skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm surprised that you're surprised. It's old code that nobody touches. It's written in C. Of course it's going to be bad. (Why? Because "good" changes every year or so, and if nobody has needed to touch the code for a year, it's going to be bad by definition.)

Sure, it's good to clean up old code to minimize the number of unanticipated failures. But this takes time and money; there aren't magic fairies that do things "because they should" or "because it's a critical piece of infrastructure". If it's boring and there is no money to be made, then it's not going to get done.

The author shows why; sometimes, it's just easier to hack around the problems than to fix them.
Investment funds are generally subject to Form D filings since they don't do "public" offerings as defined by the SEC. So yes, billion dollar hedge funds do file for raising massive amounts of money.

One more note, "Amended Filings" will show the highest amount of money raised to date. To determine how much money was raised recently, you need to subtract the underlying "New" filing and any subsequent amended filings. The SEC's data structure makes it difficult to get amounts of all the referenced filings to do this automatically (basically to 'diff' the filings) so I leave it to readers to do. Example: http://www.formds.com/issuers/mount-vernon-securities-lendin...
Don’t let them get away with free
If you think your kid will benefit from homework, you can still do it with him/her, without being assigned it. I am sure every text book has additional exercises you can try.

"Eliminating homework" does not mean outlawing homework and sending the police after anyone that attempts to do any homework.
You have to go out of your way to do that on Facebook. I doubt many people have addresses shared with everyone.
Don Dodge went from being fired at Microsoft to hired at Google in 11 days. So if the person is senior enough they can just hire you. Apparently Vic Gundotra hired Don (VP of Engineering).
I have always been terrible at multiplication and when I am forced to do it always use a method identical to the grid method. Except I didn't know it had a name. I just cheated and did this because it seemed like a non-optimal but straight forward way to an answer that was self evidently correct.
Ask HN:How practical is the goal to earn about 40K US$ in a year
Last year I wasn't able to join grad school because I couldn't arrange for enough money. I don't want to miss the chance this year for the same reason and my only take is to earn some money (Other ways are just not possible for me in my country :( ... Trust me I have tried a lot.)
I have started working on two webapps in my free time (about 15 hrs a week) - Atleast this is the positive outcome, after 2 years of thinking I have finally taken a plunge in the startup sea - Leaving exceptions apart how practical is my goal of earning this much in a year ?
Any suggestions are more than welcome :)
I recently gave a talk at Ignite Boulder along these same lines. It's not just parents, we are all guilty of being scared of the wrong things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyydlDsS5I [video]
Domino Computer
A globalization-proof career?
It's an interesting question. but if you are an old hacker in the US or probably anywhere else in the developed world you qualify for a retirement income. At age 70 it would be something on the order of $2500/month. If you had an unmarried old lady, you would have something on the order of $60K per year plus reasonable health benefits in a few years.

The real problem is shelter. It is probably very difficult to build your shack anywhere near civilization, because of building code restrictions. The minimum, cost is probably some kind of used RV. You could theoretically avoid the code restrictions, because you could drive to a waste pumping station, etc. However if you blend in to a rural community sufficiently to be considered an asset rather than a nuisance, say by continually improving you property, you might get along quite nicely.
The problem is more that he bought the licence off someone who had seen the contract, albiet a nominal sight. Remember those 'you must accept this 10000 word agreement' every time you install anything on your computer?

There's a lot of dodginess going on in EULAs issued by software companies, for example I was forced to accept a 55 page legal document just to download a free app on iTunes the other day (the iTunes terms of service). I cannot believe that more than a tiny percentage of people have ever read those terms (and they know it).

Forced is a strong word, but how else could I use the phone I bought? It's a major selling point of the phone and yet there's a 55 page agreement to use it? Nonsense.

While I realise it's a 'legal' document, there's something very wrong with a legal system that essentially relinquishes basic consumer protection because they've made it impossible to use your purchase without relinquishing significant rights.

Courts shouldn't uphold these extremely complicated EULAs which basically say 'screw you'. In the end, a digital good which was never used should be able to be resold.

As others have said, we can only hope this is overturned as it does have massive implications for the future of digital goods.
And the 9th is notorious for being overturned.

That said, if CamperBob at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1680416 is correct in that "It involved a user who sold copies that were contractually supposed to be destroyed (or at least not reinstalled) after an upgrade" then the copies were never legit to begin with and the First-sale doctrine is not necessarily in jeopardy.
Neat, thanks for clarifying.
The definition of good C code hasn't changed that much. API styles change and compiler capabilities change (gotta love C code with 7-character function names inherited from ancient Fortran code) but undocumented and disorganized is never good. I've used C APIs that were procedural with no OO influence at all, each function taking dozens of parameters, many of which weren't actually used because it was easier to pass the same thirty parameters to each function than to try to remember a unique parameter list for each function consisting of the seventeen parameters it actually needed. I've used APIs like that and groaned and cried and pulled my OO-educated hair out, but some of those APIs were still well-documented, logically arranged, and cleanly implemented, and they were a lot easier to use correctly than code written poorly in a modern style.
If you fraudulently sell something and then spend the money, how does paypal recoup it?
Yes, but that's irrelevant. The question is, how much do you get done during the day compared to other people who don't do anything at home.
Need to Build Something Cool? Quit your Job.
Sounds like you have an idea for a new business. Build a database of fraudulent and non-fraudulent addresses, then sell it to paypal.
The YC Experience Part I: The Importance of the Class
How is paypal expected to verify the signature on the receipt matches the signature on the card?
Use this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awsj.com+%22Android+in+...

And pick one of the "HEARD ON THE STREET" results. The Wall Street Journal is still wide open to Google.
Just looking at his resume makes me feel... Well let me just say, he's very accomplished!
So no Android?

It's either Microsoft thinks Android will not gain significant market share like what they thought about the IPhone (http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2007/04/ballmer-says-i...) or it thinks they cannot kill Android.
> Not being able to do fixed bid work basically says "I'm bad at estimating and don't know how to control scope creep".

Hourly contracts do not preclude careful up-front estimates and clear statements of work. Fixed-bid contracts are no different in this regard.

That said, the industry as a whole is bad at estimating and controlling scope creep. The best of best practices (which we follow) and years of industry experience (which we have) don't always save you. We resolve this with our clients by noting that in the world of fixed bid contracts, unless the estimates are precisely correct, someone will come up short. In the world of hourly contracts, so long as initial estimates are in the ballpark, everyone gets good value. Our clients agree and come back time and again; we've been chosen over fixed bids on many occasions.

(Random aside: I imagine, but have no data to demonstrate, that in the world of fixed bid contracts there is effectively a normal distribution of "who won" vs "who lost." Outliers are probably dishonest or incompetent companies or consultants.)
> Also, that Amazon EULA is quite strange. You aren't allowed to "synchronize" the music file you bought?

Actually, "synchronize" in copyright has nothing to do with copying a file from your computer to your mp3 player. This right is for using the recording as part of a video, film, tv commercial or other work where the music is played.

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

They use that specific term because it is used in the law.
Android was taking the pictures http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/10/windows-phone-7-funeral/
Android already indicates things like whether the app requires network connectivity. I've never submitted an android application, but it should be possible to determine whether an application uses network connectivity based on code analysis.
Vineet, it might be helpful to provide some more info:

- What kind of apps your making
- How big your target market is
- How much you will be able to spend on marketing/sales

Because, on the surface, the goal of earning $40k is within reach, especially if you're targeting western markets.
Congrats to the creator of Youtube Instant.

"Everytime Google or Facebook hires someone another startup dies" - may have not quoted right, but you get the idea.
Usage of Python at Google
Vomit serves up virus at buffet (and other stories)...
Such a sentiment presumes programmers have all the cool ideas.
Yeah, its like blowing bubbles now. Market is shit so call a techie and bring your wallet.
Acquisition employees still have to go through a round of intense interviews in order to continue through the acquisition
Factor really needs a book or more beginner documentation, that is in my opinion the main thing really holding it back as the visual repl and help browser are quite nice among other things.
Zombie IE6 is a terrifying thought.
Typically when working in Raphael, I'll just design whatever I need in Inkscape first, then export to SVG. From there just dump the raw SVG data into Raphael and you're good to go.
This is the most recent installment of my book Speak Human, which I'm releasing online (for free) one chapter at a time.

Although it contains a number of stories, the one relating to that headline (above) is particularly notable. It originally resulted in a great deal of press and legal action.
It's really encouraging to see signs of life in Microsoft's culture. I've never been a real fan of their products, but hopefully if some of this fun, creative energy makes it's way into the user experience.

That being said, whenever anyone declares any product dead I cringe a little.
Ask HN:  When are you no longer considered a startup?
This may have been asked before but I couldn't find it in search.

When do you no longer call your company a startup? Is it when you have set policies and practices? Is it when you are profitable? Is it after x number of years of operation? Is is when you are no longer the jack of all trades and have people that do job x and are specialists? Is it when you have years of runway in the bank?
I'd prefer seeing it under a "Personal Projects" section. It's more impressive when you do cool stuff without a paycheck attached. If there isn't enough space to get everything across, list one or two projects and link to a web page that shows the rest. Here's the portfolio page of someone I actually ended up hiring: http://crccheck.com/portfolio
If we're talking about local businesses in the service industry, I rarely see ads on business sites for restaurants or gyms. I would think the biggest hurdle would be getting a sales team to convince the businesses to put this on their website, awareness, and on top of that, telling them to update their sites with code snippets as I don't think most local businesses are technical.

But I do like the idea.
Honestly, I don't have that much experience with comparing rates. Generally, they're negotiable based on volume anyway. A friend's startup was re-negotiating with their provider every month due to growth...

Besides, with something as important as this, I'd rather pay a small premium for everything to be smooth sailing.
A bunch of folks in this thread have asked about an alternative that is better than Google Reader.

I created NewsBlur, http://www.newsblur.com, which is an intelligent feed reader. It shows you the original site (which is why I never liked using RSS in the first place, but once you read enough sites, you have little choice but to switch to a reader). It also has an intelligence trainer that allows you to explicitly hide and highlight stories that you like or dislike.

It imports directly from Google Reader. It's just a project, but if people like it well enough, I could be persuaded to add some more advanced features (metrics on your subscriptions, advanced AI, etc) for a monthly/yearly cost. I'm afraid to put a Paypal/Amazon Checkout button on there, because that means NewsBlur is held to a much more difficult/higher standard.

But anyways, please, offer feedback and let me know if you think this is a good alternative. I worked very hard on NewsBlur, and so I make it all open-source (everything from the feed fetcher, the reader interface, and the coming iPhone app) on GitHub, so that other developers could benefit from all the tricks and knowledge I acquired while creating this multi-faceted project: http://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/.
Broadcom releases open source Linux 802.11n drivers
Great point. There is a lot of fear mongering in our society and this is only perpetuated by the media which focuses mostly on bad news rather than good news.
The ongoing camaraderie and commiseration with batchmates is definitely one of the most underrated benefits of YC. Nice post, Daniel.
You could also look into Huddle (http://www.huddle.net/). I've used it with a couple of project teams and it worked pretty well.

Also came across http://www.oneis.co.uk/ where bensummers is co-founder. I haven't had a demo yet but plan to soon.
"want a job?" means "want to interview for a job?"
So was search (and so is search in the face of spammers).
Well, she should learn!
Don't get too excited about WP7, for example the IE Mobile will be based on a mixed of IE7 and IE8...
It's in bad taste to poke fun at a still birth.
I'll believe it when I see it.

Looking at the windows 7 demos on video it's very clear they've spectacularly missed the mark. It's like a really bad version of Windows media centre, which I accidentally had the displeasure of trying to setup today when hooking my new XBox up to my PC.

They may think it's good, but really what will happen is that it won't sell and they'll look like idiots, again. Whoever headed up the XBox should immediately be promoted into Ballmer's postion, his effigy should be burnt and then maybe they'll be ready to move on and be a real tech company again.
Yes. That is why he used the term SEO, to show that google is doing worse than the SEO companies who are so good at getting to the front page.
If you do careful up-front estimates and clear statements of work then you're pretty damn close to doing a fixed price contract, why not label it as such ?

In my experience, those that do fixed bids and suck at estimating will build in unrealistic reserves to avoid getting burned.

If you are good enough to get as close as you describe it then you could simply underbid by a bit and feel good anyway, after all it's just a small percentage of the total amount that you're risking.

If you've built up a relationship using this model then I can see how you would win against fixed bids, does that happen as well when both you and the fixed bidder are in the same pricerange and the quality of the presentations are comparable?
I'm sure this guy has no problem finding a job at any company he wants probably doing anything he wants. I don't understand why this is such a big deal.
Yes, but the $10000 or whatever amount of money becomes redundant. And, I do not recommend this path, as it is not for everyone because dropping out is instant "boot camp" rewarding in ways only you know, but boot camp. It's difficult work. Let go of one thing that you intuit you no longer need in your life, and watch what happens. Be gentle with yourself.
I agree Google Instant will more than likely be changing the PPC model. It will ultimately come down to the users of search and if people embrace Google's new approach. However, if a creative approach surfaces we'll see it here first. Kind of like my favorite search DuckDuckGo.
I'm not affiliated with StealthModeWatch -- I found out about it on HN, and was surprised the submitted stories didn't get many HN votes:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1651315 (one of those 3 upvotes is me!)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1666022 (didn't even notice this one at the time)

Yes, the 'recent' and 'by industry' listings are nice. The data set seems small enough, though -- by either day or even last few months -- that it'd be nice to have a longer page, with more details, and 'instant' filtering by amounts, regions, industries, terms, etc. Something like Google Finance stock screener on the last year of Reg-D filings would be awesome:

http://www.google.com/finance/stockscreener
I wouldn't say that adults have 12 years of bad habits - how you do an equation isn't as important as understanding the equation. I've found that if you teach kids the "speed" methods right off the bat, they don't fully understand the methods behind it and instead see it as a set of rules and tricks to follow. Think of it like learning how to take the derivative of an equation in calculus - you'll never learn the fast tricks right away because you wont properly understand what you're actually doing if you do. However, after you have this foundation you'll often be taught much faster methods of arriving at a derivative.
*"If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of consumption of American manufactured goods it is going down."

I cannot parse this, what is your meaning?
Logorama - Massive Creativity (video)
There's a downside to having a mail server accept any and all <name>@yourdomain.com: people will make uo accounts for your domain, use that as the sending address, and the address gets verified as "real". You then all the crap that bounces back.

I now use the james+something@domain hack.
F#, Putting the Fun into Functional Programming
Wow, that's great. More useful than Google Instant, in my opinion.
What, did you expect a Win7 phone would be taking them? When they only just RTM'd it?
OSDI10 program
I think this can be true, to a point. The danger is in getting lazy.

Time for my story:

Last October, I released a concept video of a next-generation desktop UI that garnered a surprising amount of blog coverage. Within a week, I had received emails from people at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, as well as a few startups.

As you might imagine, I was rather excited. This was exactly what I'd hoped might be a result of the video: I'd get noticed, talked about, and picked up by an industry leader.

Yet here I am, nearly a year later, still at my old job. What happened? I'd figured I had it in the bag, that all I had to do was put my best foot forward and I'd be well on my way to my dream interaction design career. In truth: I got lazy.

The interview at Google the next month went well, but a month after that, I got the bad-news call. Apple took me through a series of wide-spaced phone screens that never went anywhere, only to restart the recruitment process for a different division several months later, finally getting bumped by an internal candidate. Microsoft got lost in the shuffle, I went through some disjointed recruitment processes at a few startups with a bit of contract work, but finally, even that went quiet.

Where did I go wrong? I think I assumed I'd gone far enough for the time being, that this one video marked my arrival and that was it. But I lost my momentum. Lengthy recruiting processes can make it seem like you have time to kill, but you don't! I shouldn't have missed a beat; I should have doubled down on my concept and explored it even further instead of pinning my hopes on getting hired somewhere cool.

My advice to Feross or anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation: Don't stop now!
>> ... RentAResource.com? ... most dehumanizing website name I've ever heard ...

I drew this comic once, to express my annoyance with the same thing:

http://blog.codeboff.in/2010/07/13/programmers-and-recruiter...

(It's been on HN before)
That stockscreener idea is genius. I was planning a more basic version but your suggestion is even better since people are already used to that format. I'll start building this this weekend - Do you mind if I email you a beta version for feedback before I put it live next week?
Yeah, because pop culture and how cool you think a guy is really matters. In the mean time since he has been CEO Microsoft has doubled their profit. Metrics matter.
Kudos. This is great. The only thing I'd like to see is a row of, say 5, related videos just in case the first isn't exactly what I want.
Programming in C (online book)
This is a great comment (note that while I'm a total cynic about the prospects of holding private company common stock as a non-employee, I did just lose out on a high-multiple investment opportunity by walking away from my last employer's options).

I just want to add though, presaging some people's thoughts that "they really trust the founders" and whatnot, that oftentimes the founders have little say in the outcome for non-employee stock holders. The VCs are usually calling the plays with regards to exits and valuations.

It's also worth noting that at some point during the life of many successful companies, the founders incentives are going to begin radically mismatching those of the employees; their outcome on a modest-but-successful exit will be life-changing, and the utility of the extra money they make on an exit large enough to change early employee lives won't be worth the risk. They'll want to exit as soon as they can.
You almost can't make stuff up that good.
>> "I just haven't went through with it. Not many would think I'm stupid."

Priceless.
Are you from the past?

It's a different procedure online. Usually the CVV number is used instead of a signature.
I get the feeling you're just bitter they didn't hire you instead.

http://xkcd.com/192/
Maybe he wanted something a bit more efficient.
> why not label it as such ?

We often work with early stage startups, where uncertainty is a fact of life. In these cases, both parties agree that hourly is preferable.

For mid-size companies, there is certainly less distinction. We generally give a bracket (+/- 7%) outside of which further discussion is automatically triggered.

> does that happen as well when both you and the fixed bidder are in the same pricerange and the quality of the presentations are comparable?

A great question, but unfortunately it's unknowable except through backchannel heresy. I like to believe our bids are simply always better. :-)
That's what I assumed too, but I couldn't seem to find a name or a link to anything else besides the Horrible Logos site.
Well, aside from being an avid traveler, I'm currently working on a side project that helps people find the cheapest method of travel (air, bus, car) to a given location. Getting more information on how consumers travel and their interaction with online travel sites are what I'm most interested in.