skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Review my startup idea, is this a dud?
Hi,

In a nutshell I am developing a web-service that will allow the creators of user generated content to view a range of metrics relating to that content so that they can evaluate its performance. This is something I find is missing on a lot of websites & I often wonder about.

An example where this could be used is on a classifieds website, when a user posts an ad my software would track the number of impressions that ad receives, most popular days / times it is viewed, its search results ranking on that classifieds website, how it ranks in relation to other ads, offer keyword suggestions, an external / links pointing to their ad.

The customer of this product would be the website owner, it would be free initially but I eventually would like to charge based a pay-per-use model.

I have more advanced ideas for other services it could provide but they are for later versions.

A lot of people recently have been telling me they think this is a really bad idea, that it would not really be useful to users.

Just wanted to reach out and get some wider opinions - do you think I am wasting my time or would you find this a useful service?
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I found looking at the code that the C# compiler generates for its yield keyword to also be helpful for understanding this keyword.

Source of an iterator example:
http://gist.github.com/524972

What the compiler generates for the above example:
http://gist.github.com/524974

The meat of it is in the MoveNext() function, where the original function is split up along the yield keywords into cases in a switch statement.
Total speculation but it seems very likely that Google has some database / data analysis / data processing related patents that Oracle would like to cross-license and rather than a starting with a soft discussion they throw a live grenade in the room and make the talks go quickly.
Concurrent GC too?
Welcome to our site, Mr. Ferris. ;)
Can I get a link to the decorator explanation? A quick browse through his history didn't reveal much.
A man's self-image should not rely on how much money he has.

But a woman's image of that man will often depend a great deal on how much money he has. Not all the time, and it's not the only factor, of course, but to say it's not a big or frequent factor in the real world is to deny reality. (Not assuming you think that, more that the OA's message came close to making this mistake.)
vimium is pretty awesome for most websites. I have three exceptions which I would hope that at least one would become default exceptions.

http"star"://wave.google.com/"star"

http"star"://mail.google.com/"star"

http"star"://www.feedly.com/"star"

the problem with wave (and potentially other faux textareas) is that when editing, vimium doesn't automatically go into insert mode, so when i first tried to type in wave, i reloaded the page and opened 1 previously closed tab and 1 new tab.
> By far the biggest hassle with using Alibaba is just communicating with the seller, they hate answering email and if you ask multiple questions they'll cherry-pick the most superficial one to respond to. The only way to get anything done is to be up in the middle of the night and get them on MSN messenger.

Can you elaborate? Is this only true if you need more detailed info about the product. If you know the product is what you want will it be rather easy to order it?

Or is it that Alibaba doesn't have "full US localization and integrated cart/payment/shipping/etc"
You're talking about the function of what I posted, I'm talking about the form.

try:
something = some_io_that_needs_an_event_callback()
if do_something_with(something):
more_io_with_callback()
some_other_callback_thingy()
else:
yet_other_io()
some_other_io()
except AnyException:
do_something_sane()

is not a structure available to you in Node.js, again, pending somebody proving otherwise in Javascript (though I've made this complaint in other places where somebody really should have shown me the code). That expands to tons of code in Javascript, code which is very resistant to abstraction.

Your code block says it is available to you in Ruby. There's no reason why it shouldn't be; it's not a hard compiler transform to manage that. Taking code that looks like a "thread" but compiling it into events and using something-like-continuations to keep the stack together is on the order of a homework problem. Based on what I know about Ruby, the responsibility of those pieces is split up differently but all the pieces must be there. But it's not something Javascript can do (quite yet, and based on what I've seen in Python the 'yield' approach has its own issues).
It's unreasonable if it doesn't give you $250k + $50k a year in benefits and there are free alternatives available. There are some cases where it makes sense, but I think it's good to have a discussion about what kind of benefits it provides to make it worth the extra money.
Sounds a bit vague and similar to what I am working on. Is this basically analytics but not just on the content creator's site but any other site where the content appears?
I remember getting a Core War emulator running on my IBM PC/XT back in the day, but I was way too young (I think about 12) or perhaps just too uncommitted to really learn how to build my own warriors or truly understand the programming language used. But the idea of programming games has always appealed to me - another one I played around with for a bit was CRobots. I never seemed to manage to find something that had a really active community.
I wanted to try them but was surprised that REI in Mountain View & San Jose, CA did not carry more than 1 (large) size in just 1 model. I know REI has very good return policy and encourages me to just order online & return if don't like. But still, I feel like wanting to try them on and see if I like them or not and which model is best.
The Ternary Operator
Let me restate the point differently, maybe it will make more sense that way.

While many people think that Dalvik was built to protect against all kinds of lawsuits, this is not true - it only protects against one kind - copyright/tradesecret lawsuit, and does not protect against patent lawsuit. This is exactly what article says where you quoted it. The reason why it needs to be pointed out is that, well, many people do not realize the difference.

Does it make more sense now?
Indeed. Good old Steve misses the point again...
To my knowledge jQTouch requires jQuery, which has a annoying loading lag.
Same discussion here
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1465454
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1471695
If there are at least two people in the company and one consulting can cover their expenses I think that's the way to go. MSFT (Paul Allen and Bill Gates) did consulting in Microsoft.
You might want to check out TheFunded.com for VC info - not sure if they have angel info. You have to sign-up and be approved though.
You couldn't really game the system without ordering your own burger, which would cost money.

In reality I expect that the leaderboard will probably see large turnover anyway, because most people will be interested in designing their own burger to try to get on the top rather than buying something from the leaderboard themselves.
It does, depending on your definition. Aggregation of activity streams is a part of it.
Out of curiosity, what products does WalMart have high markup on?

Interesting thoughts on the capitalist utopia. I don't really have a strong intuition about it one way or another.
Endometriosis Facts and Complementary Therapies
This is what the ACTA should have been focused on, instead of trying to stop people downloading music. It is the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, after all.
Do not confuse a Law with text from a Declaration. Not the same planet.
Its targeted towards websites that have a large number of independent content creators such as a forum, auction or classifieds website.

Within the users admin panel on those websites, users will be able to view metrics, kind of like Google Analytics, showing statistical performance for each of their listings on that website - so they know how they are performing. It will also inform them of any external websites, tweets or other web content that contains a link back to their listing.

Right now, analytical packages seem to be focused on providing statistics back to the owners of websites, but there is not much focused on providing feedback to the individual content creators.
Yes, but I've heard that it also doesn't work very well.
yes. that is quite simply even with ruby, the wrong way to tackle that problem.
The next challenge then, is to remember it when the morning arrives.

(Also fun, if you think of too many altogether... Complicates the above even further.)
I've just posted the source: http://github.com/DTrejo/HN-Hotkeys
I'm curious if anyone knows, how far does Vibram's IP protection go?

It sounds like here these were counterfeit Vibrams (holding themselves out as real) but can someone else make gloved shoes (with individual toes) or do these guys have a lockdown on that entire concept?
I believe "Wendy's" has a poster in some of their establishments explicitly mentioning that their burgers have 256 permutations.

How free form are the possibilities in ordering? (also naming...)
Walking: free. Car: not free. Therefore walk everywhere since a free alternative is available? The thing is, 250k of benefits as two and a half engineers. I don't know Oracle software at all, but I imagine there are a number of use cases where their advantage over mysql would be at least that much.
Practical Ways to Become a Great Designer | UX Movement
> But it's the true polymorphic approach, right?

Wrong. I guess that's the end of this article. You don't add a method to a type in every case some other type wants to know something about it.
Start Up Reality Tv episode 1
I agree with you to a certain extent. However, I think that there is still some scope for useful regulations of established standards. For example http(s) should not have any limits put upon it. I would be happy with just that. The FCC will always be behind the times, but they can still offer some security in what would now be clearly unjust to tamper with.
The classic OOP solution to that class of the problem is the visitor pattern, so yes, multiple dispatch to the rescue.
Could you explain your position a little more?

This place doesn't seem so bad. In fact, some aspects of it are downright clever. A quick browse of the 4foods website gives a picture of a fast food company that might actually be able to serve healthy food, unlike most of the competition.

Because you can plan your food online beforehand, you can 'design' food which is more healthy than anything mcdonalds would be willing to give menu space for. Not to mention you don't have to rely on their people to come up with healthy options.

Always take what these companies say with a grain of salt, but here are a few quotes from their site.

"Fresh, local produce is transformed into our menu offerings in the Community Kitchen Commissary-a vocational training center."

"We upgrade food that people already eat-burgers, nuggets, fries, salads and teas - transforming them into new menu items that are convenient, and almost infinitely customizable to our guests' lifestyles and cultural preferences. Our food is measurably healthier than existing products."

"Our restaurants are designed to function as community hubs, as they satisfy local appetites in healthy, customizable ways."

It uses social networking to spread, crowd-sources the meals, has a new take on transparency as far as ingredients are concerned and - very importantly for something you are going to spend money on - sounds like fun.
They have Chrome OS in the works and smart phones are getting more powerful, almost comparable to netbooks.

Assuming that this is relying on C++ as Chrome does; might they be able to adapt Chrome OS?
Being an entrepreneur is too much work for you? Good, that leaves more room for the rest of us.
Not only that, but all of us who have, or were planning to run OpenSolaris based machines in datacenters are now having to once again re-consider and look for alternatives.

If this new project can take the space that OpenSolaris was once in it would be absolutely fantastic.
Who wants to work at Google anymore?
Didn't watch the presentation, so maybe it's addressed, but what is the iPad the convergence of? Unlike a Swiss army knife (knife, saw, scissors, tweezers, toothpick, etc.), or pocket computer/phone/camera. It's a relatively different type of device (not a necessary new one, though), not a mashup of otherwise independent devices.
Not sure why someone down voted this, I think it's a good solution. Each time I had more consulting work than I knew what to do with, I'd raise my rates. Its a good way to throttle incomming work and either earn more money -or- what youre looking for: have more time for your startup.
It's taken centuries for academics to figure out what bloggers discovered in about five years?
Excellent point there are many types of polymorhism (hehe) ad hoc, subtype etc.

As a functional programmer when I hear polymorphism I default to parametric polymorphism. This guy is not talking about polymorphism at all but instead the limitation of late binding via dyanmic/single dispatch.
It might stabilize with enough of a community around it, you might even see some sort of hotelling's beach situation between the leading meals.

If it or anything similar takes off, it would be interesting to watch any memes develop.
To break fre, the way i would recommend is to save up enough money that you have a reasonable runway to pick one startup idea and pursue/iterate it intensely. Set a goal for how much money that is and save as rigorously as you can. During this time of earning money, you can at least do some customer development around your ideas. And my advice is that unless your consulting and your product are really tightly tied together, you are better off keeping them entirely separate from a legal perspective. If one or both start growing, keeping them together can get really messy. Obviously there are are exceptions to that.
Sounds useful. Who are your competitors? How big is the market? Create a slide deck and sell the idea to a website and develop it for them. Don't focus on having a "bad idea". Ideas are worthless, execution is everything.
The new (flash-free) Metacritic.com
The Expression Problem strikes again!

There's a guy giving a good lecture on it: http://professor-fish.blogspot.com/2010/08/lecture-series-on...
(I think he even has a solution in Haskell)
Keep a pad and paper on your bedside table. I can't count the number of times I've woken up to find that somebody with my handwriting has solved something that was bothering me.
Actually, as a divorced man, I prefer the empty house.
Welcome to the new decade
It's the latter — on aliexpress or tradetang or taobao you could just add it to your cart, checkout, and pay with no haggling. Shipping is often free, as EMS and Hong Kong Post have normally very low rates. On DealExtreme and many eBay stores you can order a 99¢ item with free airmail from HK and get it a few days later.

On Alibaba, you have to talk with the seller for anything to happen. Though some of them work directly for a factory, many of the sellers are total freelance agents, and even the ones that work for a factory will act as agents to resell items from other factories. You can usually suss out how direct a seller's relationship with the ultimate supplier is, and they'll often tell you outright, though none of them seem to be willing to talk about each other. All of the ones I've interacted with have been ~30yo women that seem to be working solo as agents with other people doing the fulfillment.

The other thing is that they very rarely put up enough information to find out what the product actually is. Often the product can easily be made-to-order with finishing options up to you (though the factory does all the product development). You end up looking at a bunch of agents and looking at pictures, weights, and options to discern who's reselling what. Occasionally the OEMs will have product data on their websites and you can backtrack from there. It's kind of maddening but none of them really give a shit.

Even if you think you know what you're getting, you still want to get spec sheets from them for confirmation, and spreadsheet catalogs of similar stuff so you know you aren't missing anything (they don't keep their listings up to date). Even after that you still have to go back and forth on quantities, prices, shipping, lead times, options, potential setup fees for customizations, etc. They do like MSN and pasting stuff into excel documents to send via direct file transfer. It works ok once you get that far, but it feels really sketchy.
I'm glad you liked it. i've recently discovered the awesomeness of generators, and I'm starting to use them a lot in my code. I don't see them a lot in other people's code that I read, so I figure I'd spread the word a bit.
I don't post tweets here, but this one was just too good to not share with HN.
Super-summary: a bunch of stars.
256? As permutations go, that's nothing.
As I understand it, you're basically talking about stats for the creator of the content who is creating it on another site,

I think there might be potential for something like that.

However, you would just have to nail down your market better, check competitors and survey some medium-size user generated content sites on what they would want. Talk to them. Ask them, get free feedback, enlist them for a beta. Make contacts, then they will be potential customers later.
Also maybe look to see if you can write it somehow to interface with Google Analytics api -- a lot of sites use that for their own backend stats.
That and I think a lot of people outgrow drug use or advocacy. They did it when they were young, stopped and now don't care about the rights of other people. Or maybe they just developed a cynical view of youth or see the negative drug culture.

Basically, an "I don't care anymore so just keep them banned" attitude or an inability to do analytical thinking to see that the negatives of our drug culture aren't inherent to drug use.
I only skimmed the article but it looks like he is more or less talking about the expression problem brought up by Philip Wadler some time ago. Definitely multiple dispatch can solve this problem but if we stick to the original definition of the problem it breaks on the requirement for static type safety (which probably doesn't matter to you heh).

GADTs in haskell and I think Scala can solve this cleanly. Active Patterns in F# may also provide a clean solution for the full problem.
Well they had to come to some sort of deal in order to both agree to this proposal. Money does not have to change hands, for example, in order for a deal to have occured. Simply a multi-party agreement. "If I back this will you back it too? You will? Great. We have a deal. Let's shake."
Hm, it's not a great algorithm compared to some others that have been discussed here. There was a crazy one last year where it could replace entire large regions of the photo automatically and there was no indication anything had been altered.

This looks like a poorly done paste and smear job. For a student's semester project, which I suppose it is, it's great.
Selling for most people now is not a great idea for a couple reasons.

A) as the other person pointed out, you'll still likely have rent. As for bouncing around looking for cheaper rent, you typically get locked in to a rental agreement for at least 6 months, if not a year. You can't just move every month to save a few bucks.

B) Moving costs money (and time) in and of itself.

C) Selling costs. At least in the US, most housing sales are going to eat up 5-6% of the house price in commissions. On a $150k house sale, it's going to cost you $9k (plus, again, the time and expense of moving).

Unless moving is going to save you significant expenses vs renting, it's probably not that wise to blindly sell and move. Assuming, that is, you even could sell to someone in this market. It's not great in many areas for sellers right now.

If I could rent someplace $800-$1000 less than where I'm at now, I'd consider it, because the cost/expense would be recouped in probably a year, but I wouldn't go through all that hassle/cost/expense to save a couple hundred per month.

YMMV.
Agreed. And the lines between a business deal and a political deal are blurry at best.
Don't successful companies with lots of resources already have the ability to purchase faster servers, and more of them? Should there be some law that requires all companies use the same hardware to deliver their content?
Thanks, I'll look at the N210, but generally the acceptability of a keyboard is rather dependent on hand size.
In the example with monsters, perhaps the issue is that all the different monster types are classes instead of data. For instance, I would instead implement something like

class Monster
attr_reader :type
def initialize(type, likes = {})
@type = type
@likes = likes
end

def likes?(x)
@likes[x.type]
end
end

orc = Monster.new(:orc)
troll = Monster.new(:troll)
elf = Monster.new(:elf)
elf_maiden = Monster.new(:elf_maiden, :elf => true)

puts troll.likes?(elf)
puts elf_maiden.likes?(elf)

If you have 150 subclasses, it is a code smell in the first place, and perhaps by addressing the root problem, issues like the one Steve mentions won't occur in the first place.
That's like saying "What if we let people develop open source web browsers?! They might make a mistake that causes a buffer overflow on my webserver, then I'd have to harden it!"

See: Postel's Law
My History of Social Networking -- From Six Degrees On...
I don't understand... sounds like you still have to schedule startup time around a job. Is it that you're working fewer hours than you were before? Wouldn't it have been easier just to take on fewer consulting hours?
It might be good to have a discussion like that, in theory, at least. But I rather doubt posting Oracle's price list, context-free is some attempt to have or start a discussion. More likely, it's impressively unimaginative karma-whoring.
I fly a paraglider which is essentially the same thing only unpowered. At around $10/hour it's within reach of most people. Takes around 7-9 days to get a restricted license in most countries. Then you just grab a friend, walk your back pack up the hill and, if the weather gods are agreeable, launch.
Did anyone else think it was strange that this article didn't even mention the importance of dark matter to the formation of galaxies? Without the enormous quantity of dark matter that gravitationally binds our galaxy together the centrifugal force would cause the galaxy to fly apart.
Oh, it's possible, but it's easier to use if there's a quick shortcut.

I love how Gnome handles unicode insertion though.
I don't use it often, but I keep a real GPS around for two reasons: it runs on AA batteries and doesn't need a cell tower. I actually bought it a couple months after being lost in a hurricane-stricken area. Even maps don't work well when all the street signs are blown down (or away). But I've been on enough back roads in the years since to know that I can't count on a phone GPS for maps.

I also carry a decent flashlight (Fenix LD01). I used to carry a weaker light (Arc AAA-P) but once I had to go from full daylight to a dark interior room with it in a hurry during a power outage and the little light was useless. A phone's screen or photo "flash" LED would have been even worse.

I still carry paper notebooks (Moleskine and others). I use Evernote and stuff for notes on my phone, but I still keep some more personal things on paper, in one place. I also can't sketch worth a darn on any of the phone sketchbook apps.

Dropbox is what eliminated USB thumb drives for me, not my phone. I still keep a couple in my bag, but mostly to boot from.
This video seems abridged. Does anyone know if there is an unedited version somewhere?