harder with every iteration.
The Mad Men-like world of IBM's 1950s magazine advertising.
How long is a piece of string?

This really depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which are: 1) the non-obviousness of the idea, 2) the degree to which you have the idea developed as something that can be implemented, and 3) the attitude of your current employer.

My guess: if all you're coming to them with is a vague idea, you're likely to get nothing more than a pat on the back, if they deign to implement it at all.
Fallacy of begging the question.

"Gender" denotes the things which are not the physical genital apparatus, and includes but is not limited to types of behavior or preferences or tendencies toward behaviors or preferences. Whether all differences between the sexes in such areas are "cultural conventions" or whether some are in fact "wired in" at a non-cultural level is a topic of endless debate.
Digg losing 1/3 of its traffic overnight (v4)
Agile Tortoise Releases iPad Hit “Terminology” for iPhone
Where's 'here'? His $6 rate if for Filipinos, which I'm guessing is an ok rate (given a minimum wage of $2k / yr: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_countr...)
Uhm..
What exactly am I supposed to do there ?
It's just an image :/
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6995033/ - MongoDB is web scale
An Alexa graph. Seriously? While I wouldn't be surprised if Digg's traffic is changing, I'd hardly cite Alexa as an authoritative source.
When people were asked to drive the latest Ford Fiesta, Toyota Yaris, Chevrolet Cobalt and BMW 5-series, they all seemed rather comparable, except the BMW for some reason...
The Mythical 5% of programmers
My blog post about it http://www.eberfdias.com/blog/tuy-im/358/
Carl Icahn was probably talking about Fortune 500 CEOs, which are a different breed than startup CEOs.

It's common knowledge that founding CEOs usually cannot run a company well when there are hundreds of employees, and visa versa. They require different skill sets. Founding CEOs are likely do eschew processes and do things themselves when necessary and nobody else is around to do it. Fortune 500 CEOs are likely to insist on processes and delegate any work that needs to be done.

Also, startup CEOs cannot afford to surround themselves with people who are aren't as smart or smarter than themselves. With limited resources and capital, everybody needs to pull their own weight. A startup's success is not guaranteed, so every advantage helps. In a Fortune 500 company, the company is most likely not going to disappear anytime soon. The company was functioning before the CEO was promoted/hired, and they'll just keep doing their job assuming he/she doesn't interfere.
The Cassiopeia project (science lectures)
Everything still stands. It's too much effort for normal people to host their own node and you won't be able to find anyone else on it. They have to solve discovery before it will even come close to useful.
Not entirely true. There are tools like CreateSpace which cover a lot of the publishing and distribution part for you. You just have to send them a PDF.

You're on your own for marketing, editing, and formatting, though.
Cross reading: http://bhorowitz.com/2010/05/30/how-andreessen-horowitz-eval... http://bhorowitz.com/2010/03/14/notes-on-leadership-be-like-...
They very well can be equally true. $5,000 a day is 'more than' $5k a month, no matter how you read it. While I agree that it's a potentially confusing statement, I just don't see anything factually incorrect about it.

For what it's worth, my interpretation is that 'on average' or perhaps 'since he started', he's made generally over $5,000 in a month, but lately he's doing far better than that.

Perhaps I'm the one reading too much into it here, but I strongly disagree that it is in any way misleading or semantically problematic.
Is anyone else oddly inspired to make an OCaml to Brainfk translator just to build a staggeringly awesome rube goldberg machine?
I thought the video was funny, but was more impressed by the "If you can type, you can make a movie" concept. Very cool startup idea!
Works best if you put in an actual familiar address, rather than just, say, your hometown.
I agree that dressing nicely is a good way to communicate that you're serious about interacting with others.

You certainly don't want to come across as unprofessional and it's important to show others that you're putting forth your best effort (including appearance) for the work at hand.
I would agree with those below who said the advice is largely nonportable (a trait I find to apply to most of what 37 Signals says, although it is interesting nevertheless), because most companies are not in the business of teaching or evangelism, nor should be/can be in that business.

The injunction to identify and sell byproducts is a pretty bad one for most companies. Growth and success in business is achieved by returns to scale in core competencies, as a general rule. This does not mean you can't "branch out" and have other business units, but in general, loss of focus, especially for a small company and/or startup, can be devastating if already thin resources are cannibalised for some new offering wholly unrelated to the original mission.
The CEO also makes the executives get along to work together effectively.
Google Invests $86 Million In Low-Income Housing
No person says "more than $5,000" to imply that the value may be any amount greater than $5,000, with equal probability. Saying "more than $5,000 a month" if you actually mean "$150,000 a month" may as well be the dictionary definition of misleading, and totally defeats the purpose of giving a number at all.

The obvious explanation is that one or the other statement is a typo, and it would be nice to know which, since it's a big difference. It's possible that one means "since he started", or whatever, but again, it would be nice if the author said so.