skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"... attracts the wrong kind of investors ..." this refers to those online gambling companies who try every possible tricks in the book to avoid being shutdown by the government starting from splitting the software development, business, and HR/Accounting departments. Remember the debacle with Fiver media? (was Riptown, became Fiver, shut down, now become NZone media).

I don't know if they're filled with 20 somethings because the place I work for is filled with 30+ (some even almost 40). Unfortunately I just got in and I didn't know what I put myself into. I plan to stay only for 1 year before jetting off. If you think Enterprise software is full of unnecessary complexity, wait until you deal with Online gambling companies (especially the ones that provide Poker Networks and deal with Casinos and 100 different payment providers in which everybody has their own APIs and payment workflows).

People are doing startups here usually because they want to jump into the social media and mobile bandwagon (at least that was the case 2 years ago, until almost all of them died, quietly).

They're not doing it because of the low salaries, they did it because quite frankly, some of them can't get a job or used to be a freelance web-designer or a contract workers. And it's not about risk averse.

I think there are some crazies out there in Vancouver. They just don't have enough money and they rely on SR&ED grant year-by-year living off it.

It's really tough to have a startup in here. Networking is very minimum as well. You go to a launch party only to meet a handful of people who are in the same boat as you; that doesn't help much of your situation. Sometime these launch parties invite (or in another word, have to fly) people from outside Vancouver (e.g. people from Silicon Valley or Ontario).
I recently built a site using the CartThrob module for ExpressionEngine:

http://www.cartthrob.com

http://www.expressionengine.com

I've also saw this recently, but haven't looked into it much beyond the web site. Might be worth taking a look:

http://lemonstandapp.com/
I would go wild and open everything. IFF (if and only if) you believe that it won't hurt your business. I think that transparency can prove to be a great business strategy. That is, if the audience that cares about your transparency could also potentially be your customers.
Thank you.

I guess it all comes down to a looping sequence. Iterate through the pain as it were.
Reminds me of a shirt one of my friends has:

3 arms, bent in the position of the arrows of the recycle logo, with the words of "Reduce, Reuse, Reanimate". Support your local necromancer :)

http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2010/reduce-reuse-reanimat...

It also helps since I'm also a witch :)
Nothing on the c64 looks even remotely like minecraft... You'd have to get to the late 90s to get close.
I'm in India right now. I will only consider Master's if it helps in getting me residency.

I am sure I can get some scholarship if I try hard.
I was in the same boat as you a few years ago. I had worked on .NET for a few years, mostly webforms, because that's just what was available when I got started. I started tinkering around with Python because I needed a load testing tool and found an open source one written in python but it needed some tweaking to work with the viewstate. Anyway, I started learning Python and Django, built a few little sites and webapps just to try it out (ok, I was hoping one of them might take off...they didn't) and eventually a Python dev shop here in town found me on DjangoPeople.net, looked at some of my Django work, and asked me to come in for an interview. Now I'm hacking Python (almost) full time, plus side gigs and personal projects, and I couldn't be happier to only have to look at .NET once in a while.
Anti A/B testing: signups increased by 60% after removing the blog header
And there's too much money in consulting for the government as a low-level programmer.
What a stupid excuse. I'm a "college kid". I don't neglect simple access control in my software.
Just donated to Toady. Dwarf fortress is a masterpiece in progress, thank you for reminding me of his financial woes
Define your target audience, find a small representative sample whom you know and have them come in to your site and kick the proverbial tires. Don't go about "spreading the news" until your representative sample is happy about your product.
The ROI from educating poor students is actually fairly high. The cost gap between someone at minimum wage vs. welfare vs. prison is huge. It's generally speaking much easier and more cost effective to avoid a single teen pregnancy that to fund enrichment programs.
By Surrendering, Diaspora Might Still Beat Facebook
So far as I can gather, the egregious security errors present at initial release point to a team that is less capable at the craft of coding than we might have initially hoped.

That's no indictment of anything other than their experience level, but it's a reality nonetheless.

Here is my suggestion for how they can still hit a home run.

Step 1: Identify the best existing team or project other than Diaspora that is working on solving the same problem.

Step 2: Approach the team with a proposal.

Step 3: Transfer the balance of the $200k along with the diaspora* name and brand.

Step 4: Public relations. "In summary, this is the best way for us to honor your donation--to take our initiative and our vision along with your support, interest, and donations and marry those to something with technical maturity, sophistication, and experience.

"That's why diaspora* and (insert other project) are now one.

"For us, nothing has changed in the initial vision apart from our awareness of our limitations. The goals are the same, the enthusiasm is the same, and now, the chances of success are far better than they were when we began.

More to come soon."

As I see it, Diaspora has media attention, community attention, idealogical support from many savvy people, and a substantial pile of cash. In my opinion, they've also got someone on their team with a really good mind for branding and PR.

They are lacking experience, technical skill, and a solid existing project.

Other teams have the opposite problems, I imagine. If there's a quality candidate in the bunch of competitors, $200,000 and the momentum around the Diaspora name might be enough to catalyze a critical level of adoption.

A merging seems like it might be a winning idea, but it would depend on the Diaspora guys being willing to be incredibly self-effacing and impressively true to the idealogical principles that they set out with.
The real reason media companies are frustrated (no, really) by the iPad and iPhone is that their entire workflow, and often culture, are based around Flash.
> China is less vulnerable because they can monitor their entire Internet, cut it off, and take control. Thus cyberwar is advantageous for China over the US.

The US could cut off the Internet without much more difficultly than China, esp. as they would only need to pull up the drawbridges — most of the good stuff is hosted in the US anyway. I'd much rather try and sell "we had to pull up the drawbridges because of terrorists, but don't worry, youtube and facebook aren't going anywhere" to the US public than "No more communicating with the outside world" to the chinese public.

In terms of monitoring, I don't think China actually has the ability to proactively filter/block attacks of this kind — since the raison d'être of their monitoring is preventing internal dissent, not external attack.

As to which is more vulnerable, America might have more critical infrastructure online, but whether they are more vulnerable is anyone's guess.
The tools are great, and there are a variety of MS programs available to get you using them at low (and sometimes zero) cost - Websitespark and Dreamspark (for students) are both good. From my perspective, the major drawback is that hosting is more expensive.
You end up learning about software development anyway, in the beginning of your career

...and that's exactly what people are complaining about: the Diaspora devs learning about software development practices in the beginning of their career, while writing code for release.
This is all applicable to our industry as well.

I've tried to foster a culture on my team, where nobody's in trouble when we find a bug. The only think I want to hear about is (a) how do we fix it, and (b) how do we prevent it next time.

The only thing that's going to be trouble is trying to hide a bug.
Introducing the Android UI Utilities project (beta)
You can do more than one at the same time. You can even learn more than one language at the same time so long as they're not too close to each other.
Tire Pressure and Pressure Gauges
Don't miss the video of the printed fabrics---Pretty awesome stuff. Apparently, one designer is creating a bikini made out of it
Natalie Wood on Lessons for Women Sourcing Venture PtII
It was supposed to get into 10.10 for testing but according to the blueprint it was deferred (https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/foundations-m-...).
> Paul Krugman or Glenn Beck

By equating these two in the same sentence, you undermined all credibility in your previous message. Sorta sad to see an implosion like that.
In Italy there's always been the dream of the "posto fisso," the fixed position. Families celebrate when their son or daughter find a job in a bank or some other big companies, because with the actual laws, firing people is almost impossible. I remember when the insurance company where my mother was working part-time had to reduce their workforce, they gave her 3 years of salary in advance for her to quit, because there was no way to fire her.

Of course not everyone is the same. I know personally great guys who decided to step out of the grid and launch their company, or leave the country for better shores, like myself. If you want to work in the web industry the only two ways to make moneys are services (web agencies, consulting, etc.) or ads. In Italy debit cards can't be use for online transactions, and most of the italian population doesn't have a credit card. Some to purchase online uses prepaid credit cards, but even those, aren't really common. And there is a trust issue. People in Italy don't like to buy stuff online. And because of all these reasons, it's really hard to just create a product charge people for it. My Christmasfy Me iPhone app was a freemium application I made last Christmas, and was ranked among the top downloaded apps in Italy, but still, while in the US my conversion rate was close to 5%, in Italy was around 0.2%.

I love Italy, it's where I come from and where all my family is, but what do you expect from a country where if you want to buy an internet domain, you still have to send a fax...
Homer constantly refers to 'swift-footed Achilles'; and you can't google Bjarne Stroustrup and not see 'creator of C++'; we may be stuck with Gmail creator Paul Bucheit. Makes the name easier to digest on casual mention, or something.
Blockbuster files for bankruptcy
Sounds like the usual UFO nonsense. Nuclear weapons bases are bound to be swarming with CCTV for security reasons, so if a highly unusual event like this were to occur there would be plenty of video footage.
Who would you suggest they merge with?
Wow. Everything is crazy expensive. $40 for a little plastic robot that doesn't move? Even if -I- had designed it, I wouldn't pay $40 for plastic printout of it.
for a client application or for the backend?

SQL Server + Windows licensing can get crazy expensive. I know stackoverflow made it work via http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ but I believe even with that program you'll have to cough up the exorbitant licensing fees eventually.

more here: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/03/stack-overflow-and-biz...
If the dog is going to bite something, better to give it your left arm (if you're right handed). That leaves your strong arm free to poke, choke etc. Also better to shove your hand into the mouth and keep on shoving (holding him around the neck with your free arm) to block his air passage. Puncture wounds are nasty but the real damage will come if he gets a chance to shred and chew. You want him to cough you up not chew you up.

Don't give him your leg. If he gets into the big artery there you could be dead very quickly.

If you're riding a bike and you can't speed away, get off your bike and put the bike between you and the dog.

Some dogs seem to have an instinctual fear of the gesture of reaching down to pick up a rock. I've used that a few times, but don't try this if the dog is close.

To be really safe, carry a pork chop in your pocket at all times.
Actual cash flows are worth more than potential cash flows. Realistically you need to sum the probably of profit discounted by your risk tolerance. A dollar is actually going to be worth a little less in the future, but it’s extremely likely to be worth something. Gold value is a little more random but it’s slightly less likely to be worth nothing. All the way out to lottery ticks which are worth more as entertainment than their inherent cash value.
I'm glad you can install Linux on a dead Badger.

Please submit it to reddit or digg next time. Thank you.
TwBirthday Twitter app which will tell you about birthdays of people you follow
Besides reminding you about birthdays of people you follow it will tell you how old is your Twitter username, your influence and other little details :)<p>Follow http://twitter.com/TwBirthday to be reminded of your friends' twbirthday.<p>You can check out app at http://twbirthday.com/<p>Suggestions and comments are welcome
Previously: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1259195
> And there is a trust issue.

There is a huge trust issue. People spend a lot of time and energy trying to ensure they won't get ripped off, and a minority that is still too large spends a lot of time and energy actually trying to rip other people off. As a consultant, I've sometimes found it easier to deal with customers who I have never met in the US, rather than Italian firms (although at the moment I'm working remotely with some pretty good people in Milan, which is a nice change). Ultimately, all this is energy lost to actual productivity.

And if you try and go through the justice system, it can be expensive and slower than in other places (although not always - my wife recovered some unpaid wages pretty quickly and easily several years back).

So yeah, that's a big issue with doing business in Italy, and not an easy one to fix.

> if you want to buy an internet domain, you still have to send a fax.

I think they finally changed that, or so I heard. Here's my account of trying to register welton.it:

http://padovachronicles.welton.it/2007/08/18/confronting-the...
"Name something the market is absolutely certain of."
Do we really need a new term, "anti-A/B testing", to describe testing an element against the absence of said element? Does this case really not fall into the generally accepted definition of "A/B testing"?
Reasons to hate Silverlight
10 ways to succeed as a freelancer with Zoho Invoice
There recommendations engine must make them a small fortune, I think that's one of there really keys to success. Once you have started looking at certain products they really know hoe to hit you both in email and on their pages about similar ones. Armed with the amount of purchase data they have they probably know what people want better than the people themselves.
>The argument boils down to, "I believe that children are our future, and you drive a BMW so pay me $30/hr."

This carries over to a lot of things besides childcare. I mean, when you appear to be ostentatiously wealthy, service people assume that you are rich and try to charge accordingly. Early in my career, I drove a BMW. I mean, it was used, maybe 7 years old when I got it, but it was still a pretty nice car. (I was raised on Skinner and Montessori. this was my rebellion.) I mean, at the time, it was somewhat cheaper than a new honda civic, but unless you were a BMW enthusiast, you wouldn't have been able to tell it wasn't newer.

But it's funny how differently service people treat you when you drive up in a bmw vs. the beat-up 15 year old nissan I got after the motorcycle that I got after the bmw. It's not like the cars aren't comparable; I mean, the bmw would go around corners faster, and would blow the doors off anything "normal" in the 60-120Mph range, but as for 0-60 straight line performance? the maxima is faster.

I mean, I liked the BMW, it was a nice car... but it didn't help at all when I was trying to negotiate.
Customers will not worry about "alien" technologies, unless you sell the latter as such. This is a basic sales principle.

Don't ever say you develop applications in Clojure, just say you develop in Java. Clojure is just a Jar, isn't it? Then you are just using a Java library, aren't you?

Prototypes usually end up in production, don't they? Then develop such prototypes in an agile language and just make them follow their destiny.

What are you doing around Hacker News, if you aren't able to hack the system?

EDIT: However, you should also understand when your language of choice just doesn't fit a gray-suited environment, and indeed I think Ruby doesn't. Python does.
In my point of view, Google is king in valuable information (just like knowledge or things you're interested in, that you always want more and more) and Facebook is king in social information (what you're not always interested in but you usually feel sorry when missing it). It's hard to say what kind of information is more important just like it;s hard to say wether Google or Facebook is worth more than the other.
I work for a mid-size (read: 100+ employee) IT recruiting company and I have to tell you that this boils down to one thing and one thing only for most people that have chosen .NET: economics.

If you want to be a developer and you're goal is to give your three kids a good life, drive that BMW 5 series, and own a $500k house, then you should be a .NET developer. The math is simple and I have a mountain of data that supports the reality that .NET developers get paid significantly more (20-30%) on average than any of the hot whiz-bang alternatives (Ruby, PHP, Java, etc). The average mid-level .NET developer in a dev-friendly town (san fran, boston, new york, etc) is making $80-90k, Senior $90-110k, Architects $110-130k, Director/Managers $130-160k. Those are averages that don't include bonuses. There are of course exceptions (finance industry add 20% to the above figures, start-ups subtract 10%, etc).

Never underestimate the position that money holds in ones relationship with their chosen path in life.

I think the authors argument is valid and is the reason why most of the developers that leave the .NET world do, but my observations indicate that most .NET/MS developers are lifers.

On a side note, I actively practice development in.NET, PHP, Java, and a few other languages at my 9 to 5. I like to think that I'm fairly unbiased.
They've got 95% of the PC market to take. You think they'll just give that up?
key insight here:

> in a future of cloud computing I want to consider every single core as a computer itself.

I didn't interpret that as an insight more than a rather weak attempt at squeezing some lemonade out of lemons. I also don't see how creating massive sharding on a single machine in any way corresponds with KISS (the newest processors have from 8 to 12 cores. 24 cores and up is coming in the very near future. So on my 48-core 4-processor relatively low end machine I'm to shard Redis 48 ways? I'm to run 48 instances of Linux? I'm to endure a devastation of cache coherency?)
I wouldn't. I have seen it said a hundred times that there are competitors. I lack the insight into the relevant technical issues to evaluate them even if I wanted to try.

I'd like to hear someone else's answer to that question, though.
Maybe "save" refers to shipping
Actually, it's Lunix (Little Unix) that works with the C64.
Eh... seeing as how the service predates the comic, I'm thinking it's really "xkcd imitates life".
Top Ten Action Items For Angel Funding Success
Powerpoint was how I got into programming. I tried to make an adventure game out of powerpoint slides and hyperlinks, see, but when I hit the limit of powerpoint "programming" I started on BASIC, which worked much better.
Households are deleveraging through defaults
A glider will slowly lose speed x altitude. This plane maintained a steady speed x altitude through flapping.
I couldn't agree more. If my close friends and family used twitter and flickr there'd be no reason for me to ever log into FB. Despite the enormous number of users I can visualize a mass exodus from the service, it's harder for me to do this with Google which provides an actual service that would be hard to replace.
For tech books, I prefer to be able to hold a book, flip around quickly to sections I'm interested in, and mark things with a bookmark.
Well, mine is just one voice, but as someone who's worked for a startup running on the Microsoft stack (ASP.NET 3.5) I can tell you that there are a lot of "cool" libraries out there available for only $799! And there's a lot of cheap labor available overseas to knock out those little side features and tasks for you, all you have to do is drop their code in, then spend a bunch of time trying to make it actually work. And there's Microsoft BizSpark, so you don't have to pay for your software <whisper>until later</whisper>. Oh, and servers...err...yeah they're expensive, sorry, there's no way to spin that one.

Just from my experience, .NET as a platform for startsups can be made to sound really good by the people selling it, and there are some startups out there doing it and making it work for them, to which I say good on ya! But from my experience, it ends up being the boat anchor weighing you down. There are a TON of developers available, but finding good ones can be very difficult. Hosting is expensive (compared to linux-compatible solutions), and third party components are plentiful and expensive, and usually still require a fair amount of work to integrate.

My boss at my last job used to say "how can we make this faster? Why is everything so slow?" Well, because you started with a code base written by people who aren't really passionate about software development, they just took your specs and spit something out, so it gets the job done, but just barely. Then you bolted on a bunch of fancy UI components and ajaxified some stuff to give it the appearance of being less slow (oh, and look how pretty your GumDropGridView is!) Cram all of that into the cluster (f*ck) of servers in your server closet and you had a webapp you could start charging people to use. Now you've hired me and you want me to tell you how to make it faster? Well, it can be done, but we've got a lot of work to do. What's that? You've got 3 months worth of funding left? Dude, what do you want me to say?
Execnet: rapid multi-Python deployment
Assume all of Greece's debt is external, then the external debts of Greece and Japan are not too different:

External Debt GDP = Net
Greece: 100% * 120% * $ 355bn = $426bn
Japan: 5% * 200% * $4900bn = $490bn

If Japan defaults, the main effect will be that the Japanese people will be a lot poorer. There will also be some external effects on bond holders, investors in the stock market, and exporters to the Japanese market. I suspect the stoical Japanese have already written off all the govt debt they hold - the default won't exactly be a surprise when it happens.
You really need to set your own construction goals. I had the urge to build a big house in a nice location. The I wanted to protect it, so I built a low wall around it. Now I want to landscape the hill that it's on. Next I'll want to irrigate and start a farm....
Minecraft Canary - Android