skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I know that it's the go-to solution for small, simple storage, but why on earth do mobile platforms have schema-driven data stores by default?

There are a few other easy ways to store data[1] on Android. For example, you could use SharedPreferences for lightweight data. You could write anything that implements the Serializable interface to a file on internal or external storage. I don't know much about Redis, but if all you want to do is persist a key-value store, create a HashMap in your app and write to and read from disk.

You can do something similar with an NSDictionary or NSArray in iOS. [2]

[1] http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage....
[2] http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/... (see initWithContentsOfFile: and writeToFile:atomically:)
On Windows, perhaps due to competition from GCC, perhaps not, Microsoft offers various Visual Studio Express editions free of charge, and the license allows commercial use, so you can sell programs made with Express editions. You're right in that the compiler IS proprietary, but the question is not of license, but of wallet cost to user - $0.
Camera Galactica
I am trying to make a galactic camera. Do take a look.
I have one setup for my name, cause I'm a narcissist and like to know when people are talking about me.

edit: misspelled narcissist.
Excellent article. This was something we learned at our last company, especially early on. Sales people that had previously excelled at large tech companies with a full suite of presentation, training, marketing, and support materials, with a mature and relatively stable product, did not do well in a fast moving environment that required more thought and digging into detail. In the end, our consulting organization (which was much more familiar with our product and customer requirements) ended up being our best pool of sales talent. I'd suggest considering technical consulting types who are working on actual implementations for sales roles.
The Music Venture Capital Business Model (Or A New Perspective)
Hiring on raw talent alone is a fallacy. All things being equal, yes, go with raw talent. But make sure you consider how well your candidates play well with others.

Would you rather have a pig-headed, anti-social, lone-wolf genius on a project, or an above average coder with a great attitude?

Sometimes that 10x factor in raw coding productivity is offset by the side effects of any major personality flaws.

One guy I used to work with was a brilliant coder who burned up any skill benefits by wasting time on investigating bleeding edge technologies (many of which didn't pan out), reinventing the wheel (look at me, I created a grid control from scratch, and I only wasted a week on it!), ignoring customer needs (you better spend 100K+ upgrading your servers and desktops so you can run our $15K app!) and being nasty to his coworkers.

As much as I knock the guy for being an ass, he wrote nice, elegant code faster than everyone else... when he was coding. I'd never hire him in a million years.
I think it's a poor idea.

A set of backup snapshots is not the same as source control. Your source control history is a story you tell about your code. Each commit is an important event, encapsulated on its own, with a person to blame and a text description and a definite date. Whereas a history of file changes is just a history of file changes.

The other point to make is that there is only one timeline of file changes. That is far too one-dimensional for code development. You need the ability to branch.

Using Dropbox for source control is like publishing an hour-by-hour activity log and claiming it's your autobiography:

9 am: Typing. Still breathing.
10am: Typing. Still breathing.
11am: walking to lunch, breathing faster
noon: eating.
1pm: typing. Still breathing.

You want a system that tracks the deliberately edited, important points of the story. You also want backups, of course, but they don't accomplish the same thing.
What about people who moved from European countries, did you enjoy it? Just something I have considered, but wasn't sure. Like how does the infrastructure compare, such as public transport?
Every time I'm in the valley, I don't like that it's a bubble and quite clique-y.

Other than that, it's really a cool place, with a nice climate and history. Not to mention, the Mecca of Tech.
Ask HN: Can I legally work on my startup during my paternity leave?
I'm on paternity leave from my day job. I've already been spending nights and weekends on my startup prior to having the baby. I'll have more time to spend on the startup (between dirty diapers and puke) and would naturally spend some of that on the startup.

Realistically, what are the pros or cons of doing this?

I'm in the state of California and using FML and PFML (both state benefits).
What Was Alan Turing Really Like?
Nope, display mockups of mobile apps produced elsewhere, via the onboard web browser.

Even mobile websites would be a start.

(We're pretty exclusively doing mobile development at the moment, mostly native, but some web).

Basically: be balsamiq mockups, except export to a website to show clients and don't look so cartoony.
What I have always found a little awkward is the use of 'a' or 'an' when written in a sentence. For example "..run a SQL query.." versus "..run an SQL query..". The spelling is the same, but the author's pronunciation can differ.
I was trying to download my data from billmonk last week and it didn't work. I tried to download all the data(accounts, libraries.. etc.) but none worked. I was getting redirected to a 'Oops! you found a bug.' I reported the bug too. Is it possible to fix this so that people can download their data?
This was a Startup Weekend Omaha project (we won!), so there are a lot of things left to figure out.

It all runs through Twilio, so I assume they would handle that type of thing.
Also, you don't actually directly connect to stranger's phone numbers, instead you end up in a Twilio conference room with the other user.
It must have been a serious accident. The concussion to the brain appears to be pretty severe.
It's VMs all the way down!
Visualizing commuting times
Very cool! Jumping is a bit slow, so one needs to plan unexpectedly far into the future to avoid some enemy fire. Apart from that: great achievement, congrats!
I certainly hope the Justin Bieber song on his desktop was an easter egg. ;)
This poll contains 327+271 votes, yet has only 59 points.

Worth voting in, but not up.
That's what kept me from it, but if you use Ruby you're already using two layers of package managers (your system package manager manages Ruby and RubyGems, RubyGems manages gems). Putting RVM in the middle just deepens that. Being able to quickly switch Ruby versions for different projects is a big convenience.
Yeah, Italians mostly spell it out too: "esse - cu - elle"
Hmmm, I am some how scared of things that dont reveal their inner working and still let you build on top.

Infact a major reason i feel people seem to love NoSQL is not because they have application specific needs which nosql solutions can cater well, but rather they are too bored to actually learn a useful language/system.

They just want all the "just works" stuff.

This is another reason why ruby seems to be popular with HTML/CSS crowd.
Ask HN: Please review my startup idea: Add Open Data to news stories.
Hi all
I have been working on a startup idea and would love if you could give me some feedback on it. I have a few small demos but mostly its concept:

The idea is to aggregate news into topics, pretty much like Google News but to add Open Data visualisations and related data nuggets.
The data would be pulled from Freebase, DataMarket.com and similar data providers.

This is well known especially in finance and sports but I want to make it for any kind of news topic.

EDIT: Somehow forgot the main point:
A key feature would be that this would be a premium service for serious news readers, those that are tired of the ads and linkbaiting. Of course this is a big leap and I may be forced into an ad model eventually but I want to try the other approach first.

br
Vidar
Microsoft's man in Nokia: he's all business
Requiring a reserve is common in payment processing. It's a hedge against risk (chargebacks). 5% is more than reasonable.
But that's why we have to play it. Think of it as a time capsule made just for us!
By the way, I would not be the least bit surprised to find that this already exists.
High frequency trading firm is charged with quote stuffing and manipulation
I've been doing it with a small iphone project I've been working on with a friend. I can't say it's a good idea but it's better than nothing.
After having worked with rails for coming on two years now, it's been a love-hate relationship. The short version: your first few apps will be pretty horrible but the more you know about the framework, the better they get. Admittedly, the same could be said about any framework.

Also, don't be afraid of the black magic, read the source, its just plain old ruby down there.
Never do it. Who wants to sweat so the Captain can have all the fun?
Cost-effective Link Building Strategy - Grey Hat Techniques
The September "Who's Hiring?" was posted 10 days ago, it's pretty comprehensive and worth looking at: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1659409
I prefer squeal, so I can call it MS Squeal Server, or My Squeal
My HTML5 / CSS3 / Browser Wish List
Can you give multiple examples about how the market is being under-utilized? Finance and sports have a wealth of data behind them; what domain is under-served and where can you target?

It's an interesting idea if it can be used to drive some revenue model (maybe, ads embedded in the info-graphic or ad based info-graphics).
Stayed 10 years; moved back home to raise kids. Tired of the crowd, the cement, the monotonous conversations (work/mortgage/traffic).

But nowhere else in the world is better, at least to get started. Worked 3 startups remotely by now, using connections made during those 10 years.
That's what NAZI stands for? OMG, I HAD NO IDEA.

Of course that's what Nazi stands for. Lets ignore that they were really bad at being socialist among other things, when you think of Nazis what is the first thing you think of? If you are a normal person, it is WW2, the holocaust, death camps, abuse of POWs, Jews (basically everyone), etc.

What does that have to do with their economic policy?

Would you be OK with the Nazis if they cut taxes and reduced regulation? Of course not. The issue with the Nazis is not what they did economically, but what they did militarily.

Socialism is just a set of economic beliefs. And clearly you don't understand them.
The article says that this will be a new class, below economy, called "cabin class." If that's the case, everyone who used to travel in economy could continue to do so.
cycling / rowing machines had this years ago. The little LCD screen shows a cartoon of you and the gym's best, your best, or some pro athlete at a set rate zooming off into the distance.
I assume the screens and graphics have got a lot better in the last 10 years.
The authorities would certainly conduct a focus group review with a random sampling of the population before even considering introducing a plane to North America with these seats in it. Getting a plane off the ground would suddenly take twice as long due to realizing some passengers will not be able to physically fit in a seat due to varying sizes, and not knowing this before the ticket was purchased. I can't imagine how much breathing room your diaphragm has to move with that folding tray.

If airlines are run anything like public sector, certainly there must be far more effective ways of reducing costs instead of cutting into the bone.
Don't. Give them a month or so to start hating Rails. As soon as you attempt to step outside of what Rails is built for or need some new piece of functionality it starts falling apart, not only that but Rails is painful to scale.
Anuvadak 1.1.1 Google translator for Windows Mobile
Awesome Google translator app for Windows Mobile. It combines text to speech , dictionary , instant translation and etc. It has every goody which google translator web app offers. Please download!!
I have been using Dropbox for over 3-4 months now. Initially we used it with mercurial. But later on we moved to fossil as it's a more natural fit. It's perfect for small teams and it's cheap..
Dropbox solve one part of the source control equation. It doesn't handle conflicts nor annotations well at all.

It may be adequate protection from code loss, but does it enable you to work in a team?
Buffett Rules Out Double-Dip U.S. Recession
I seem to switch back and forth. I'll say "sequel statement", but "write some SQL". Maybe "sequel" when it's an adjective, "SQL" when it's a noun, something like that.
Markets at Burning Man
That's a good alternative. Although I think the game would be easily playable at even a quick walking pace on the treadmill, they could trade each minute on the machine with a minute of the buff next time you login. Or charge up an orb in your inventory that you can use at will.
yup i agree, look at twitter and then youtube then twitter and then again back at youtube.

who scales?

Its no wonder when DHH and 37 signal espouse no features philosophy, since implementing them is hard and ruby + rails dont help.

You would rarely find any other engineer worth his salt saying that inability to implement a highly requested feature is a virtue and not a failure.
Eco-car show wows enthusiasts in London
"Skew-Lite" was common at previous jobs, for me.
That depends on your employee agreement. Do you have an IP agreement?

If you do, then there may be rules on what you need to do.

If I recall correctly, leaves are basically employment pauses to protect people for the reason of the leave (i.e. if you get fired when you return, then you can sue).
I'm a totally inconsistent hodgepodge.

I pronounce it S-Q-L when talking about the base language., but I pronounce the Oracle variant as P-L-S-Q-L. I pronounce the Microsoft product as Sequel Server, but I pronounce MYSQL as My S-Q-L.
Updated post with business model pontifications.
Nokia’s chief of mobile solutions resigns
HN, Remember you said go out and talk to people? I did: InsidersTalk.com
If you're a talented Java and/or frontend (PHP/CSS/JS) programmer, contact me at karan.bhangui@cyphontech.com or http://cyphontech.com/contact.

We're a super fresh startup, completely bootstrapping in the city of Waterloo, Canada, in the mobile education technology space. I'm actually going out in a couple hours to look for 'office space' (either an actual office or housing in commercial zoning). If the startup life excites you, contact me and I'll show you a demo of what we're working in person :)
That's a completely stupid idea that will never work, as is obvious to anyone who's actually ever attempted to get people to do things. It fails on so many levels that it's not really even possible to write a concise, structured rebuttal of it. Off the top of my head:

- Too weird, most normal people won't do it

- Not everyone gives a damn about video games

- Too much of a financial risk for gyms to sign up to such a system

- Too much of a financial risk for someone to build such a system for gyms to sign up to

- Too difficult to get everyone to agree on a game

- Probably wouldn't make all that much difference to the total amount of exercise being done, as it would turn off as many people as it turns on

Basically, this idea could work, so long as it was effectively free to implement. So, by the time physical and informational resources are that cheap, do you really think that no one will have figured out something more efficient than gyms to work out?

Next: "How to make everyone happier: just get all the warlords to agree to peace."
I've written up some (brief) thoughts on San Francisco here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-hate-san... and on the rest of the Valley here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/all-is-not-wel....

San Francisco parking and traffic and present start-up culture aside, I do think it's a really nice place to live.
Same here. I think you should be able to use them interchangeably.
Also, Dropbox only keeps 30 days by default unless you pay for the Pack Rat option.
I think most consulting openings are political in nature.
You can obtain one time keys via Twitter's own website for your app, then you just need to sign your requests, which isn't too bad (there are libraries for most languages).
Are you kidding me? Are you honestly denying there's no connection between the stuffing of the order book with hundreds of thousands of orders and the crash? Please. As for whether it's deliberate - I think you're right in the sense that something acted in a way which its creators did not intend if you think quote stuffing is a legitimate trading strategy we're clearly poles apart in what purpose we believe markets are meant to serve. I hear a lot of about how HFT creates liquidity and reduces volatility without much reference to quite what time periods they're talking about, what you don't hear them say is what it does to liquidity volatility, particularly in nervous markets and around announcements. I've done HFT too, I understand the game, the difference is I realise it's at best an illegitimate quirk of technology and at worst legalised front-running and the turning of the execution environment into a trading weapon.
I dont have this broken down into domains other than general purpose news. Perhaps that needs to be done.
I don't recall the specifics of the employee agreement except that I can't hire former coworkers after leaving. I disclosed IP from this startup prior to joining.
No, because of https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Corruption_in...
The backlash begins against the world landgrab
Long Distance WiFi Rule Could be 10 Days Away
We don't go looking for instant news on Facebook (or on Google)

I don't know if it's related to Google Instant, or preference to Git's servers, or if it's just a part of their strategy to be trending more things real time, but I posted my first public git repo last night.

Shortly after, I was concerned that the name I made up on the spot might have been taken by somebody before me, and (worried that) they might be overly litigious, so I went and googled for the project name, only to find my hours-old project the #4 Google result for the term.

I was shocked and dumb-founded (and very, very tired), but it was 100% awesome to see that technology could even be that much faster than expected.

We live in very fantastical times.
My gym does just the MVP of this, where your RFID wristband gives you data persistence for workout results. Walk up to machine, swipe wristband, Good afternoon Mr. Mckenz lets try for 12 reps at 40kg today. ("Who ever heard of someone with a last name longer than six characters long? LOL" <- Japanese programmers are as good on this issue as American ones are.)

A segment of their clientele -- and most at my gym are north of forty -- love it to death. There is at least one seventy something who brought me over to his screen to show me his fiftieth gold badge. One is earned for running a Tokyo marathon. You do the math.

Of course, their main business is still selling the notion of belonging to a gym.
Galileo Was Wrong - A Catholic Conference (can this be real?)
I am your target audience, here's my 0.02c. Give me a 90 days free trial (30 isn't enough) and then charge without apologizing. If the product isn't ready to charge for, open a limited beta and make that free, but be very clear about charging for it later.

"I find myself basing my pricing off of this $79 number ($7/mo = $84/year)" -> BAD idea. Bad idea. Bad idea. For a subscription, you should charge 19.99$/month, and more for an enterprise license (399$/m). Seriously. (Again, for real, I am your target audience.)

If this is really good, it would (finally!) be the product I've been waiting for. Let me know if you want a beta tester.
Of mind and matter: David Attenborough meets Richard Dawkins
Diamond 4000 kilometers across in White Dwarf (BPM 37093)
I have no interest, but my strength training doesn't use machines. And I use progress as my motivation.

But no gym would want to do this because it violates their business model.

Most gyms are not in the business of encouraging people to work out. Gyms are in the business of encouraging people to sign up. A person who signs up for a year, comes for a week or two, then never comes again is almost pure profit.
These schools are placement agencies and not education institutions
That is perfect, thank you very much!
ORMS: http://blog.brandonbloom.name/2009/10/orms-and-declarative-s...

Visual object-relational mappers allow you to integrate different DB schema and classes/objects, instead of deriving one from the other. What do people think of them? They aren't appealing to me, because they aren't very code-like... however, some relationships between disparate type-systems are much easier to express graphically than in code.

URL parameters: http://rails.nuvvo.com/lesson/6371-action-controller-paramet...

I really prefer Sinatra's way of doing this; and it's probably even more appropriate for prototyping (but not for big projects, where separate directories help handle complexity.) It's just amazingly simple and intuitive: http://www.sinatrarb.com/intro.html

get '/hello/:name' do
# matches "GET /hello/foo" and "GET /hello/bar"
# params[:name] is 'foo' or 'bar'
"Hello #{params[:name]}!"
end
I lived in SF for 6 years and started to hate it, so I moved to NYC. I really like SF the city, and am one of the weird people who usually likes the cool weather. However, something about it felt like a retirement village for young people.

NYC is great but has its own set of headaches. I've found the tech scene pretty close to being on-par with SF if you're doing web or mobile, or even "BIG DATA". SV has a strong advantage if you're building things like routers, robots or electric cars. I miss TechShop.
UX & QA sitting in a tree…
Wilhelm von Hackensplat: Construct something else (C#)
What's a "SQL table" ?
I'm the author.

Yeah, there is a non-zero chance of that happening. However, I keep discovering more and more Rails design choices that either match or closely align with my preferences.

The three biggies comparing to Django are:

1) Powerful templates (including the convenience of "Helpers")

2) Non-declarative schema ORM with full migration support

3) Form validation and generation with Rails doesn't suck

Lastly, Rails feels battle tested and production ready. Everything from the Rake tasks, to the framework surface area, to the plugins available seems tuned for real applications. Python stacks I have tried often require a lot of hackery to handle server configurations, deployment, content builds, template helpers, ... the list goes on and on.
Similar in Germany, at least in my experience. I mostly hear it being called Ess Kuh Ell.
Since I'm ultimately more interested in ideas and solving the big-picture puzzles of applications than the low-level implementation details, web is still the place to be for me (for now).

I'm not sure how to respond to this, but it strikes me as incredibly naive.
Mercurial, Git, Fossil, etc. are all extremely easy to setup. I'd setup one of those and then setup a branch/clone in DropBox. Mercurial and Git have hooks that can run when a commit is finished. Just write a quick hook that automatically keeps the branch/clone in sync with your changes.
I recommend shying away from things that are not in your comfort zone - or somehow progressing you.

For example, I was requested to quote for a project that had to use Joomla for a certain type of website (well, it was Facebook and a document management system). That was enough to ring alarm bells and steer away from it.