skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Stock prices, agency ratings, and short-term versus long-term, the efficacy of tranches, credit and collateral paper, and various other metrics have all been found, um, somewhat unreliable in recent years.

Most anywhere outside of what you do know about your stock or bond purchases, you're betting as much on who you're listening to for your decision as with what paper you're buying.

Historically, more than a few offerings have had stellar and increasing prices right up to the implosion.

This in general terms, and without intending any implications toward the recent nor future stock prices or success of either HP or Oracle.
Furthermore they're trying to use the "measuring tape" metaphor, but it doesn't apply (the tape is not actually measuring the belt pictured, making the graph hard to understand). The belt pictures are not useful in this case (since it's not a ratio graph) and they're just distracting.
What Craigslist's "Adult Services" Decision Means for Free Speech
That's an amazing interface but it needs more brands and models in there, everything I tried came up 'sorry, we don't have that model scanned' or something to that effect.

But it's one of the nicer 'live' (ajax) interfaces that I've seen.
I hate this and thought I'd bumped something this morning when I discovered this "feature" accidentally.

Really distracting the jarring transition.
Hi, the site is themed pretty well and is attractive but the aim is to manage one's daily goals and events, right ? Wouldn't it be better if the user is reminded of the same on his desktop rather than visiting a web browser every time he needs to check for his lists.

A email notification of the tasks needed to be accomplished would be better. Developing a desktop app for your web app to communicate with the server and notify using the local notification daemon such as libnotify or any thing else would have been good too :) Any ways that was my honest opinion.

All the best
Most of the ingredients in a McNugget --- which is bad and you shouldn't eat them --- have nothing to do with the chicken itself. The ingredients are broken out into chicken, flavoring, breading, and cooking medium.

The ingredient list starts with "White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning" and then gets complicated as they break down the seasonings and the batter (where things really start to get gross).
How to host an HTTP + Web Services server in an iPhone with MonoTouch
Incidentally, Lesswrong has had a substantial impact on my thinking, and I recommend reading through the sequences, starting with Map and Territory and Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions:

http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Mysterious_Answers_to_Mysteri...
That's a harder argument to make given that craigslist accepts money for those ads, and exerts editorial control over the topics they're willing to convey ads for.
Mozilla experiments with telepresence robots
You know, the whole dynamic FFI world is very much seatbelts-off, which is initially quite disconcerting. Usually I rely on my distro to ensure compatibility, but once you start saying "this syscall gives me a pointer to memory which should be interpreted as two ints, one char, and a float, packed conventionally" you begin to realize what exactly are the interfaces between various bits on your system. For better and for worse of course.

What Guile has now is the "list-all-members-in-the-struct" approach that Klock discourages. It's the difference between API and ABI compatibility. I'd like to figure out how to do the former.

A
Out of curiosity, is the big corporation a software, or at least technical, corporation, or are you working in an IT department in a non-technical corporation?
Three elements of a viral app on Twitter and Facebook
The way I heard the joke in Vermont always involved a tourist asking an old farmer for directions and getting the answer "Well, you can't get there from here."
Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese, and a sugar free Redbull.
I had a similar problem with RateMyStudentRental.com.By definition, students are typically only looking for housing twice a year, maybe even only once a year. Your best bet in this case is to optimize for organic SEO.

Over the years, I've gotten RMSR to be #1 if you google "student rental housing" and usually close to #1 if you google any address that happens to be on RMSR. This has been absolutely invaluable for creating recurring traffice, which seems to be the area you're struggling with.
I tend to dislike sites that use target=_new. If I want to open a link in a new tab, I'll middle click it.
Personally, you can always turn it off. It is probably useful for other people.
After Google incident, Wi-Fi data collection goes on
It has the potential to drastically alter search, which thus would drastically alter PPC. The likeliest negative outcome is the gradual disappearance of any traffic driven from long-tail search keywords.
The right tool for the right job. Anonymity works in some areas, not so great in other areas. While many sites are shifting to real-world user IDs, I believe that is an extreme step and something like 'expiring comments' could be a better alternative to deal with the problems that come with anonymous comments » http://j.mp/cKstr2
I started out using a mailinglist that I'd built up over the years tangentially related to the subject.
Did Google Instant Just Blow Up Their Revenue Model?
How does Google Instant Search work?
Your job sounds like a ROWE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROWE). Do you work for Best Buy?
One problem is that some portion of this 5% don't even know that our kind of thing can be done in their situation.

This is a subtle opportunity for strategy that a lot of people don't seem to realize (not necessarily you, but just a lot of people). In regards to organic SEO, you should be optimizing not necessarily for what it is you do, but rather for what it is those people are searching.
Lessons Learned about Pitching Investors from a First-Time Entrepreneur
What's the website ? (why speak in the abstract when you can give a concrete example ?)
My mother, who has worked as a seamstress, says that when they cut the fabric for the patterns, the pattern cut can vary as much as 2 inches depending on whether the fabric was on the top or bottom of the stack being cut. (Though I'm sure the error margin might be lower these days than they were before.)
You're either trolling or (may I politely point out) you risk coming across as one.

That's a whole different conversation, totally OT to the OP. I'd suggest you spin up another thread to debate that, or search the archives on hn.
Discuss: Google Instant Search Suggests Higher CPC Keywords
Heuristics and Cognitive Biases in Military Decision Making
Seems to me that "fixing" sizes would put pressure on people to lose weight, in the similar way that publishing calories on menus does.
I stand corrected. They have not declined nationally, they've stagnated. If you search for it you'll get the data, but here's a supporting quote:

...from 1973 to 2005... real hourly wages of those in the 90th percentile—where most people have college or advanced degrees—rose by 30 percent or more... among this top 10 percent, the growth was heavily concentrated at the very tip of the top, that is, the top 1 percent. This includes the people who earn the very highest salaries in the U.S. economy, like sports and entertainment stars, investment bankers and venture capitalists, corporate attorneys, and CEOs. In contrast, at the 50th percentile and below—where many people have at most a high school diploma—real wages rose by only 5 to 10 percent

Janet L. Yellen, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, November 6, 2006

As for CPI-adjusted wages - even though CPI isn't perfect, it's still useful. Certainly better than the anecdotal evidence you're asking for. Also, if anything CPI is under-reported, so CPI-adjusted wages should be considered a conservative estimate, which is all we're after here.
Yes, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, when estimating large system changes you can see the known knowns and have an idea of the known unknowns but the unknown knowns and unknown unknowns are hiding like the underwater part of an iceberg. Bad estimates are usually caused by not taking into account the unknowns.

How is that for a mixed metaphor?
Startup Advice for $5
I think this little change is going to fundamentally change the internet landscape.

a) no more long tail keywords. those people will see an answer before they get to the part of the phrase that makes it longtail(so if you ranked for that 5 term keyword...too bad). i.e. if you rank for "best auto insurance companies", you've now lost all your business to those who rank for "best auto insurance"

b) much faster searching for users = less traffic for you. If you are below the fold...chances are that you are screwed. Why bother reading below the #5 result...if I can just add a few more keywords to narrow my search? Basically the scrolling is going to take me longer, than it is to adjust my search phrase.

c) much more focus on auto-complete. Before you'd see some auto-complete strings, that would show only 2-3 hits a month according to Google. But now this same string might get a few thousand, just because people are automatically shown those results.

Overall I find that it's good for users, good for high ranking websites, and bad for everyone else.

This is going to make the SEO thing much more competitive, since it essentially eliminates the long tail.
I agree with the OP and not with you. What you are doing is arbitrarily selecting a subset of qualified employees. It _looks_ like it works for you, but its probably not efficient, and can probably go wrong.

When a developer is screened with tests like that, you are not evaluating them on their product, but rather on some set of skills that might overlap.

I cant believe I'm using a sports analogy, since I hate team sports, but think of it this way. What if a football or basketball recruiter went to colleges, and looked at only how fast somebody ran, and how high they jumped, but never looked and how they played the game! Don't laugh, that's exactly what you are doing. You may have some success because you are screening out some dopes, but that's all you are doing. If I was the MVP on a team and some jerk took me aside and asked how high I could jump I'd be insulted.

As the OP suggested, looking at the candidates past code is more like looking at how they play the game.

If you suspect plagiarism, then have them explain it, beat them over the head with every design decision they made, have them rewrite something with your suggestions, it will become obvious if they wrote it or not, and you'll have a better idea if they know how to actually code, where it counts, at the construction level.
I'm hesitant to post this link because I don't have any personal experience in the area, but this interview speaks to those questions and is currently on the front page, so you might benefit from the live discussion:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1671852
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/sean-murphy-on-t...

>I recently did a Traction Book interview with Sean Murphy who runs a boutique cutomer development firm in Silicon Valley. We discussed (for ~1hr) how to approach getting the first set of enterprise customers. What follows is a slightly edited transcript of the full interview. -Gabriel Weinburg
There is nothing intrinsic about USB mass storage in that experience.You can make an iTunes like experience based on USB mass storage drivers, Apple has chosen not to for other reasons.
It won't affect PPC (pay per click) spenders. It will only matter in terms of CPM (cost per impression).
Interesting theory. My thought was that they might have actually created a problem which could blow up their revenue model.

http://www.manyniches.com/uncategorized/did-google-instant-j...

Part of that post discusses that the clever SEO marketing types will likely try to figure out the pathing through the suggested keyword list and perhaps bid up the leaf node terms. Whether that's a temporal or systemic change is unclear.
Matt Cutts: Thoughts on Google Instant
“The Greek people never learned to pay their taxes. And they never did because no one is punished. No one has ever been punished. It’s a cavalier offense—like a gentleman not opening a door for a lady.”

The article makes it clear that for Greece to improve this type of behavior must change. But is it even possible for Greece to do this in the span of say, less than one generation?
Are we really taking cheap shots about age now? This is not how an argument is won and not how we do things around here. Your point stands on its own without ageism.
Perhaps, they should find a way to (re)measure the final product, and re-label as necessary.
Be careful of reusing code if you've exited though.

But taking a concept with which you're familiar and building it out for a new purpose should be a good short-term approach if you're able to pull it off. You've got $60k, which is a good sum which gives you a nice chunk of time making it easier to earn the next $60k, which makes it easier to earn the next $120k.

So you earned a good years salary, in under half a year, with knowledge to apply in new projects.

Is there another business opportunity in your client's industry, or another industry with which to apply similar toolsets you just created? You have the luxury of a bit of time to make a decision.
I hope it stays like that. When I first came here, me starting up my own business one day was really just a dream. This site and the great community here made me realise that the only obstacle is the lack willingness to make that step. These days I'm absolutely obsessed with my start-up.

I really hope it's going to inspire many more people in the future, all these start-ups, each one individually on its own way, could really change how the next century will be like.
HN has been a very good source of information and opinions on certain topics of interest to me.

Have come across some really awesome articles that were immediately applicable to my situation, some are absolute crap though.

The moderating mechanism has been a good source of constructive feedback for my communication skills, which are far from great. (still, long way to go)

Came across some great perspectives on some issues, as well as some crappy ones. Overall, I am glad I found it.
"Abandonware" may be a bit extreme. How would you change SearchYC?
I do wish there was a human curated search engine. Eg everytime you search for something and you find a useless spam site, you can flag it and then it's removed from the search.

I'm sure something like that must exist already - does anyone know?
So there are very few things I would be less likely to read than "47 Shocking New Ways To Please Your Man In Bed", but on an intellectual level I understand that that formula has made Cosmo more money than I will ever see in my lifetime.

You are welcome to your preference, of course, but the relevant question for my client is "Does Tuesdays and people like him control a lot of links? Would he link to the article in the absence of this widget? Is he going to refrain from linking to the article now? Will the aggregate number of links we lose offset the massive gain we are expecting to get [and are capable of measuring] from less-opinionated users?"

If the answer to any one of those questions is "no", your preferences are not economically relevant to my client. (Similarly, in the context of doing software trials with a similar mechanism, I am going to go out on a limb and say the intersection of "hates Javascript tomfoolery like this" and "pays money for software" is so low that I am incapable of devising a system precise enough to measure it.)
Though not directly related to this post, the sentence 'well ... how hard can it be?' is a signature quote from the lead Top Gear presenter.

This almost invariably leads into a challenge that seems easy in theory but the practical execution is always plagued with unforeseen hurdles, crap, unexpected mishaps and other random elements.

It's not that hard to draw parallels between software development and the crazy Top Gear challenges, which is probably a reason that many coders who've never been behind a wheel enjoy watching them.
There are Arduino firmwares and compilers that allow you to use Python. Or C. I bet you know at least a bit one of these languages! Don't let the language be the brake.
Your point of reference has changed. My father was the biggest man in the world when I was 5 years old, now I feel like I could hollow out a leg and hide him in it.
How Developers Will Impact Cloud Expenses
Yep, just file a bug report
But if you have a clothing portal that knows your every dimension, part of the service you can sell is that you measure every single item, ensuring a good fit (regardless of the size tag). Whether you match them up to the customer on shipping or to the database on receiving is up to you.

I have no idea if that would be scalable, but it would certainly help with customer retention and goodwill.
> So teachers total comp is $60k per 9 months, just starting out (equivalent to $80k/year).

On one hand, I understand this statement - afterall, you're getting those summer vacation months. On the other hand though... if I'm used to a salary of 80k/year, it's going to be quite a cut to go to 60k. I would have to spend the summer working somewhere else to make up the missing 20k, or else get used to a different standard of living. Maybe I can find a summer job that combines my ideas of vacation with earning some money (probably less than 20k with those goals), but the whole prospect is not that appealing yet.

People are willing to take paycuts for increased benefits, but here what we're saying is you're simply taking your 80k job and deciding not to work for three months. Sure, the annual salary is the same, but 60k is a lot less attractive than 80k. And of course it's not 60k today either, it's 45k with 15 in the future.

Anyhow, what I'm trying to say is that while the number manipulation makes things look better, 45k/y + summer vacation + 15k/y in pension does not sound like enough compensation to forgo that 80k/y engineering job yet. Especially if I need to deal with the hassle of finding alternate income for the summer months. Also, I would imagine that similarly to SF, NYC offers >80k for starting engineers (if only because of living costs).
Agreed with what you said. I didn't encounter any DRM error's however I found video playback went out of sync with audio when I rotated the orientation I was holding my iPad. Other than that the program performed beautifully. Coupled with the price tag of free and I don't know of anything that beats it. Awesome.
Certain parts of reddit is only usable because of that, but I doubt that /r/pics or most of the "normal" subreddits require it.

It might be a useful option to be able to set in the options though.
Yep, it'll work from a different network -- 3G as well.
why "yow"?
Cloud computing : the invisible revolution.
ah, put it like that and I would probably agree with you. The way you phrased the issue the first time I was under the impression you were suggesting that fenty's opponent might be anti-Rhee. I was confused by this because I was under the impression that Rhee has pretty overwhelming political clout and public support. Currently it's just bad politics to be anti-Rhee in DC (unless you're a union leader). It would make more sense that Rhee would threaten to walk without continued support and unilateral power.
> (let me guess, early 20s?),

No.

> but in this case you literally don't know what you're talking about.

I don't need to know what exact decisions they made to be able to tell that they were poor decisions. Easy things should be easy, and when they're hard, they're hard because of incompetence somewhere in the process.

FWIW, I've worked on a site extremely similar to basecamp (but with far more traffic, at least according to Alexa). I'm not speaking from inexperience: if this problem is hard for 37signals, it's because of failures of the implementation, not because the problem is intrinsically hard. Engineers who don't recognize that are not ones whose competence I would put trust in.
one tool you may find worth playing with is Pandoc
see http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/
it might be very helpful because once you get it working for one format that pandoc supports, you pretty much get support for all the others for free!
Out of curiosity, were you inputting running shoes? I think they've decided to focus on just running shoes first, and while they've been hard at it, it physically takes time and effort to get the raw data.
I live in Sydney and used DDG for a while, but mainly switched because Google returns noticeably faster for me and I noticed I became frustrated when waiting for DDG.
Interesting... this would be really helpful if it also took into account pronation (see http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-240-319-327-77...).
> These are advertisements for overtly criminal activities.

Robbing a bank is an 'overtly criminal activity', so is murder. Prostitution is a different matter altogether and even if I can't fathom why someone would go to visit a prostitute I completely support the prostitutes in their position and the customers in theirs as well.

As long as everybody agrees to it and is 'of age' I really can't find any reason whatsoever that would cause me to think this is criminal.

To quote George Carlin: "Selling is legal, fucking is legal. Why shouldn't selling fucking be legal?".
Darn it patio11, from your startup to your insightful comments on HN and even healthy habits you're practically a poster on my mental wall of who I am working to be like.

I couldn't agree more though, I've been doing about 90 minutes a day of exercise. I wasn't completely out of shape to begin with but I feel much more alert and better throughout the day.
Apart from the liberal use of noprocras, I apply a few simple guidelines to everything I read on HN:

1) If the title contains 'X ways/steps/secrets to Y' I skip.

2) If the article is longer than 1500 words and appears interesting, I mark both article and comment thread as toread in my del.icio.us for reading at the end of the day.

3) If the article is linkbait, or is about a fad, I skip.

4) If the article is derivative and/or adds nothing new to the discussion (e.g.: Why you should have a co-founder), I (usually) skip.
In general there is one major impact every million years -a mere blink of the eye in geological time.

If the universe is only a few billion years old, how is a million years a "blink of the eye"?
Yep.

> it physically takes time and effort to get the raw data.

I can see that... btw, the Reebok brand is one of the more popular ones and completely missing.

Again, kudos on the interface to your friend, I love it when people use new tech in non-fluffy ways (as in useful rather than eye candy). (and it looks great too!)
It wasn't the source of my inspiration to start, but sure has been a good source of motivation to keep at it. Coming across different people tackling their problems one way or the other, and sometimes sharing their experience, it has been a very positive and supportive experience.
Zed Shaw Audio Interview
Ultra-rich actually are more mean-spirited than the rest of us
have to agree.. there are many different strategies that can be applied depending on the product/service/site and really I'm clueless as to what you do. Generic answer for generic explanation.. run ads
if I were to sum up the counter-reaction to a lot of folks here who think that the claimed difficulty is too high:

You're right, under the right conditions. Namely: small site, early in lifecycle, and a perfectly normalized and non-sharded/non-partitioned database.

But I suspect it's more complicated because:

1. they have a ton of traffic

2. they want to maintain a seamlessly perfect UX everywhere

3. their database is denormalized, sharded and/or partitioned

plus possibly:

4. it's gotten at least a little crufty with age (shrug, it happens)
If the site covers all sorts of products, would you find it more useful?

The user karma is pretty basic right now, but more to come..