skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It seems your skills are being mishandled, sir. I would recommend you keep the rainbow appearance (where all looks well) until you find another crutch to lean on (another job offer).

This is always my argument when I'm confused about what to do, and it's always helped: We only have one life, that we know of. Might as well make the most of it.

If you feel your time is better spent somewhere else, than you have your answer. Best of luck m8.
I stop watching the news a long time ago. One incident that help was when I watched a report about a protest in Cuba in favor of Castro. CNN reported 100K participants, CBC French in canada reported 500K participants and while I swing by the BBC, they say it was close to a million. I know judging crowds is hard but come on.
in Java, there are Apache PDFBox and jPDFText. the nature of pdf make it very difficult to extract it correctly and consistently.
The truth is that they might actually believe that they'll give you a "big slice of the pie" once the money starts rolling in but in reality what will happen is that they'll a) get greedy and b) be able to afford someone(+) to replace you if you complain too much.

It's just aaahhh business and you're out of a job with no pie.
That's as irrational as saying "if you like poor black people so much, why don't you become one?".
July & August 2010: ten Cisco vulnerabilities
If anyone's interested in another analysis of the problem of repressed memory (particularly in legal context) I would recommend checking out some of Robyn Dawes' work.

This is a good starting point:
http://books.google.com/books?id=LvbnRn78ywsC&lpg=PP1...
> They have similar technology for farming, too.

This is called "Precision agriculture". Tractors and equipment enabled with this can throw the precise amount of fertilizer/seeds at specific points. Probably quite a hot topic in farming... Go to any farming show and you will see this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_agriculture
If you discuss leaving, make sure to look sincere in the discussion. This means steer the conversation so it shows how you are worried about your future financially and therefore you need to be proactive (have them empathize with you and see you as a human, not an employee).

In case you decide to return to the company, this way you will have retained some of their respect.
even shorter:

location='http://www.jstor.org/pss/2118559

;)
"Abstractions leak" is pretty far from what I got out of that paragraph. Actually, I don't think leaky abstractions have much to do with the fact that small changes have large consequences.
have you passed it through jsmin and/or closure compiler?

You must be able to get it into a 'k ;)

<poke>
I shouldn't have to do that.

And I fail to see how supporting a proprietary standard is somehow good for everyone.
The programmer hierarchy [image][humor] [duplicate]
well I don't want to be in his place debugging this: http://tinypic.com/r/24zknc9/7 :D
I am not posting this to start a war :P

I am sure that a lot of us can find ourselves or friends in some of the categories in the article. At least it brought a smile to my face. :)

Edit: Thanks for pointing out the original and marking this as dead.
Let's get real about something: they're business guys, and you're the technical muscle, right? You seem young, and you're probably as good at sizing them up (note your "great people" comment) as the average MBA is at writing code; by this, I mean, not at all. Don't even try. Make your decisions based on hard facts, such as how much equity you have already and when you will start collecting a salary, and not based on "warm fuzzy" feelings of loyalty or how much you will get "when times change". Unless you're seasoned and have been in the business world for a decade or so, you are way out of your depth when trying to size such people and their promises up. (Of course you like them! Their job is to make people like them. They probably like you, but do they respect you?) Business people over-promise because the worst of them are sociopaths and the best of them have great intentions and are wonderful people but still are ridiculously overconfident, just because they have to be in order to succeed in that world.

They may be great guys, but you really need to get a firm commitment regarding equity. You're taking a risk and have a right to know what the rewards will be. A promise, especially a subjective one, means nothing. What does a "big" share even mean? If the company is valued at $2 million and you get 0.25%, that's a $5000 bonus, which can be described as "big" but is quite lousy in comparison to what you actually deserve. Remember that the business guys, due to the overconfidence that is characteristic of that sort, would still consider such a grant very generous. After all, it's going to be a $10 billion company one day, and that 0.25% is going to make you a millionaire many times over, no?

You're taking as much risk as they are, and you actually have the technical skills. You deserve a better deal. If your leaving would hurt them as much as you think it would, then they will give you equity, and they'll actually respect you more now that you're not letting them take advantage of you. Or, they might let you go, in which case you're better off to have this happen sooner rather than later, after having wasted even more time.
Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1635322

This appears to be a blatant copy without attribution.
Interesting opinions, thanks for sharing your thoughts. This definitely was a thought provoking article. Cheers
The Twitter idea is very interesting, it could be done with so many networks, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

Nothing may beat something physical for now, but soon in the future business cards wont exist anymore. It will all be virtual, thats just where things are heading...
The very fact that they have both COO and CEO in startup mode is a huge red flag, btw. That "reply wave" that you describe is also an enormous wtf.

Run.
finally someone that brings the joy of batch scripts to the web
The Technology Behind the U.S. Open
You did not fund molecular nanotech and let billions of funding go to buying new buildings at universities and for chemistry research. Molecular nanotech has been excluded from funding since the 2003 start of major funding. When you buy your Ford SUV, do you send your complaints about it to Ferrari when you did not buy a race car?
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/09/eric-drexler-ralph-merkle-o...
The statement may be falsely attributed to Hearst:

http://academic2.american.edu/~wjc/wjc3/notlikely.htm

The economic context from which the statement arose has some similarities to today. Hearst and Pulitzer were competing to grow newspaper circulation. Strangely, Pulitzer appears to escape the bad rap Hearst gets, probably for funding a journalism school and prize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_Spanish–Ameri...
Thanks for your reply. We're evaluating PdfTextStream at the moment. We want to try a few though to see which works best for the types of document we are going to be using.
London is also much less safe than it was 100 years ago. Actually, all of England is much less safe. A good treatment of the subject is Peter Hitchen's A Brief History of Crime http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Crime-Peter-Hitchens/dp/...
Utterly clueless. Some people should stick to subjects they actually know something about.

Momentum, time investment etc once belonged to Latin, French, Greek and other languages in the past. English will be replaced eventually by Chinese, Spanish, or some future language that may itself descend from English or a mixture of current languages.

"Forever" ? Please. Read some history.
Even better is Elizabeth Loftus's Myth of Repressed Memory from the late 1990s (http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Repressed-Memory-Memories-Allegat...). Loftus specializes in memory research and has been an expert witness, Witness for the Defense http://www.amazon.com/Witness-Defense-Accused-Eyewitness-Exp... about legal cases she was involved in and Eyewitness Testimony http://www.amazon.com/Eyewitness-Testimony-new-preface-autho... which was originally written in 1980.
Accredited Locksmiths | Locksmith Association 
Accredited Locksmiths are a Locksmith Association known as The Association of Accredited Locksmiths a Locksmith Group.
similar ...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034359
TRVTH.

For the chronically sleep-deprived, cutting back may be enough to show serious effects. I cut down to two caffeinated drinks a day during the summer (usually tea or coffee in the morning and a soda in the afternoon). I was dragging around for the first week or two, but doing physical work (home renovation!) helped with that. I definitely needed the respite from the high-caffeine hijinx that characterise the academic year for me.
What they want me to hear: don't pirate software.

What I actually hear: use as much free software as possible.
Michael Jackson
Actually, it's more like pointing out the contradiction of someone who constantly professes their love for egg salad and attacks others for not feeling the same way never actually bothering to eat any egg salad themselves.

She is one of these hypocritical diversity cheerleaders who loves to accuse others of racism while doing everything she can to minimize her exposure to the diversity she demands everyone else embrace.
The first flag was when they told me that not to worry, when we brought on a second programmer, he would report to me. Heh.
What really caught my eyes is the Christmas prediction. I used to work for a startup that ended up belly, hmm, sideways, and the process a -lot- longer than I expected. Money ran out in November. In December, they laid off 10%, and then there was always someone to cough up some money to make the whole thing going, until June, when the company was bought up (and I said goodbye) - it took another 6 months for the new owners to decide to get rid off the team. It may have been lucky for us, but generally: belly-up takes time.

But, it doesn't really change the fact that your bosses appear to be not the nicest people in the world.
Worth reading just to receive the wisdom of this change of perspective - I'm going to stop calling my errors "bugs":

We could, for instance, begin with cleaning up our language by no longer calling a bug a bug but by calling it an error. It is much more honest because it squarely puts the blame where it belongs, viz. with the programmer who made the error. The animistic metaphor of the bug that maliciously sneaked in while the programmer was not looking is intellectually dishonest as it disguises that the error is the programmer's own creation. The nice thing of this simple change of vocabulary is that it has such a profound effect: while, before, a program with only one bug used to be "almost correct", afterwards a program with an error is just "wrong" (because in error).
Next question about startups and quitting -- how long is long enough notice? I've not gotten into specifics with any other companies yet, but is 2 weeks too little time for a startup?
Thanks for linking to this. RadioLab has an episode covering the same Walter Mischel study, among other things:

http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2009/mar/09/misc...
We've all discussed other options and belly up would be the worst case scenario ... they're hoping that they can, at worst, get bought up by some conglomerate to ease the pain. The safe "thing" about it, though, is that for the most part, they can't do what they want to do at all without me. So, while I may not enjoy the circumstances, I do have job security until the job disappears.
The problem with castling is that for a move that is only once done in a chess game we have to keep track of a couple of variables and do a check for every move in the tree. It is rather unpleasant to code and it will increase the program size and decrease the speed (by a bit I mean). May be that is because they ended up not implementing castling.
it's one of three special cases where it isn't moving a piece from and to a square. The other being capturing enpassant, and queening a pawn.
Certainly cannot claim to be complete without being able to play a legal move.
Assange facing calls to step down from inside Wikileaks
As someone who have been involved with chess engine community for the last 15 years or so (not anymore) I can tell you that, until recently, almost every single new engine, that has been written from scratch instead of copying an OS implementation, almost always left out en passant and castling in its first few releases. Even when they did implement those rules in to the engine, they did so grudgingly or as an after thought. I wonder why.

Now, everyone just copies the few dozens of OS options available out there and use their move generator which support all the rules, they just tweak with the piece values and algorithm to give a "personal touch" to the engine.
Wowzer. I really appreciate the honesty -- and you're right about the fact that they are quite established MBAs and I am just a young idealistic programmer.

The fact that the CEO will often pull code off the internet and say we should use it shows me that respect is not really
there and from that, I've always questioned how much they respect me/my role/my abilities.

I think you're spot on about giving them the option of keeping me or not -- I don't generally like to threaten anyone about leaving, but I think if handled well, I can explain my expectations and what I'd like, and then go from there. With a backup plan of course.

Thanks for the insight.
Good point on vesting. Chances are that your vesting would start when they start giving you equity (if they eventually do). Even if they were to give you the same amount it's not fair to you to have to wait a couple extra years to finish vesting.

The risks you're taking right now will also look a lot less once the company gets to revenue neutral. "we made it, so it wasn't that risky after all…" it'll be easy for them to negotiate down at that point.
> while, before, a program with only one bug used to be "almost correct", afterwards a program with an error is just "wrong" (because in error).

So almost every program is "wrong" then. This is pretty pessimistic. Every glass is empty unless it is 100% full.

I think the better approach is just to not fool ourselves. If a large application works, but has a few bugs, then it's OK to say that it's 90% working (or 10% broken--have your pick).
A Different Way to Fund Your Great Business Idea
I remember learning about this at university.

The TL;DR version for those who don't want to bother with the links:

Full justification creates "rivers" of white space (effectively spaces above and below that partially line up forming a white line snaking down part of the page).

The eye has a tendency to follow these down the page which leads to either skim reading (you just resume reading where the river stops) or having to go back and reread and not get caught by the river this time.

Either obviously compromise the information you're taking in.
Ask HN: If you were starting a business what would you need most?
If you were starting a business, what kind of paid products, tools, services would you need the most at the beginning?
Where and how can one effectively learn the kind of formal reasoning he describes, and that he mentions having taught to college freshmen? Could a knowledgeable HN'er please give follow-up resources? Thanks!
Where Undersea Fiber Cables Come From
Quantum physics adds twist to chess
I don't know... You don't need to be a math god at all. It's basic linear alg. I guess lin alg isn't required in CS?
"You should start receiving better signals right away."

Seems like this fails to mention that you probably need to point it in the right direction..
If you can say that an application is 90% working, then you can probably divide it into at least two cleanly separated parts: one that works, and one that is erroneous. So, the more correct way to state this would be that x% of your program works. (Unfortunately for you, x may be much lower than 90. Think edge cases.)
> So can any flash content go to YouTube?

If you pay them enough, yes.
Ask HN: Getting insights via google search on Camel on a stick.
I'm trying to analyze data from Google on the amount of press that a vendor at the Minnesota State fair got this year using Google. So far i'm unable to get anything using Google insight or anything.

The vendor debut a new delicacy at the state fair called "camel on a stick" and i'm helping in getting him a better idea on feedback which has been great in the press but we need something substantial. for example it went from 400 hits on google prior to its debut to over 54,000 hits after its debut.

HN community i ask for your help in this endeavor thank you.
...promoting a pawn

...and then there's the 50 move and repetition draws

...and a non-chess player may not realize how vital a knowledge of openings is

but it basically works
An abstraction that leaks is only a small change compared to the corresponding perfect abstraction. But such a small change can have big consequences.

Leaky abstractions can easily be seen a subset of what Dikstra is talking about.
i have a copy. it's not as good as it looks.
It's no different to any other job - you look at what your contract says and that's it. If you have no contract then look at what the default legal position is in your country / state.

In the UK I'd tend to consider 4 weeks "normal" both in terms of what a contract would say and what I'd expect but that may be very UK specific.

There are some situations where you might want to extend it a little if you think it's in your interest (normally that would be about not leaving on bad terms if there's a chance that it might damage your reputation to go earlier or not leaving other colleagues in the lurch) but that doesn't turn weeks into months.

As someone said, this isn't personal, this is business. Take a good honest look at how they've treated you - if you think they've gone above and beyond for you then you might reciprocate but the reality is that most businesses will act in their own interest and you should do likewise. If the owners / managers get offended by this then they're really not cut out for it.
Good one: yes, race conditions are not going to manifest while manually slowly stepping. You of course need to plan / read carefully for code which will be vulnerable to such.

Regarding "-g", at the job a few years ago where we were using C for some in-house jobs, we skipped using "-O" for the most part and simply deployed with "-g" left on. Better safe than sorry for single-use software.
This article would have been vastly improved by actually describing how the system works for cashless purchases of goods and services. I can sort of guess but it would be interesting to actually know...
I'm trying to analyze data from Google on the amount of press that a vendor at the Minnesota State fair got this year using Google. So far i'm unable to get anything using Google insight or anything.

The vendor debut a new delicacy at the state fair called "Camel on a Stick" and i'm helping in getting him a better idea on feedback which has been great in the press but we need something substantial. for example it went from 400 hits on google prior to its debut to over 54,000 hits after its debut.

HN community i ask for your help in this endeavor thank you.
I like the "Advanced Strategy Guide". As of 16:22 UTC all it says is "I got nothin"

http://ai-contest.com/advanced_strategy_guide.php
Same here. I've found the only way I can stick to a morning schedule for any length of time is if I push my schedule later and later until late is early; my body tries to push my schedule backwards for a couple of weeks before it starts slipping forward again.

I don't recommend my sleep hack for everyone though, it's probably only easy if you have a really easy time staying up 4 hours later than usual but find it almost impossible to get up even one hour earlier.
I worked in a similar situation, though with a group of people who wanted to form an arts venue in the largest city in my state (I'm in the midwest).

When I agreed to come on (after leaving teaching), there was promise of salary. The salary never materialized, and so I was putting in 80-100 hours of free labor per week, and paying for my own expenses while doing so.

Meanwhile, the project ballooned from $250k to $2.7mil, and our investor (who is one of only 2 or 3 people I've ever actively disliked) bailed when he realized that the fellow I worked for was trying to extract quite a bit of money out of him.

I left after 7 months, and will never be reimbursed for the 2,000+ hours I put into reading, researching, writing, and networking. They still have exactly no money.

This isn't exactly analogous, but similar enough. Sometimes the boat's going to sink (to use your captain metaphor). Given that you don't own part of the company, and that your employers seem to think of you as replaceable, your obligation is minimal.

The fact that they're looking at changing what they do complete is not an encouraging sign, as it's very difficult to shift back from those changes.

Were I in your shoes, I'd quit and would be reaching back out to the startups who reached out to me, as well as to others that seem like good places to work. I would make it clear to my employers why I was quitting (in business, rather than personal, terms), and would hope that such honesty helps them to survive, or at least to make better decisions in the future.

This approach has worked well for me in the past, as it lets me maintain personal relationships (and even professional relationships) while extricating myself from situations neatly and efficiently.
Why does it matter that this is a startup? I mean that seriously: you don't have any equity, you're not a founder. If this were a job at any random, established company and you saw the end coming, you wouldn't hesitate to get out. And it doesn't sound like the best job in the world.

It's just a job, and jobs end. Treat it like one.
Yes. You need to incorporate in US and file for an Federal Employee ID Number.
re: China Bubble

In building http://Newsley.com, I've been reading a lot about the Chinese economy, and the potential bubble there over the last 9 months.

No hard numbers, I just know this must be true, because my gut tells me it is true. #tongue_in_cheek

My gut tells me that 10% GDP growth year on year is simply not sustainable over the long term for any country. There will be an economic contraction at some point. I'm also very leery of the lack of transparency in the economic numbers that are coming out of China. It's hard to build a capitalistic society without financial transparency. Perhaps China will pull it off, I have my doubts.

And...
<shameless plug>
http://newsley.com/k/Tag/economic-bubble/8167/
http://newsley.com/k/Tag/economy-of-the-peoples-republic-of-...
</shameless plug>

I'm building results pages for Newsley, before I have the search piece of the site built out. But, as I eat my own dog food, I find these results pages to be rather interesting for drilling down into specific topics.
Well I think that's already the case, and yet the system continues...
Honestly this kind of article annoys me.

It's split across 5 pages (more page views anyone?) and meanders through largely meaningless anecdotes without ever really getting to the point.

The whole stream of anecdotes style of journalism is one I abhor. It's lazy, can easily be abused (you can use anecdotes to prove anything) and is often just cheap theatre to try and humanize something otherwise without substance.
Dreams of a Desk Job