skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My thoughts exactly on the drab. Photos are full of color and life, and the site doesn't fit that mood. Even the 'you' and 'others' and 'photo album' images shouldn't be just bland icons, show some pictures, it would be much more engaging.
I wonder how many of these 200 people were from India, which appears to be supplying a good chunk of Mech Turk userbase.

I also ran a couple of polls with similar intent on MT and then stopped doing that because results were skewed dramatically. For one there's no filtering by a geographical region and you bet your 10c-per-answer that you will get a ton of replies from the poorest corners of the world. Secondly, responders are afraid of you rejecting their answer and thus affecting their MT rating, so they tend to tell you want you want to hear and not what they actually might be thinking. Hence your 73% approval rate.

This sampling is not random, very far from it. You are effectively sampling MT community with its own dynamics, the community that is likely NOT to be representative of your own target user base.
I swear I read a round of articles on this subject a few months ago and the number was $60K.

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie...
It's a place to share photos of what you have cooked. I enjoy food photography, and I wanted a place like this to share my photos. It's not about recipes, there are plenty of sites for that.

Seems like it is just not for you, too bad. Your comment would be more useful if you could elaborate on what it is that you find useful, though.
Fuck You Money for EU citizens
Microsoft is a software company, Apple is a hardware company. They overlap but if you look at it through that fundamental lens you'll understand. Gates bet on software, Jobs on hardware.
My esteem for DHH just fell a few notches. What a tacky, ugly, gratuitous waste of money. Obviously he's entitled to spend his money however he likes but this doesn't show much class.
When I was an early teenager, I took violin playing lessons. Whenever I asked my teacher about violin playing technique, he would always give me a quote which he attributed to famous violin teacher D.C. Dounis:

"There is no technique, only a bunch of tricks that help you play better."

He didn't want me to get stuck in the 'technique' mindset. I think he was trying to tell me that applying a predefined technique instead of experimenting with different things meant you were not adapting to the current song, style, your, body or cognitive abilities. Different 'tricks-from-the-masters' worked differently with different people in different situations and a smart player would try different things until they found the combination that made playing easier and better sounding in his current context.

I always thought that quote applied very well to programming.
Echoing, in a way, the comments of others, the most important thing you can do organizationally is explain the why. It's not enough to know and sure, it sucks to have to explain your reasoning when you feel you shouldn't (you're the expert, dammit.)

You'll find that people, particularly internal audiences and longer-term clients, get behind ideas better when they understand them. Over time you're more effective and have to do less selling when they either a.) understand why you're doing it or b.) know that you're being methodical and acting with purpose.

It's just the reality of working with people. Good luck.
Possibly. Maybe, privacy is about being able to control what others you care about know about you.

I wouldn't for example want Nazi Germany to know that I am Jewish. That of course is an example, I am neither in Nazi Germany nor Jewish. But I suppose if I were Jewish, I would not care that the Israeli government knows I am Jewish.

I do not care what Google knows about me. I do not care either that Google knows where I am. I too roughly know where most visitors to my website are. Indeed sometimes I know where they are precisely.

If google wants to offer a service to remind me to buy milk, I might use it. I do not think that machines are at such a level yet where they can control me and tell me what to do next. If it reminds me to buy milk I might or might not go and buy milk. Indeed, possibly having a little google robot to go and buy my milk would be the science fiction future.

If however google decides all the sudden to tell for example my employer that I have said that I hate them, that is an invasion of privacy. As it would be if they told my girlfriend I slept with someone, or if they told my friend I lied to them. Now that would be the fiction future, or possibly the non fiction past of 1984.
You are right about searching, definitely on the todo list. Thanks.
I think this is a great idea, and it solves a real problem that I've encountered myself. That being said, it feels somewhat incomplete at the moment. There isn't an easy to find out more about the site. For instance, I'd be interested in knowing more about how the service works before signing up for yet another account, e.g. step-by-step would be great to illustrate how easy it is to use.

Also useful would be what the different plans are, if any - the Techcrunch article seemed to indicate a free and paid plan. Some public galleries on the front page would be great too, to help get a sense of the site. One more quick commment is that as I look through an album, from a UX perspective, the controls being icons make it harder for me to quickly scan my possible actions.
Start A Legitimate Company In One Weekend
Not too fond of the name...
YC-related posts don't get bumped up. The reason for the disparity is that the Santorum post is being pushed down. But I don't want to go into the details of why, because these mechanisms would be gameable to some extent if known.

I'm also going to kill this post, since the guidelines explicitly ask that questions about moderation be emailed to us rather than asked in posts on the site.
Thanks for the feedback, good points! I think you are right about the wording, I'm gonna rework that.
>> $50k, issued in tranches based on milestones

Tranches generally aren't very entrepreneur friendly, I wonder how much pushback they'll get about that that.
I like it, it works well with what I imagine is a common casual workflow after people come back from a group event. People email each other pictures. You can just fwd those pictures to your site. Or CC: your site in the discussion.
This strategy, as others have pointed out, is hedged heavily towards not ditching the solo "latch key" event attendee. For maximum effect, if you do try it (it's a rush), join a group that is seated by dragging chairs over (demonstrates maximum commitment) to sit down with the new group. A lot of what the other posters have said - it's nice meeting you is average social lubricant. What this strategy espouses is focusing on the other person, not you. You presumably are indifferent to 'nice meeting you' rejection. This is about not making the other party feel rejected. As a bonus, it makes you into a leader - organizing disparate groups, bridging cliched cliches...
Wow! That looks pretty awesome. It's interesting to see what buy/do to express themselves when they have the money. Personally, I couldn't care less about fast cars but I'd be straight onto one of those Red Bull Air Race planes and a private airfield. What would you do?
Criticizing one's fantasies doesn't show much class.
The first paragraph of the article basically says the only reason it is a custom car is because of US rules and regulations, but then the end mentions he will never drive it in the US and it will stay in Italy..
Just wanted to apologize again for sniping at you yesterday. It was uncalled for. Glad to see you've been able to incorporate it into a proper discussion.
Firefox 4 Beta 5 Released
The rate of inflation these days is astounding ...
With Oracle's acquisition of Sun, they (in theory) compete heavily in enterprise-land. (In theory because Sun hasn't been too competitive for a long while, but in theory Oracle bought them to change that.)
More GPL enforcement work again.. and a very surreal but important case
Something else that might not be considered when thinking about the pace of change at a company like nike is that it is possible if not likely that Nike is not developing their own apps, but is outsourcing this to a third party.

That means that it is likely that the app is developed and shipped, and then reviewed on a semi-annual or annual basis.

Runkeeper can keep churning out improvements and new features, while I doubt Nike or Adidas will keep up.
I found a recipe I liked within the first two minutes, precisely because of the photos. However, after that, I realized it just wasn't my kind of site. I like looking for new recipes and the emphasis on photos would be a great thing for me, but there's no way to filter or categorize stuff.
Torben’s Corner - A GPU Computing Gem for Jacket Programmers
Hardly. If any of my friends let me buy a car like that I'd be angry as hell once I came to my senses.

If you must dump money on a car at least get something that doesn't look like a running shoe, like a jag or something. All that one is missing is a blonde bimbo in the passenger seat.
There is no surprise. But many people's only exposure to agile is this, and the result is that people wind up with an unfairly bad impression of what agile means.

That said, I've used a variety of agile methods for years, but I'm quite sure in ways that would make many of the presenters of those seminars object very strongly to my calling it agile.
That car is truly hideous.
Not everyone works at google and has the mindset of 'oh dear I better not enjoy my success'.
"public album" might confuse users given that the title says "privately and in groups".
Esther Duflo: Social experiments to fight poverty [video]
How Ping Might Grow
Did not sign up for all the reasons listed in this thread -

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1665498

Nice idea otherwise, but I would move "It's all about photos" to the front page. Otherwise it is very easy to assume that it's a Dribbble for the recipes.
While tacky, this makes me wonder what the market is for custom built cars. You always see these nifty concept cars that never see the light of day. Yachts are already custom built, this would be a sort of... land-yacht, I suppose, occupying the same niche in terms of status signaling toys, while at the same time being more practical.
Scaling Disqus (YC S07)
you can't do a parallel beta test of two functionally different sites. You would end up with two separate data stores, workflows, and ultimately a confused user base.

Never mind the fact that the user base is confused by the rollout.

And never mind the fact that Google has forever damaged the term "Beta" in the minds of general Web consumers.
Trolling Has Ethics Too, Dammit
sorry if i misinterpreted your earlier comments, it looks like we actually share a lot of the same ideas.

I don't think that everyone in a society can generate unique value, but its great that in our society that people who can are able to do so. So we really need a better method than just the invisible hand of Adam Smith to solve this problem.

Actually implementing policies to do this is incredibly complex, a lot of this is discussed (as they mention in the article) in the book Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman. He made good arguments for raising minimum wages and the importance of unions. I'm kind of torn on the Union issue (too much Chicago School of Economics influence...), so i think there needs to be some sort of modernization of the union. Especially with trends pointing towards more and smaller companies, centralized unions don't seem to make much sense.

Livable Minimum Wages seem to make a lot of sense and at least that is more politically tractable than setting wage maximums.
If I had to guess, it looks like it's a competition for dish presentation? So, it'd get its energy from the ego and competitiveness of the people who participate. No idea what they're looking for for a revenue model, unless they're trying to serve as a cooks' competitive photo-portfolio.
This could have easily been titled "Staying Healthy and Sane." Useful ideas all around.

In particular, business on meditation is interesting to me. I do all my best thinking in the shower. I suspect this is because without meaning to be, I'm in a meditative state there. Every time I have a really hard problem to ponder, I find a shower has the power to jolt me in the direction of the solution.

I'd like to find a way to harness this in a more convenient way that doesn't require soap, water or nudity, so I'm going to check out the NSR site Alex recommends.
One of the reasons I like living in the Silicon Valley is because, in general, the wealthy here do not flaunt their wealth.
No, at least not according to James Gosling (http://nighthacks.com/roller/jag/entry/escaped_from_reality) and many others who have left Sun after the acquisition.
Agreed on the car - but each their own.

Me? I'd buy or build a hockey rink. I've always wanted one, ever since I started skating as a kid. Yeah, not very flashy but maybe I'll hire some extravagant architect to create something really unique/different. Actually... I kind of like that idea. Dream updated...
also relevant is http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/ which plots quakes over time based on GNS data
Thanks. I'm new here and I'm mostly used to the derp derp stuff, so your comment was helpful. I'm assuming there is no way to embed html here?
> Hardly. If any of my friends let me buy a car like that I'd be angry as hell once I came to my senses.

Which is exactly why you didn't buy it. he did.
Company B. Roles change all the time. Especially if you work hard to make sure they change. Great companies are hard to come by.
Dude, some people just like cars, you know?

Welcome to nobody cares what you think about their hobbies. Population: 6 billion.
Good point, and agree.

But who are we to decide what is appropriate. Maybe there is a reason this was important to him.
This one is sub-pixel accurate, and the Google one snaps to pixels, which looks bad when particles are moving slowly. Canvas version looks a TON better to me.
Is that a rocket engine a la batmobile?

http://www.secretentourage.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/zo...
Where Have All The Good Managers Gone?
If you must dump money on a car at least get something that doesn't look like a running shoe, like a jag or something.

I'd have to go with a classic...a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0808/S00190.htm)
Except Fog Creek is a gold sponsor already: http://mercurial.selenic.com/sponsors/
The iPad is about to steamroll into the Enterprise
37 Signals go truly rockstar, from their "Appetite for Destruction" beginnings they're entering their "Use Your Illusion" period, just hope they don't end up going the way of "Chinese Democracy"
Keep in mind you're comparing an off-the-cuff quote to a carefully worded marketing slogan.
Exactly!

I can't say I really get the whole car thing but if that's what makes your heart flutter than at least get one with some style. If you're going to consume conspicuously than give a little extra thought to what you're trying to say about yourself.
Don't worry. I'm sure there's something you would spend money on that DHH finds equally atrocious.
I clicked on a photo wondering how to make a Joakim Bugge, turns out its someones name and there's no recipe. Maybe the site is not for me?
They just have to spend more on housing, so the conspicuous consumption is more subtle. Like the mid-upper management triathlete wannabe clones at the huge tech firms who all have $14,000 bicycles racked to the top of their Audis.
One tip I'd add to the diet section is to drink enough water. I find that always having cold water at arm's reach helps keep my mind fresh and alert.

Also, making the switch from coffee to tea can have innumerable benefits to one's energy level and overall health.
Point being, you should be free to not care. I should be free to care.
Does anyone know whether this ruling affects the use of cell phone location records in civil cases?

For example these records have been used in divorce cases to provide evidence of affairs. (If two cell phones have a repeated tendency to meet each other in motel rooms, this is evidence that the carriers of said cell phones did likewise.) Does this ruling on what the police can do affect that at all?
This is a great article, very useful ideas.

I think that the last point he makes is probably the most valuable and one that I only just learned, that is to not worry if you miss a workout or two, or if you have that cake on the weekend every once in a while. I always used to set myself a very strict plan for whatever I was trying to do, and inevitably whenever I fell off I would feel like I failed and wouldn't be able to get back to it.
I've recently started taking a more relaxed approach to my 'goals' and I feel like I've made much more progress, as long as the trend is in the right direction you're good to go.
I have questions about what they're doing with all that staff, especially now that it's become apparent that Reddit is doing similar (if not larger) numbers with a handful of guys (literally, countable on one hand).

Evidently Digg is better at the monetization game than Reddit has been, so more sales staff I can understand... but devs?
This is awesome. Bushwick is a pretty cool neighborhood too, if you keep a sharp eye out for nefariousness. I'm north side though, and this place is south side. (L train vs. M train)
Actually if you google "digg cassandra" you'll get a number of blog posts dating back to 2009, describing different things they use Cassandra for.
In case anyone doesn't know what a Mechanical Turk is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
A lot of this applies to working for yourself, or for a big company. Startups exaggerate the extremes of stress and crunch, but I pretty much do all these things (and have done for the last 18 months or so, so ~8 months of BigCo and ~10 months of CEO) and they work equally well in both contexts. As long as you're working somewhere that you can go and take a walk when your wheels are spinning.

Things that I've found helpful: Vegetarian diet (currently trying vegan out to break my fro-yo addiction), yoga, running with a goal in mind, running without a goal in mind, massages, a long commute without a laptop. All except the former help me let my thoughts just drift and it's surprising what pops out.
The state of mapping API's
A thousand times yes. Having water at hand and always sipping is a really great way to tame hunger and oral fixations, and is great for your body to be flushing itself out.

I find that tea doesn't give me as much of a high as coffee, but it lasts longer without any come-down. Awesome.
You can't right now. It's on the list of things they haven't finished reimplementing from v3.
In reply to you and epoxy, sounds like a gross failure of engineering management. If you're having problems of this sort of foundational nature a few days before the planned release, it strongly suggests you should delay and figure out what's generally gone wrong with the project.
It's funny that you mention Tim Robbins because after listening to somebody talk for 30 minutes about the "values" of the agile process I felt like I'd just sat through a Robbins seminar. The harder somebody tries to convince me that they deeply, truly, personally care about their customer the more convinced I am that they're trying to sell me something.
If you click the photo on the recipe page, it shows a large image.
Finance For Founders
Leaked video of IE9(real?)
To those who don't know of DHH's passion for cars - he is a huge car guy! He races Lamborghinis on the weekends - He has/had a White Gallardo LP560-4 that he raced at Autobahn Country Club.
I find it very visually disorienting. It literally made me throw up last night-that's not bashing Google or anything. I was already feeling rather nauseas due to a migraine at the time. I went to look up something, and it was.... just too much.

This is probably some kind of first for the guys behind the Google logos.
Thanks for the suggestion, it might serve as a better tagline. Regarding the sign in, I am very happy with the current solution - I don't see the hassle? Everybody has a Facebook/twitter/google account these days :)
Oh definitely. I put it together in a couple of hours, without any major performance testing. It's just a bit of fun really, nothing hardcore.
The more things change...

It wasn't so long ago that anything computer-related was dismissed as imaginary bits floating around a computer, with no lasting impact on life. It also wasn't so long ago that anything internet-related was dismissed as artificial, with no impact on real life.

You would think we'd realize by now that there's nothing artificial about the sort of connection and communication that we practice over the internet.

Facebook isn't the thing preventing people from communicating "in real life" - people haven't been chatting on buses for decades, long before the invention of the internet. If anything, the iPod has done more to damage the social fabric of urban areas than smartphones.

It is the curse of the city - never before has mankind lived in a denser conglomeration of his/her peers, yet been more alone. To blame this on technology instead of sociology seems misguided.
That's exactly what I need. I've been searching this algorithm for years to write my Photoshop action script. Thanks!
And never mind the fact that Google has forever damaged the term "Beta" in the minds of general Web consumers.

The general web consumer still thinks betas are a type of fish. Not really relevant to the median Digg user, though, since they are not the general Web user.
He's Australian, they misuse English wilfully all the time. ;)
Valid argument, searching and filtering needs more work!
You missed my point, I said "at the moment", so let's repeat: it's artificial when it happens at the same time when real communication is in place already but people turn to their twitter or whatever.

On the other hand if you have a problem with what I said then it's just your another problem. I prefer to talk to people about life things not about Facebook comments. YMMV
Major file-sharing bust in Europe targets P2P admins
We call you a "pescatarian".
DHH's new Car
I finally tried it and really like the mouse tracking and some of the other insights, like resolution.

1) Is there an easy way to share mouse recording videos w/ colleagues?

2) Small Bug: Links to external sites recorded in the movie, namely Paypal, make weird things happen in new tabs.

Once again, great job, I'd like to try the chat in the future, too.
Not yet, but this is pretty close: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/01/12/the-solo-founder-startup...

Patrick doesn't know about what I'm talking about though, this is unrelated.
Trying to communicate with a mix of people who are A) standing too far from the conference phone or B) driving to work and thus drowned out by road noise, not to mention paying attention to either you or the road but not both -- is a waste of time. Plus, people who are not dialed in can't read body language and so they end up talking too long because they can't see how bored everyone else is but nobody wants to be the one to tell them to shut up.
Blame Cassandra for Everything you Don't Like
How did you get a .gov domain?
You have a masters in Entrepreneurship? Awesome, I'm close to getting my bachelors in it. I'd love to talk about the value that post-grad studies gave you--drop me a line: austin (at) beatnex (dot) com
One other thing that has helped me keep my sanity: wash and fold laundry service. You take your dirty laundry, put it in a bag, and they'll clean and fold it for a modest fee (the place around the corner from me is around $1.10 a pound). In urban areas you can find services that will pickup and deliver.

It's a luxury, but it isn't that expensive (especially if you typically rely on coin-op laundromats anyway) and it's one less thing to worry about.