skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Some people, when confronted with a problem with their fitness levels, think "I know, I'll install some iPhone apps." Now they have two problems.

(I couldn't resist that one. )

That said, it's absolutely a great idea to track your exercise program. I go the dinosaur route and use emacs to edit a file called "exercise.org". Once your plan is laid out, it's very easy to push yourself each workout by marginally increasing things each session (or every two sessions, or whatever).

Even more importantly, careful notes help you notice patterns. I recently observed that deadlift -> lower back pain.
Should be titled "Why I think users might fill out forms faster with top aligned labels" since the article gives no evidence to support the claims. A simple a/b test would be enough.
Engineers, hardware and services (such as bandwidth). Not necessarily in that order.
Product as Tangible Representation of Brand
I think it's mostly rolled out now anyway, but thanks!
we've explored a variety of options but we would ultimately like to empower consumers to prove their creditworthiness in order to access better financial products, credit information and reporting is one avenue we are particularly excited about in terms of monetization.
Pathfinder.com Museum
shouldn't be long, if you want to be expedited send us a note at support@readyforzero.com ;)
A start-up is no different than any other company in terms of expenses, and usually their expenses outstrip the earnings, especially in the beginning.

So typically you need to spend money on:

- an office (unless you're really tiny)

- people (freelancers, employees)

- overhead (legal, administrative)

- communications (phones, network connections)

- hardware (computers for your employees)

- office furniture (but second hand is fine)

- marketing

and so on.

Plenty of those are 'one offs', so they at least won't be back next month, but if you grow quickly there is more money in each of those categories in the first months to years.

Starting up can be expensive, depending on how labour intensive your company is.
Actually it's grown quite a bit since I first saw it, I think originally there was a python class and that was about it, so I appreciated the resubmission.
Reverse lookups on Amazon are trouble either way. You can't control them.
Jessica is amazing. From her profile: She’s been programming since age 9, building businesses since age 12, and finished high school at age 15.

pg wasn't kidding when he said they're more interested in impressive founders than they are in a specific idea. Can't wait to see what happens with Indinero next.
Another issue: the target customers don't have any money.
That sucks for email servers then, after all you can put MX records up until the cows come home, plenty of services will not accept from or deliver to your server if the reverse lookup is not working properly.
If it bothers your teeth beyond the point of enjoyment.

When I pick carrots from the garden, I just wipe dirt off with my hands and eat them. So delicious.
But quite a few people made $20 million working for someone else. Unless you have a strong desire to be a Global Corporate Titan, you don't gain much utility going from $20 mil to $1 bil.
Toxic dispersant spraying continues unabated in Gulf
What I hate more than that is to be asked my credit card on the fourth step when I didn't even know I needed to pay to download that product (To try a trial for example)
Mine's on github too: http://github.com/markhepburn/dotemacs

It's quite large, and includes a lot of third-party stuff, much of it as submodules.

It's relocatable (with additional platform and/or machine-specific loads) which might be semi-interesting: http://everythingtastesbetterwithchilli.com/initialisation-f...

Little things off the top of my head that I find useful:
* wind-move -- use shift-arrow keys for window navigation
* (fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)
* browse-kill-ring
* mic-paren-mode
* rename-file-and-buffer from Yegge
* unscroll (undo inadvertent C-v) from Glickstein's book
* lots of little tweaks like using C-,/. for smooth scrolling up/down
* uniquify to keep buffer names unique
* find-file-at-point

Lots of autloads for more efficient initialisation (although that's less of an issue now that I'm using --daemon at startup)

I do the usual UI tweaks like turning off the menu and tool bar, using ido mode (with smex -- ido for commands), etc. There's not a lot of keys that I rebind, but I do change backward-kill-word to C-w (consistent with shell usage), and kill-region to C-xC-k. Both those suggestions were from Yegge's effective emacs article which is worth a browse; I've ignored his advice to also change M-x to C-xC-m though.
You're leaving out the bit where you find a knife and a cutting board, and then you wash the knife and the cutting board, and the bit where you throw away all the peel you cut off, and the bit where some of the peel winds up on the floor so you have to bend over and pick it up, and... wait, can't you just buy packaged prepeeled babby carrots anyway? They sell 'em at my local supermarket.
I assume there is more to it than that. MS Money's debt planner started with you creating a budget. From there it knows about how much extra you have each month. It then takes in how much debt you have and their interest rates, and from there it plots out how much to pay each debt every month. It's encouraging because you can see the graph converging towards zero, and it also indicates how much you'll save in interest charges versus just paying the minimum (which for a lot of people is probably quite a bit). MS Money is the sole tool that got me out of a lot of debt, and it conditioned me to be responsible with my money ever since.

As for weight loss, there pretty much are sites like that. fitday.com, livestrong.com, etc. None of them are magic pills, just like ready for zero won't be. All sites like this require a user who is determined and willing to make the change. But these sites can help the person who really is looking to make that change and increase their chance at success.
I ignore all of that crap and focus on building my company.
I've spent four minutes with myself every morning since I was 15. YARRR!
Or coffee and tea mixed. My favorite.
Ask HN: Finding advisors for my start up.
Hello HN.

My name is Carlos Taborda, I started a company about 1.5yr ago. (Not sure if its considered a startup anymore).

Anyhow, we have been having a lot of issues with growth, we are growing faster than our income allows us.

This has put us in a situation to find advisors, investors, who knows. More than anything, someone to share concerns and find solutions for our 'startup'.

Anyhow, its my first time using HN for such a thing. If my etiquette is wrong please forgive me.

Thanks a lot.

Carlos.
When I saw this story it reminded me of a thread I read a long time ago: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/227686/?start=0

I think its popularity indicates a good opportunity.
Ping first use
No, what would be effective is if the parents of children stopped letting 'em eat junk food all the fricking time. "Mummy, I want a Snickers". Bad fricking luck, kid, eat your fricking vegetables.
It was his interview question at Google, now he has to live by these numbers. He became the choir.

Just kidding. He has no idea if these numbers are true. The important meat of the message, that humanity now stores more information than ever jedi hand and Google helps you make sense of it /hand is what he wants you to believe.

And believe you will. I mean, we're so much smarter than previous generations (as usual), we've got to be doing whatever, better than previously.

It fits their company purpose. They are the good guys. Add 2+2. Why do you have to make so much trouble with these questions?
Depends on your definition of "super smart". I had put a successful entrepreneur in "super smart" category.
Y Combinator Saved Our Bacon
Yeah, but every company do SEO after having a considerable amount of traffic or users when I believe it should be the other way. Egg or chicken.
One paragraph stood out:

Unfortunately, outside of wikis, the world itself has also been busy evolving, and in a way I don't know how to deal with. The new problem is: teams are the wrong size now. Thirty dedicated, full-time programmers was an ideal number for NitWiki. But who has 30 dedicated, full-time programmers now? I mean really dedicated? You can be a very successful Internet startup with way less than 30 developers. Maybe you need only two. Maybe those two aren't even working full time on the one project. And two people don't need a wiki.

Has the programming world changed so much in ten years that 30 person teams no longer exist? What do people think?
Yawn. All a bit 1998 if you ask me. Look, I found most of it terribly visually impressing in a rock-video type of way.

When I can eat or live in a piece of information, then I'll start buying new paradigms with my ears pinned back.

All this talk about new economy is a bit old. While I'm impressed about the presentation - that's a very impressive way of showing things - and I agree that command-and-control architecture is done and dusted by sharing and open information models - this whole thing about information being more important than factories is a bit far-fetched.

Perhaps for some growth areas of the economy a completely information-based perspective is not only vital, but valid. Maybe more millionaires and billionaires will be minted by clever use of information and digital data. But the majority of the worlds production and income will still be found in digging things around.

However, the 'old economy' business of digging things up out of the ground, planting plants and harvesting them, and melting down base minerals to make things from is not going to change. You can layer all types of fancy new diagrams on top of this, but it's not going to change the base.

The big indicator should be that the 3 foundations of the current system, as described in the presentation - can all be exchanged for each other. Land for Captial, Capital for Labour, Labour for Land. Try exchanging information for any of these, you won't have much luck, unless we're talking trade secrets or blackmail. Try exchanging open information for a piece of land and see how you get on.

Even an iPad has to be made out of stuff dug out of the ground and refined in some way, then shipped across the ocean in an ancient old bit of technology called a ship. That's where the real story in the world economy is, that's where it will remain. Moving information around is just playing with the surplus production given to us by efficient manufacturing and agriculture.

If you want the real story on where things are headed, you'd best study things like the baltic dry index, the yield curve and old economy indicators like that. Measuring things in terms of eyeballs, mindshare and information flow is as terminally ridiculous now as it was 10 years ago when this was discredited the first time around.
"iTunes 10 is safe for JBers+unlockers: DFU mode, syncing, selecting IPSW, all okay (Stay away from 4.1 next week though!)"

http://twitter.com/MuscleNerd/status/22762830722
I know Brad and I've honestly never met anyone more in love with a significant other than he is (and visa versa). I would strongly recommend taking any and all of his relationship advice (and finding the perfect mate for you also helps :-). I am going to start this ritual tomorrow.
Hmm, let's see. Facebook claims to have an active userbase of 500 million people. If they can find a way to show $46 worth of ads to every one of 'em every year, they can make $23 billion.

It does sound a little high, but not as insane as it initially might.
Shopify is always hiring. Lack of permanent damage from working for the government or nortel is a big plus...
Thanks for sharing this. As entrepreneurs we (especially myself) tend to forget about the importance of the support we receive from our partners. But, life just isn't quite complete without spending quality time with our "other half". Four minutes a morning is definitely worth the effort!
If you really want to dig to the sources of the idea, Microsoft had it back in 2006 for Office 2007 Beta2.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jensenh/archive/2006/05/26/607768.as...
TED talks for IT pros
Is that really helpful?
Too bad it's not full of visible shrimp. Those are worth money!
Ask: Is there a big book of neat algorithms?
I remember when I first heard about the Bloom Filter and was so amused but was wondering if there is a central resource for nifty little algorithms like these. I found "The Algorithm Design Manual" but was wondering if there was another one around.
How is video, that works only on apple products, in any way remotely open?
Good for you, that's exactly what you should be doing.
No kidding. If parents would do their damn job and not let kids eat junk just because they want it, we wouldn't have an issue.
Fun story--I had a dropped/dented PowerBook once that I never got fixed because it was my fault, but it had another issue due to a manufacturing fault that I did send it in for. They sent it back with apparently a brand new, undented case.
To me it sounds like the success of NitWiki was down to the culture of the 30-person team. I'm guessing this stemmed from some leaders in that group, and applied to more than just the wiki. I'm not sure that much has changed over time - it's just not trivial to cultivate the right kind of culture.

Re: the public vs private debate, if you want to make a great public wiki, then maybe you have to make "open" the default. This requires letting go of the fear of sharing too much, although my personal experience suggests we tend to be more afraid of this than is necessary (e.g. "stealth mode" startups).
UGG Bailey Button
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The way it works, ideally, is there's competition & people vote with their dollars according to how they like the benefits & the prices.
So many banks gouge people that I'm sure you'll find plenty of room for improvement and opportunity with the ones ready to access your client base with more reasonable terms. Best of luck!
Seed funds didn't exist in the 50s.
Brad also has a policy of answering his phone when his wife calls, no matter what. (He checked his phone mid-sentence when it rang while he was speaking at Google I/O). I think it's awesome that he has his priorities in life set out so clearly.
Keyword: early.
Those employees were also risking by joining a new company.
Thanks for this post and everyone's links. I'm just considering a return to Emacs after a run-in with RSI and several years wandering in the TextMate forest. This is very helpful.
He talks about the iPhone as though it costs $199 and doesn't have a service contract associated with it. Of course, the real cost is more like $599+. Makes for a bad comparison, and kind of defeats his argument.
> a model customer is also someone who never complains no matter how bad the service is

hardly. but a model customer probably isn't an ass about complaining, either. i've complained about tons of shit, and they are much more receptive and responsive when they know its someone who is usually nice.

> It is not as simple and gracious a system as you suggest.

never said it was. i don't disagree with what you're saying, and it comes down to the fact that the person taking your order is going to get fired if they tell you to leave because you're a bad customer (in most places). so they generally have to sit there and take it, for the most part. which is why a good customer is usually treated like gold.
http://rachaelrayshow.com
Thanks ed. Been waiting for this one to roll out since the keynote. On a sidenote, is it me or is the new logo hideous?
Clever policy, cuz it'll stop his wife from calling him unless it's actually important.
In Vegas in particular, hotel-casinos will comp you a room if you gamble enough--and interestingly, the EV on that gambling sometimes compares favorably to the cost of the room.
In fairness, "we" don't have the issue.

It's somebody else's issue, and I refuse to accept any responsibility or worry over the fact that somebody else's kids are fat. I have enough problems of my own, I've got better things to do than accept part-ownership of the easily-soluble problems of others.
My kit is on github: http://github.com/apgwoz/emacs-config

My favorite new thing is my thumb-through: http://github.com/apgwoz/thumb-through, which allows me to easily read articles from irc (i use rcirc) without leaving emacs, or loading up w3m-mode.
Growth. Skilled engineers don't come cheap, when you're trying to steal people who are good enough to get offers from Google or Facebook.
No, and I understand it isn't, I'm just trying to figure out how that could happen.

I see lots of people spend way too much money on their marriage (1 day...) only to be in trouble for a year or more afterwards, which, surprise, puts a huge stress on their marriage.

There is some kind of peer-pressure going on there that makes people spend way more than is smart and I'd like to understand better how that happens.
Herpetic gingivostomatitis is often the initial
presentation during the first herpes infection.
It is of greater severity than herpes labialis
which is often the subsequent presentations.
Around 90% of the U.S. population is affected
with this disease

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex
Who uses serializable isolation level? I find that claim dubious, and I don't think ordering the way he talks about is better than read committed.
I don't think I understand. Is this the only time he spends with his wife? My S.O. gets upset if I don't spend at least an hour or two of quality time with them per day, let alone four minutes in the morning! If the only time we actually talked throughout the day to discuss our lives and problems was for a few minutes, I believe I'd find myself single. Am I in a weird relationship or something?
Or maybe they just prefer 'em because they're sweet and tasty.

C'mon folks, don't you remember being a kid? Sweet food tasted awesome, whether you'd seen an advertisement for it or not. Human beings, and especially children, are hard-wired to find sweets delicious and carrots merely tolerable. This made perfect sense to our prehistorical ancestors, since if they ever did manage to get access to something sweet it would be an excellent source of much-needed calories which should be prioritised.
> How many lines does the THEN clause of an IF need to have before you surround it with curlies?

If I'm your manager, 0.
I think it's more that they have a bare minimum that they spend with each other, and only each other, with no exceptions. Too many couples spend hours together, but watching TV, or cooking, or any numerous other activities that distract them from just enjoying being with each other.
Dave Ramsey would like something like this.
can't go wrong with paredit or the emacs client/server (google them)
But those are instances where there is no precedent for tipping.
I think it's a silly idea for children since children aren't quite dumb enough to buy the idea that carrots are tasty just because you advertise 'em (I didn't buy my parents' assertions that cleaning up my room was fun, either, and teenagers don't seem to buy the "abstinence is cool" message).

But I have to admit that it _did_ make me go to my fridge and get some carrots.
Not haunting at all, to my mind. Our concept of what is "clean" and obsessiveness, both personal and societal, is built on terrible mental models that don't fit reality.
I've never seen it before. Pretty cool stuff. But like everything else Google does (other than search) it seems 75% done.
There is some value to this argument if Mars turns out to have life on it. If this is the cas we should definitely hold off on the terraforming, which is why I hope it isn't.

Otherwise: heck, it's just a rock, let's go nuts.
In a thirty-person team, you have smaller groups working on different things, all nominally coordinated by the manager who in practice heavily depends on capable developers to help manage the subgroups. Since every convenient method that exists in a large company will eventually be formalized and fetishized, it was inevitable that someone would seize on the idea of breaking up the larger team and formally replacing it with a set of small teams with fluid membership.

Now a large team is seen as grotesquely unwieldy, bureaucratic, and high-overhead, kind of a laughable concept compared to smaller teams, even though large teams were normally run as a set of fluid, informally organized smaller teams. With a single large team, a certain amount of mandatory overhead is incurred at the team level, and individual groups within the team can adopt as much or as little overhead as they think appropriate. One person can work alone, or all thirty people can work in concert. Informal groups within a team never have a formal existence, so they can form and unform at will. Everything depends on judgment and discipline, and the greatest risk is chaos. Sounds kind of lightweight and agile compared to an "agile" process like Scrum, where each small team has a formal existence, a minimum size, mandatory administrative overhead, and a prescribed methodology, doesn't it?
Apple's wrong about Flash because they're deciding for everyone based on some pretty narrow vision - Flash on mobile devices is going to take some time, Adobe will eventually get it right and (or?) hardware will improve until it doesn't matter. How much more powerful is the latest iPhone vs. the first generation? How long until they're as powerful as a netbook or cheap laptop?

People love Flash games, they play the shit out of them all day every day in a world where games made by little indie developers on $0 budgets are competing with a thousand high technology, high budget things for people's attention. Last month I tracked 3000 YEARS of play time on Flash games. That's about 100 years spent playing Flash games every day, just on the % that I track.

The biggest argument for Flash on mobile devices though is why shouldn't we have it? There is nothing automagically "bad" about Flash, it's just a very rich platform that people develop a lot of amazing stuff on and a lot more ugly crap on. That describes a lot of platforms including iOS, OSX, Windows, Linux, .NET, Java, HTML/CSS/JS and countless others.

The closed nature of the flash player is obviously not going to last forever - there are already open and close source non-Adobe IDEs for Flash.
Personally, I'm going to avoid iTunes 10 for as long as possible. I don't need Ping much, not planning on getting a new tv and I can do without a horrendous UI.

Plus iTunes 9.2.whatever is still working fine with my iPhone (which is running iOS 4.1 GM).
I think it's not necessarily the only time he spends with his wife, except when he's travelling. I think the key words here are "morning" and "100% focused on each other".
The position of the three system buttons for the windows are weird, especially considering how Apple try to be consistent in that kind of stuff.
It's great that he places such a high priority on his relationship with his wife, but I'd say that answering no matter what is a bad idea. Being respectful of the people we deal with often requires us to give them distraction-free attention. And that can mean not answering the phone, no matter what.
Not really, dogs have very different dietary needs to humans.
A million dollars really doesn't buy a whole heck of a lot. A 10 person company (which isn't that big, assume a CEO, three or four developers, a support person, a tester or two and a couple sales guys plus offices, incentives, and other expenses and you're north of a million in expenses per year easily).

Or another way to think of this...it's better to use this money to try and boot strap and hit profitability to grow out slowly and organically than use this as immediate ramp-up money to build out a huge team and hope that lighting strikes.
Agreed, the new logo is as ugly as sin.