skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Want to be like me? Let me show you how; here, in order, are the first ~60 comments SearchYC finds for my username. I'd like to think they tell a little story about me.

:) :) No. Nonsensical. …and? Ghostbusters. Congratulations! No. Yes. No? Not at this event. Why? Conceded. No. Diaspora. Example? Because? No. Delegate. Yes. No. YC. No. Ew. Why? Amazon. Why? CHEATER! Homeschooling? Lame. Why? Hire. Preposterous. Huh? Yep. Thanks! How? Burned! Thanks. Sure. Yes. And C++. Because? Ouch. Why? Freelancing. …because? Yep. Yes. The game. No. No. Sure. Yep. No.
No. Huh? And? And? Douche. REMARKABLY NO. Uh oh.
It was kind of a joke.
i know working for the man isn't popular around these parts, but if someone is looking for a programming job in DC let me know. Its a govt job but I love working here. Lots of freedom to work on projects that you want.
Teambox - open source project management and collab tool
Google Reader turning off the track page changes feature
The interview makes a bit more sense just a tiny bit further down:

Mark Zuckerberg: The way that the mobile stuff is structured — Erick is really the lead PM for mobile stuff in general. I’m sure there’s specific things in there that aren’t announced yet. But he’s not running a secret project. That’s… I think that’s more like the type of stuff that Joe is working on or that Matt would typically work on.

Michael Arrington: The secret stuff goes through him?

Mark Zuckerberg: Not in general… I don’t think the secret stuff is that secret (Elliot Schrage: There’s some cool things, even if they’re not secret). There’s some stuff that hasn’t been announced, but there’s nothing like a fundamental departure from the strategy that I am laying out.
Faking your own death for fun and profit. Classy.

I don't think looking dishonest and irresponsible is a good marketing strategy in the long run.
It's airborne pollution that the brains of the world should be working on. It's an immediate, proven, visible problem right in front of us. But the focus has been shifted to c02 pollution and climate change, a field with no proven deaths, an uncertain set of effects and a far-off problem horizon.

Even the development of electric cars is now done at the behest of 'zero carbon' instead of 'zero emission'. Instead of electric cars in LA to reduce smog, it's now to stop global warming.

I think this is the wrong way around. Changes should be made to decrease airborne pollution now. This is already proven to effect billions of people around the world, now, today. It already leads to premature deaths around the world, now, today. People are more likely to respond to a cause that effects their local lives than the globe as a whole, and it's a whole lot easier to bring in political solutions that affect a single area than global solutions.

It's my belief that changes in the transportation and electricity generation sectors should be concentrated on reducing air pollution. This has synergies with the reduce-co2 brigade, so there should be no problems there. But taxing and trading bits of paper should be scrapped in favour of increasingly stringent emissions control. If the CARB plan had been stuck to, how much cleaner would the world's air be today? We could be 10 years further along the path to the widespread use of zero emissions vehicles in large urban centres, with real and measurable positive health effects.
Interesting factoid - boss in the story was not just some random Wall Street dude, it was D. E. Shaw:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Shaw
Great guest, guys! I'm listening right now.
Awesome, we will be in touch!
Bill text for S. 3804: Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act
I think that it also depends on what terms people are leaving. It's one thing to say you're leaving because you're starting a company and another thing because you're sick of writing mundane database/web applications, using Waterfall instead of Agile etc. or even worse because almost everything is a mess.
Previously discussed at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1714544 , when the bill text wasn't online yet.
Are All Successful Entrepreneurs Slightly Deluded?
I think theres better in between solutions. Magento is a full featured amazon type site. Its a beast on its own. If you want a simple store, you can do yourself then look at spree. If you want something simple and fast, out of the cart look at shopify or yahoo ecommerce solutions. I think theres more to running a store than just hosting code, such as worrying about payment solutions, and overall security. Thats why I would first suggest paying for something like shopify or yahoo, and see if you can generate the business needed to rationalize going with a solution like Magento.
Dissertation Format—The Look Of Your Papers
The format of the dissertation is decided by the academic institutions. These formats are to be followed thoroughly without any mistakes on student’s part. This is an important element to a successful dissertation. Knowing how to format your dissertation will ease some of the burdens of dissertation writing.
Available on Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2274
Government job for aliens?!
Going to the Hacker Dojo Startup Fair? Custom Quirk QR stickers for attendees
That is true, but I think many people still use GOG as a backup service simply because it is convenient. In my opinion this is a big selling point for digital distribution, DRM or not.

I personally own a few games on GOG but currently don't have local copies of any. When I saw the notice on their website and assumed they were gone I briefly thought I would never be able to get a legimate copy of the games I bought. One could argue that it's my own fault for not backing them up myself, but still...
NASA - Global Hawk
How do you measure confidence and delusion quantitatively?
So, what does it look like so far?
The Startup Holy Trinity
Just like we can say for certain that lots of people think they're witty, when really they're just regurgitating HN red-meat in exchange for karma.
This is probably not a politically correct thing to say these days but it bothers me that we see no problem in outsourcing the upbringing of our children to the lowest bidder.

If we spent half as much effort on our kids directly as we do on our personal passions (be they work, our hobbies etc) the world would be a better place.

Rest assured I'm not singling out or criticizing any particular person or their personal family choices, just observing trends that seem on the surface to have a net negative impact, long term.
Webpulp.tv interviews john allspaw
Dubit Virtual World Platform - Blog - Under the hood
Almost the exact same thing happened to me about a year ago. Follow the advice of making a joke of it and keeping your current job. Don't waste your money on a lawyer. Almost every job offer is written with language indicating that it is by no means a contract and is merely an offer of employment which can be rescinded at any time.
I think this is terrific news and I'm really pleased to see Mark Z. setting up a foundation and investing a significant amount of money in such a worthy cause as education. Having said that... am I being too cynical... or is it just a coincidence that this announcement should come just before the release of The Social Effect movie which, from everything I've read, paints Mark in such a bad light? Is the $100 donation announcement an example of Facebook PR in damage control? It doesn't detract from the good the $100 million will (hopefully) do, of course, but the timing is interesting...
Qualcomm reveals details of Peanut wireless technology
I am not sure if i would take back someone who is anyway planning to leave.Even if they do they will fire after they are sure you are redundant, that will mess up your visa status. Search and take up any job for the time being and keep looking.
Careers don't grow anywhere and they're not handed out like mittens or cupcakes.

Careers are made by each of us. Forged in the flame of your passion to do something interesting and meaningful with your days.

That's why it annoys me when big brand companies call their job section "Careers."

You get a decent career by taking risks and pursuing challenges. Going with the flow gives you a mediocre career – and who wants that?
Ask HN: Can I use a survey developed by a university professor?
Hello HN,

I would like to use a survey developed by a university professor on our website legitimately. Unfortunately, this professor passed away in 1988. Since then there has been a number of academic publications that have used his surveys by simply citing his work.

Am I allowed to use his surveys providing I cite his work? Or are there a few more legal or copyright implications I need to consider and it is best to contact his former university and publisher?

I look forward to any guidance.
Thank you.
1 in 4 local firms plan newspaper ad cuts: poll
Not the page linked, but the first post on that site is pretty funny:

(from http://52weeksofux.com/tagged/week_1 )

"You cannot not communicate. Every behaviour is a kind of communication. Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is not possible not to communicate." -Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication

I would beg to differ. I will now communicate and then anti-communicate with the backspace button:
a lot of Sun's prima donnas didn't make it in Oracle wolf pack. They had their day at Sun (it was an unbelievable feast during plague), and it resulted in the failure of the company on all fronts, business and engineering, software and hardware.
A little early to make that judgment, no?
The main thing to know is that if you've not dome much regular programming before, it will be fairly hard. Do not give up, it gets easier with practice. Keep at it. Look at some recent open source projects and go through the code. Set yourself some programming tasks and complete them. Do this regularly.
All the best.
Better yet, who cares? Take your chances and apply to YC. This must be your calling.
One should never give in to the opinion of ignorance. Ever.

If there is some fool out there that doesn't understand the difference between the word "niggardly" and the "N-word", they should be educated, not placated.
I am not affiliated with this website at all but recently got very helpful answers on a very similar topic from several lawyers.

www.lawpivot.com
My Netgear Router Came Swathed In Dishonesty
Netflix Caught In Appropriately Cinematic Scheme to Trick Journalists
What would Putin's motivation be to make DDoS extortion attempts?

Means, motive, opportunity.

Putin has no motive to extort pennies from gambling websites. He has better ways to make money. The NSA has no motive to make the Twitter worm.

But Israel has a gigantic motive to make something that would sabotage a nuke plant in Iran. That's the difference.

I agree that it's speculation - I just think it's plausible speculation.
Isn't thinking that others have little to offer to you a form of elitism as well? It seems neither option is particularly humble.
The theoretical physisist's solution: chuck the cards into a sealed box with a cat and accept that you have both solved and failed the puzzle.
Based on the parent comment's username, I'm going to guess it's the X-Files.

JD-Beast? Government alien jobs? Something spooky is happening in D.C.
Do Computers Kill Creativity in Kids?
Did you miss the part about OP's immigration status?
Is the Era of Cheap Food Ending?
No hard evidence (yet), but there is definitely circumstantial evidence.
This Is How Moses Actually Parted the Waters
Isn't "Regret Minimization Framework" less awkwardly phrased as "go for it, you only live once".

Or is there some further implication we should be striving to meet octogenarian values and criteria of success?

I remember reading in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books that people tend to regret inaction much more than bad choices.

I guess what I'm saying is this "Framework" seems totally superfluous.
Looking for someone local, or open to relocating someone? PS: Might be easier if you include your contact info/email address in your profile.
Ask HN: I've got an "algorithm-centric" interview soon and no CS degree. Help?
Hi guys,<p>I've been working at a well-known firm for about two years as a software dev. However, I just received a interview for an even better shop, Google. In the interview coming up, there are supposedly a lot of questions about algorithms an data structures, etc. I know enough to hold my own as your average developer, but I've never had a full course in this stuff. I used to be a physicist, so I'm good with math, but I'm really nervous about trying to beef up with so little time, a couple of weeks. Any ideas for someone like myself to get a crash course in this stuff?<p>Thanks for any help!
So this is one of those things where language features and language culture play a role (like unit testing in Ruby).

In Ada, you attempt to capture the assumptions in either the type of the name of the type. In general, you don't ever use primitive types directly. If you're going to use integer types questions you, for example ask, what are the assumptions? Is the range of integer values from 1-100? If so, then you make an integer type of that range. When you say "50", it's "50 what"? "50 decibals", "50 meters", "50 days"? So then you have types with these names.

If they followed standard Ada dev practice this bug would have probably been obvious. Probably less obvious in standard practice for many, if not most, other languages.
Naming the company is different than badmouthing the company. It's not like they wouldn't have the opportunity to respond here as well if they felt they weren't getting a fair shake.
This exact thing happened to someone I know. He got a call right as he was leaving his old job on his last day. The guy said something along the same lines - due to changing circumstances, the original position we were offering you has been eliminated. The guy was flabbergasted, of course, but just ended up going back to the old company anyway. I'm pretty sure if you want, you can get your job back. Unless you were leaving on bad terms or there's something more to the situation.

To make it a little easier, you can just join another team at the same company instead. That way it's a little less awkward.
At my former employer (small one, ~80 employees) we had a similar situation. One of engineers left the company (with good-bye lunch and all) and showed up back 2 weeks later. I don't know what happened (we weren't close enough for me to ask just like that), and it was a basis for jokes for couple of weeks or so.

But after a month everybody almost forgot about it.
Ask HN: www.site.com or site.com?
Which is preferred and why?
I know ChallengePost is looking for a Sr Rails developer in NYC if you're up for relocation.
Cdbaby is a great site for finding new and interesting music and has great service.

It really is interesting to listen Derek and what he has to say. I am a big fan.
If you are asking what I think you are asking, check out Blank Canvas Script Handler for Chrome. It is like GreaseMonkey for chrome.
I see where you are getting at.

With A: Standardization is good but it probably takes at most a day to setup a new computer. It takes weeks to learn and master a new environment though. Productivity is probably paramount in a small company more than standardization.

B: Ah, but if your dev could get it working on a mac, would it be ok? If not why? How about BSD, or some other linux distro different from your intended setup?

C: As someone else mentioned elsewhere, enforcing restrictions is easier said than done. The key question to a dev is why? In some ways that just discourages devs away from working on the project as much as they like.

The key point here is that in a small <20 company, you want to attract the best talent that's out there. Someone who's at the top of their game. Most likely they will have their own machine with their own setup. A % of them will likely stick to their own setup instead of using two computers.

You may employ contractors too. That makes it even more likely they prefer their own machine.

Being offered a choice, i.e. You can use your own computer, and here are some things you need to do too (encryption, etc) or here's a brand new one all setup is infinitely better than You must use this only
> You may even have to re-negotiate your salary.

That would be nasty. The gentleman thing to do would be to pretend this never happened. Everything was conducted in the most civilized way. There would be no reason to change.

Well... I wouldn't change that.

What I would ask in return, at most, would be that, next time you give me a month of advanced notice. It takes time to replace a good member of the team.

You are employed in the US for 5+ years. How's the permanent resident paperwork going?

Oh... BTW, "you" != "jacquesm".
What circumstantial evidence would that be? Be as specific as you can. Circumstantial evidence doesn't mean "whatever I think of".
My experience has been that engineers tend to resent this kind of stuff. Many of them would consider it 'fluff' that essentially distracts them from important work.

I have one on one meetings with my team, but I don't force a lot of structure on it. If it takes 2 minutes fine. If it takes an hour thats fine too. If nobody wants to do it during crunch time then we don't do it.

Not saying one on ones are not important, but given a certain kind of team and a certain kind of employee they are not necessarily required or a productive use of time.
Rands' point is that its not a status meeting. That's what project managers are for. The 1:1 is supposed to be preventive maintenance of a team - a chance for you (the managed) to express yourself about any small things that are getting in your way or upsetting you before these things come to a head and create large problems for your overall happiness, the happiness of the team and the project, and your career.
I think www vs. non-www is a matter of personal preference. More important is that you stick with one and use that sitewide. Don't forget to 301 the other one to your preferred one. People are so used to typing www before a domain name, so I stick with that and force www with a redirect.
Devops cafe: episode 2
Motorcyclists refer to these kinds of accidents as SMIDSYs -- "Sorry man/mate, I didn't see you". This article recommends disrupting the "motion camouflage" effect by weaving from side to side in your lane.

http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric....

I'm sure it would work for bicycles as well if you have a headlight installed.
Oh. My. God. This is like Firebug on crack. I have a new best friend.
I agree with you, but you can get grief both ways.

If you decide to go with having just one working parent (as my wife and I have - I'm the sole "breadwinner"), the working parent's motivations and intentions still seem to be questioned.

It's bizarre that anyone should have the gall to comment on how many hours I spend with my child (or not) when I'm supporting the entire family and allowing her the benefit of a full-time mom, yet it happens.
Effective wholesale spray bottles
Great question, thought-provoking answer.

Similar to what the article says, I think constraints can engage us more, by making our decisions more meaningful. We have "If we do X, it will overcome that constraint! How cool!", instead of "I guess we could do X."

I thought the article was going to say that constraints make the problem more concrete, and it's often easier to think about something concrete than something abstract. It's easier to grasp, easier to relate to existing knowledge and previous solutions, and it tends to engage our unconscious more, which is where creativity (apparently) resides.
Hi joboffer,

I'm an engineer at comparably-sized RoR based company in SF, and we are looking for more people to join the team. If you'd like, please get in touch: quin@scribd.com

I'd be interested in hearing about your goals and filling you in on the engineering culture here.
IJSON - a new SAX-like JSON parser for Python
See if you can go back to your job, hopefully earlier than later (as in, e-mail your boss if you have not already and tell him you have an important matter to discuss). It's probably best of the HR side of the house does not get too far along. That, or, you can respond to one of the many individuals that said they were hiring (I'm not sure how much time you have/how much time you can be without a job, in general).

Good luck and keep us posted.
Maybe. But Steve Jobs is currently a lot more liquid than Zuckerberg.
"Memory stick" is generally synonymous with "flash drive" or "usb stick" or "thumb drive"...
Typically a good strategy is to solve a simplified version and generalize.

In this case, assume only 1 card is face up. Take a single card from the deck:

- if it was face up & you flip it, both have zero
- if it was face down & you flip, both have one
Most 1:1s shouldn't be meetings. Think of them as 'bonding' time. This is where you get a pulse of each other. In the manager's case, find out whether your report is happy or on the verge of burning out.

One recommendation I would do is to not do the 1:1 in a typical office setting. Some of the most effective managers I know do it outside - from the cafeteria to a nearby restaurant. A friend of mine had a great manager who did 1:1s while doing joint grocery shopping for the Friday evening team meeting/casual get-together thing.
1. Start looking.
2. Explain to your manager your reasons for leaving and what actually happened.
3. Tell the new company that you are politely calling out their name. And see what they think.
Good question. To go from a purely conceptual model such as this to one with real empirical substance you would have to be precise about such concepts as confidence and success and how they are quantitatively measured. I think a group of smart psychologists could pull it off, as long as they were open about their definitions and quantitative scales, so people could accept or reject their thesis accordingly.
List of company name etymologies
Clean air, clean water, especially at the most local level, matters a lot more to me than global and theoretical things like CO2, definitely. I think the environment is way too important to be left to people who use "environmentalism" as a religion; it needs to be given reasonable cost/benefit analysis.

Asia has come a long way in converting fleets of vehicles to LPG/CNG (taxis, buses, and other vehicles with really high miles and idle hours in downtown cores), which has improved air quality greatly.

I'd rather have affordable electricity and running water than huge declines in CO2 emissions, too, of course.
"Perrson cites games such as Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper and Inifiniminer among key influences on Minecraft's anything-goes nature and blocky 8-bit style."

Blocky 8-bit style? Those graphics would have been cutting edge in 1993, almost a decade after the heyday of 8-bit systems.
I have seen something similar happen to a co-worker who was starting at the same time as me at a new job. When he was hired, he was promised a management position with a higher salary than other developers, including myself. After working at the company for a couple of weeks, the company said they did not need him as a manager and wanted to reduce his salary to be the same as other developers. The guy ended up going back to his old company and getting his old job back because he was not willing to drop his salary requirement at the new job.
Despite being a long time Apple investor I was caught completely off gaurd that Jobs only owns 5,500,000 shares out of well over 900,000,000 outstanding.

Makes the perks like the private jet look like peanuts vs. value he's brought to the table.
"I'm not talking a $400,000 a year working Wall Street stiff flying first class and being comfortable, I'm talking about liquid"
Flash drive. There's a number of flash drives that autoexecute when inserted into a computer. These are a known vector for software infections.

As far as I know, ram doesn't generally hold memory after it's been powered down. Ram sticks don't make sense as a vector for a virus as far as I can tell.