skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
EDIT here because too late to edit my above comment I just want to clarify, to distance myself from the recent genius/tragedy submission: I'm mocking the people who criticize the Diaspora guys for not being perfect. I'm pro release early, release often and anti perfectionism. IMHO, Patrick is doing exactly the right thing - helping to build something better. But my post could be interpreted as mocking Patrick - that's not what I meant, and I apologize for the ambiguity.

On reflection, I shouldn't have expressed this through mockery at all, but through helping. :(
Is that still faster than userspace forwarding with read() and write()?
Ask HN: Why do I hate software planning tools?
Can someone help me understand why I've never been able to use software planning tools? One contract job I have wants me to plan the tiniest details of what I'll be doing and how I'll be doing it a month ahead of time (using _Rally_, if that helps).

Most of my work is creative programming and problem solving. I'm constantly solving problems that I've never done before and due to the nature of the environment, probably few other people have done before either. How do you schedule innovation?

Am I just a sucky planner? Is there anyone else out there who can come up with a better answer than "I'm figuring that out" or "I'm working on it" when asked what's coming up next? I'm not even sure if this is the right question.
I kind of concur. I am egotistical enough to maintain a list of people who I know to be unquestionably smarter than me. Patrick is one of the few names on that list.

I think Patrick is a Woz and he needs to find his Jobs. Patrick can optimise and refine to an almost incomprehensible degree. I think largely as a consequence of the precision and detail of this mindset, he lacks the grandiosity to attack a really big, difficult problem. Without Jobs, Woz would probably still be designing calculators for HP - beautiful, legendary calculators, with circuits that get used as engineering case studies, but calculators all the same.

If you're reading this Patrick, I hope you don't take this as an insult, I intend it as the opposite - I consider you to be a world-class thinker and hope you end up working on problems befitting that.
I'm very glad to see the market can respond and a new player can come in

I would suggest it is not quite "the market". It would have been the market had a competitor arrived before the technological advancement of the internet. As that was not the case, it is rather, or it should rather be a praise to the advancement of technology, and quite a condemning example of "the market".
How the Chinese View Us: Too Many Hamburgers
$60k is pretty much a ceiling for earning potential for many if not most teachers

This may be a regional thing, but here in NJ that's not even close to true.

For example:
The [Tea Neck] district's Median Teacher Salary of $66,900 is ranked 92nd in the state in its grouping https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Teaneck%2C_Ne...

Also: (http://teacherportal.com/salary/New-Jersey-teacher-salary )

How do salaries grow in New Jersey?
Starting Salary: $38,408
Average Salary: $58,156

And a friendly bar graph, comparing states:
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=High_School_Teacher/...

This chart
(http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=High_School_Teacher/... )
Shows that nationally, a high school teacher with 20 years' experience is probably making $50K-$70K
I would argue he could derive tremendous financial benefit from posting here in terms of furthering his career, networking, consulting gigs, etc. I'm not saying that's the reason he posts here, but it is a tangible fringe benefit.

Here's a thought experiment- How much money would you pay, tomorrow, for patio11 to announce that all of his posts on his blog and on HN have actually been ghostwritten by CapitalistCartr. What if he said the patio11 profile was actually a sockpuppet account run by CapitalistCartr, and all of the respect he has built up through his hard work and posts would now belong to you?

How much would that be worth to you? $1,000?$5,000?$10,000? I bet that intangible, what accountants call goodwill, is actually worth quite a bit.
There's hn classic, but I honestly don't recall what it does: http://news.ycombinator.com/classic

I try to just do my best to ignore the sensationalist stuff, but it's hard. Maybe one could make a firefox extension that only filtered by interest. Then again, there's always configuring reddit appropriately too.
Great at last some progress. Anybody know who will be responsible for the database?
HN is growing and influential - a front page post can drive 10k+ quality eyeballs.

Patio is a public figure here, should unfortunately have some expectation of the glory that comes with pseudo-celeb status for better or for worse given that good comments likely see similar numbers of eyeballs.

For biz guys exposing talent to your network is about the biggest way to give back.

Maybe it's just linkbait for HN, but seems to me like it's written genuinely from the standpoint of exposing a guy that's providing a lot of value to a wider community.
Sounds like you have a client that doesn't know how software is developed, or at least how you develop software.

If you are a great coder but don't work well under the control of a ghantt chart, your best bet is to increase the communication with those asking for it and provide what they are looking for (comfort) in a different way that meshes better with the way you work.
Tools for computer productivity
"white space" finally open, WiFi 2.0 coming soon?
Does anyone else find this kind of "analysis" of a fellow HN member creepy?

I don't know if this is a cultural thing, (not a US citizen, the majority of HN's readership seems to be) but I found the whole blog post weird and highly distasteful. The author comes across as a borderline stalker/psychopath.
From the blog comments.

"> You are making a number of strong assumptions about him from a few comments on HN. If you really wanted to help this would have worked better as a personal e-mail.

I went back and forth on that. In the end, I think doing it this way is going to produce the best outcomes – a couple of my popular posts have brought me a great amount of attention from cool people lately. "

This is just sick. He does a drive by creepy "analysis" of someone else so he could get "attention from cool people".

Shudder.
This comment sounds so ignorant and cynical for someone who is described as bright.
I agree, that post was really stepping over the line. Its disturbing that he wrote it without actually interviewing him or asking permission.
> Partial PostBacks and Code Behinds and binding data to the latest whiz-bang GridDataAwesomeControlForTheWin

That's WebForms. I hate it too. MVC makes it all go away.
They are not. In almost any serious industrial automation application there are Windows computers, but they are only user interface to some backend system (that usually runs on some obscure virtual machine running in some even more obscure RTOS on very specialized hardware)
Don't say "The position didn't work out", which would cause suspicion and make you look bad.

Blame them (Flaky Corp) for acting unprofessional.

Go into your current manager, tell them you are in a really difficult and awkward situation. That you have had some communications very recently that have made you very uncomfortable with the new company and made you reconsider your decision.

Your Boss will understand that messed up stuff happens sometimes and will want to avoid interviewing for the position. Tell your Boss you honestly do not want to leave
the company now given this situation and that you want your old job back.

Value yourself and take charge of the situation. Dont just allow an awkward ego-feeling or unprofessional behavior by Flaky Corp to own you!
Agreed, especially whenever something happens to a Google or Apple CEO (oh hey, Steve Jobs tried to bring ninja stars on his own plane, obvious media spin is obvious, but why do we really care?).

I've always hoped the programming community et. al. strays away from the celebrity paradigm.
My first Perl application, after I put my Win3 app on hold, was a desktop GUI app for printing mailing labels. It had a builtin list building engine that scraped counties throughout Virginia and found information on new home buyers, and applications for building renovation.

It took me 20 days to develop. Perl/Tk.

If memory service me right, and I really could be wrong .. I think I must have been the first one in the world to hack together a bridge between Perl and Office 2000, because I had a developer preview. ActivePerl .. now that was a delightful platform.

Perl empowered me. If it wasn't for Perl, I might have quit software altogether and became a philosophy major, or worse, a mathematician.
What's wrong with 2k/month right out of school if they are good enough? Most of my employees are still in college, but they literally kick ass, so why not to give them what they are worth, independently of their age. We think salaries are based on age and experience and not skills.

I moved to the US right after school in Italy, I was making way more than that, I was able to rent a place, buy a car (a used one) and live what is considered a sweet life in Italy. And I'm just a designer... developers would make way much more right after college...
I offer to build it for them, give them my contracting rates, and hope it works out for the best for them. If they really are passionate about it, they will be willing to pay to have it built. Maybe you give them a cheaper rate, maybe not. But if they aren't willing to put a couple grand behind it, then they should stop pitching it.
video stores suck, but to say few stores treat their customers as terribly is to not be giving as much credit to gym memberships as they are owed.
Hah, that's exactly how I make my big decisions except I asked it from the perspective of 'what will I regret not having done the most when on my deathbed?'.
Shell Wants to Build the Longest Vessel Ever to Skim the Water's Surface
I like how you can vote for more than one! This makes #3 somewhat redundant.
The Chrome/Safari adblock has an extremely crap UI compared to Firefox adblock if you ever wanna add your own blocking rules.
why is this modded down? The patrick ass lickers of HN must be out today.
Visual Basic Comes to Windows Phone 7
It may be inappropriate on some level, but calling it sick and scary is a little bit creepy itself. He's only saying out loud what many of us have been thinking.

If the suggestion is that you can't freely admire someone (and the praise was clearly served up as an extra helping to offset the criticism) based only on the quality and volume of writing that Patrick has produced, well, that's just extra creepy.
And my own experience concurs with lelele.
They do not approve the price, but they have to approve the transaction and it can only take place within one of the allowed trading windows (Facebook has non-trading periods leading up to major events to prevent insider trading).

They also have to make sure that they remain within the 500-shareholder rule, which would otherwise force them to go public (which is what happen to Google).
Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it's taken
Ask HN: Buying ZapposVsRest
I was checking out shoe prices in Zappos for some Hush Puppies, and then decided to check the price if I bought directly from HP. Surprisingly there is a 5-10USD difference (HP is cheaper).
I was wondering, why would people buy from Zappos instead of HP (I didn't check for other companies). I mean..is the "service" worth 5-10$?
You would never succeed with such a ridiculous attitude!
Jack Ma, Founder of China's Largest e-Commerce Site, Interviewed  [video]
> especially to young people in technology who are underpaid

Young people who have built up a skillset similar to Patrick's are willing to sacrifice 60-120k paying jobs in their early years in favor of going out an learning how to build a company. It takes a lot of trial and error to get it right.

While Patrick may be making less at the beginning of his career, I guarantee he'll be making more than the average bay-area developer once he really begins to nail down how to build profitable companies.
I frankly don't understand the basis for your critique.

Joel and DHH are having a heated disagreement about how to value a company that is not yet public. Underlying their disagreement are two opposing startup philosophies: 1) the "37 signals" way, i.e. run your startup like a business, worry about real profits and losses, and don't bother trying to become the next "Facebook" or "Google" and 2) the "VC" way, which in a sense Joel happens to be representing here, i.e. build a great idea, attract funding, worry about profit when you've gained traction, etc.

These are hugely important themes in nearly every discussion that takes place about entrepreneurship here on HN. And while you may have observed only "fighting," speaking personally I learned a lot about secondary markets etc. from hearing Joel's side. It cost me all of two minutes time, during any point of which I could have clicked away and done something else.

I think it speaks volumes about the community that PG and others have built here that to this day you'll find "big shots" like DHH and Joel coming here to air out their difference. I don't know of many other communities that have fostered such an environment within their niche for so long. Discussions like this remind me of how awesome HN is and continues to be.

Lastly, if you're not interested in a discussion, just don't read it. I just don't know that pining away for the "good old days" is really all that productive, and it's certainly less interesting than the discussions you're complaining about.

Anyhow, just my two cents. Cheers.
It's definitely Canada that's behind.

Sure, the media producers are behind but so is everything else. It's recently been decided by the CRTC a few months ago that Bell will be allowed to apply metered billing for their wholesale resellers. Those were the last companies that would offer unlimited internet packages. Once this finally gets applied there will be no way, anywhere in Canada, to get a consumer-level Internet connection that does not have a bandwidth cap. Insane.

And there are other examples too. Why do all American internet stores need to create a whole separate store (amazon.ca, newegg.ca) before they sell to Canada? Because of Canadian laws and regulations. There's a LOT of reform needed in the Canadian technological sector if we're ever going to catch up to the rest of the world. Right now we're behind and only getting further.
Definitely agreed. I think physical books are a losing proposition for a variety of reasons, but for me, there's nowhere better than a good bookstore -- be it a large chain or a knowledgeably-staffed local -- to unwind for an hour or three. I'll be sad to see them go.

On the bright side, being the believer in markets that I am, I'm reasonably confident that something else will pop up to occupy that niche. I have no idea what it could be, but people rarely do.
I'm in. Email me at david at 37signals.com with the details and we'll go from there.

In fact, I think this would be a great little business. Allow people to place long-term bets with money on the line on predefined, objective results. Then hold the cash in escrow until the resolution day.
Snakes on a Couch! Using Python with CouchDB
Never use tech-savvy people as representative examples when evaluating advertising.

Otherwise, even google would be out of business.
Just fixed, Thank you!
Top Ten Most Acclaimed Butterfly Species | Top Ten
Granting a discount to that particular teacher would have been an even greater insult to any of Patrick's other customers who don't make 60K (and I'm sure there are more than one). I mean come on, anyone who makes 60K should be able to spare $30 on something that makes his/her life easier.
FWIW, Ctrl+u works as View Source in Chrome! Sadly, / doesn't do anything.
The first startup I worked at made an offer to a summer intern to start the following summer (after graduation). Then the economy went south and they had to do a layoff. So in this case, they had to retract the offer. But they gave the guy 1 or 2 months severance pay--same as they gave all the employees that got laid off. I thought they handled that pretty well. And we wound up hiring him a few years later when we were growing again.
I would prefer to download the file over streaming. Please try to record the series somehow. I would even be willing to pay for it. As would others I am willing to bet.
Even if #3 is correct, I'm not entirely sympathetic.

In many trades, e.g., auto mechanic, it's standard practice for the worker to provide his own tools. That can easily come to a few thousand dollars.

Even as a software engineer (where my main development environment is provided by my employer), I spend a not-inconsiderable sum on additional tools that allow me to work more efficiently.

So if it's true that sometimes teachers need to kick in a bit, that's far from an aberration across the universe of employment.

ADDED:

5. Many teachers ... are in a vacuum absent any meaningful feedback on the quality of their work

Isn't this their own doing, at least as much as the teachers' unions are working to prevent any merit-based compensation system?
Especially since---please correct me if what I've read or remember is wrong---the Postal Agency's Bank, which has most? of the people's savings (that's old info, could be different now that there are more options) has way too much exposure to Japanese government debt.
If Google runs Android, and builds out an ad-supported "super wifi" network what value do traditional carriers bring? Infrastructure for relays?
I switched to Chrome relatively recently and I love it however there are two things I really don't like:

* Inconsistent pinned tabs behaviour. A month ago, when I closed a pinned tab, it's favicon would remain, and I could click the favicon to reopen it. I loved this. Also, it would retain pinned tabs when I reopened the browser. Now, however, the "close but retain favicon" behaviour has disappeared, and it only sometimes remembers my pinned tabs between browser restarts, but I don't know why it's inconsistent.

* I detest the search bar's automatic handling of certain terms. For example, if I want information about a Google API, I may start typing "google maps api" but as soon as I finish typing "google" it turns my entry into an automatic search of Google, followed by the terms. But searching for Google for "google maps api" is not the same thing as searching Google for "maps api". It does this for all sorts of stuff.
Stroke gene discovered: enzyme responsible for death of nerve cells after stroke
when dhh says "make $X", he means profit, not revenue.
Embarrassed for whoever took the time to write this.
I was using Chrome for a while. I like the speed, but lately FF seems almost as fast especially on Linux, and there are just too many FF plugins that I really like and don't want to live without.
I think the big assumption (that is incorrect) is that his Bingo Card software is the only income for Patrick.

There is no reason you can't balance the "fun" work with other work that would brings in capital to continue building your vision. I'm doing that with my company. I'm building something that could be massive but right now I'm doing lots of web design projects to pay for the next business.

I also disagree that his Appointment Reminder software will be a small success. Patrick's bingo software is naturally a smaller venture. The market isn't gigantic. His Appointment Reminder software has a much larger market. If the average client pays $79/month, it would take ~1100 clients for him to be making a million a year. With his market, word of mouth will likely play a big role. I wouldn't be surprised if he had 1000+ clients at the end of 2 years.
Tiny IP stack, small enough to fit in a "tweet"
I'm not sure World of Warcraft is a fair comparison, given that it is a massively multiplayer subscription game with social ties, where the economics are totally different.

But if someone has the numbers, I'd love to see how its profit stacks up against, say, the number one best-selling PC game -- The Sims (and number two: The Sims 2). On the one hand, WoW benefits from consumer psychology; it's like buying a new AAA title every three months, and it takes effort to cancel. On the other hand, WoW must have huge ongoing administrative, overhead, and content generation costs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestselling_games
We're currently looking for food/drink sponsors. If you're interested give me a shout out at andrew@andrewvc.com.

Also, if you'd like to give a 5-10 min lightning talk about something at the meetup email me as well.
I agree -- there are a lot of disinterested 9-5ers who are burned out by their environment, not the technology.
I would be like, "Wow, thanks for the advice and the ringing endorsement." The guy is obviously trying to help Patrick out in multiple ways. The author is trying to make him realize how amazing he is and tell as many people as possible how valuable he is.

Personally, I might be a bit uncomfortable while reading it. But sometime down the road I'd look back on it and be very thankful.
Sounds like you haven't been in the industry in a while or we just happen to hit different cross sections. The industrial automation company I worked for bought off the shelf "Industrialized" PCs dropped in a motion controller card and went to town. Their older systems ran QNX(real time unix) with the GUI and all the data right there on the system. Their newer systems were Windows\In time(a real time windows addon) based. So yes there are people using windows to control the system. I have seen systems where there is no air gap between these windows based systems and the Internet. In fact I have remotely logged in to systems in plants via vpn and worked from home.
Gordon Gekko on Twitter
Ask HN: How would you invest money if you were 25 again?
I'm trying to learn the best way to invest my money but I can't find much that matches my profile (young, no long term perspective, decent salary, no debt).

I don't want to lock it in long term bonds because I want to be free to take it out whenever I want.

I don't want to risk all of it in stocks but I want a better yield than the net <2% most of it is making now.

It's not much but enought to become pressing to invest (<50k).

How would you do it if you were 25 again ?
The actor? Or do you mean Tony Robins?
I don't think video stores deserve to die because of their treatment of customers (though I'm too young to have had much experience renting from a brick&mortar store). I think they deserve to die because they refused to innovate as competitors built the infrastructure to overtake them. They scoffed as Netflix and Redbox built brands that would come to dominate the industry, yet their too-little-too-late offerings were not competitive with the newcomers despite having considerably more resources at one point.
As I recall it's only quite recently (last decade or two) that the average Japanese has had a non-yen denominated investment option. As I recall, prior to that there were three options, only one of which was sane:

The Postal Agency's banking system, which is safe.

Regular banks, which are not (latest example I can remember is depositors being presented with loan documents they'd never seen before...). These banks exist for others in the country.

Stocks. I really shouldn't have to say anything more about these (see the system of cross holdings and how uppity investors are dealt with), even ignoring the market's very long term if not permanent plunge. Again, the Japanese stock market as I understand it does not exist for the benefit of individual investors.

(To my knowledge Japan doesn't or at least didn't have anything like our US TreasuryDirect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TreasuryDirect).)