skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The thing that always worked great for me was to buy my competitors product, take it apart, and see who made it or look for names / SKU's / notations I could google. You may be able to find this out just by browsing OEM web sites who advertise their clients.

From there I always had a great starting point for where to start looking. I did this largely because I never wanted to be the test pilot for a new OEM after some bad experiences.

Always visit the factory... It's the best money you'll spend with this sort of project even if you don't give them a PO.
The main areas I evaluate are:

- technique (one of the most important, but generally difficult to interpret without some tuition. However some good indicators are time spent in mouth during procedures, how prepared is the dentist (hunting for tools is worrisome), level of pain, number of times work has had to be fixed)

- hygiene (appropriate glove changing, mask, tool use and sterilization). The most obvious things I notice are whether tools are coming out of sterilization bags and being placed on a sanitized surface. Does the dentist return a tool that's been in your mouth back to the sanitized surface?

- equipment (age of equipment, tech levels (not too high - don't forget, you the patient are paying for it). This is also important as digital x-rays use much less radiation and allow for immediate review with the patient.

- patient manner (attentiveness to pain and mouth discomfort, willingness to answer questions and properly explain procedures, or even minor things like accommodating patient embarrassment of tooth condition)

- upsell (does the dentist try to have you buy an occlusal splint without demonstrating actual tooth wear, sell you on cosmetic surgery, or attempt immediate intervention constantly rather than a wait and see approach)

- preventative methods (often, but not too often periodontal examinations, fluoride treatments, x-rays, etc)
Thanks! There was an exception being raised behind the scenes on the production server that didn't happen on the staging server. (Isn't that always how it goes?) Luckily, the site handled the situation (sort of) gracefully with a redirect, but clearly that is not acceptable behavior. In any case, it's fixed now.

By the way, this is why I always keep an eagle eye on the Hacker News comments on Launch Day. You guys rock!
Some more contenders:

1. Benford's Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benfords_law

2. Two envelopes problem - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_envelopes_problem
Sorry, I'm not buying this because utility can't be measured in pure dollars. If Mary does nothing, she does get socked with $100 and loses her license, but she still keeps the $130 that she uses for groceries et al. If she gambles and loses, then she's basically dead broke and can't even buy food, and if we're assuming she has no outside sources for help, then she is supposedly going to starve to death. That has a lot more (dis)utility than just losing $130.

If she just gets socked with the fine and loses her license, she can still make other gambles that have a lot better expected value as overall utility, not just money. She can make the gamble of driving without a license, as the risk of being caught by the police is a lot less than losing everything by betting on black. She can use the $130 to buy a bicycle or a moped, and maybe that's enough transportation to get by for now. And so forth.

The author has a good point in that the expected value in a gamble is often a better choice than the status quo, but reducing everything to dollars and coming up with the conclusion that "if you're screwed, put everything on black," is a fallacy.
http://www.google.com/finance?q=GOOGLEINDEX_US:UNEMPL and
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrust...

Also, religion is less popular in northern hemisphere summer months: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=363
Where in Australia are you? If in Brisbane I can recommend several excellent dentists.

For people in the US, Yelp is a good starting point, but it helps to try a dentist once or twice as a trial (rather than going for major work without knowing what they're like).
There is a place for detailed coverage of the different topics. The 15 minute blog tutorial is great to give you a taste, but when you are new to a platform, its nice to have a more comprehensive resource that steps you through the details.
According to a Gallup poll from 1999 18% of Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth. Another 3% had no opinion. North Western University did a similar poll in 2005 and got a similar result of 20%
Novell: Why we don't need a third Linux distro
Was there not news yesterday that IBM and oracle are going to work together on Open JDK?
Why can't you install and use RoR?
But many of the major and minor innovations were developed by people who didn't attend our public education system. This remains true even today.
I've been looking at bug trackers recently, but haven't found anything quite like redmine, in either language (though, I would've preferred perl or python over php).

The closest thing might be mantis, but even that is fairly different.
I never said there was no reason to hate Lisp. Just that the majority of reasons that people give are not good ones. Hate is infectious and thrives on ignorance to propagate. The fact that the 'hate page' is more than twice as long as the 'love' page while 80% of the hate page is full of redundant arguments about syntax just goes to show that most people making these arguments really have no case to merit them.

I distinguish 'dislike' from 'hate' because the former is a more informed position. If one knew enough about Lisp to understand it's merits, but still couldn't produce useful software with it; they would have a reason to dislike it. But it's hard to hate something that has real merit if you actually understand it. You cannot hate the fact that compiled Lisp is pretty fast for example. That's a good thing.

Lisp itself doesn't do much of anything poorly. It just may be that your personal preferences prevent you from taking advantage of it. That's still not a bad thing on Lisp's part.

So you see, while there may be a thousand little reasons a person can find that keeps them from liking and using Lisp; it doesn't make Lisp itself a bad language. Lisp has proven itself a great language. Just as C is a great language, and Java, etc.

So I think someone should run through the hate page and compress it down to the core arguments so people can get a better idea of what's going on.
But definitely a plus in Amsterdam.

You can get by fine with English but to really feel at home - you should know the language. This is assuming you want to make the place you live in feel like home.
People aren't stupid in entering the same password on every website. Passwords ARE stupid : Having a password for every website is completly unrealistic. According to lastpass I have a hundred accounts on various websites. If you can remember that amount of I'm very admirative.

Before that, I had three series of passwords : One for email, one for paypal and one weak for everything else.

lastpass completly solved my password problem. I don't know how I lived before, I can generate new profile in 2 click, strong password and autologin everywhere I need.
What wireframe tool do you use Michael?
They say, it depends on personality. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test
don't try this with ISO standards (not even only the domain)

http://www.iso.org/iso/name_and_logo.htm => WIPO
You could set it up by allowing sshing to a server on a subdomain something like ssh.xyz.com or vpn.xyz.com and from there can ssh to production servers, which are set up to only allow ssh internally.
You really need to watch "Lesson 2: A demo app". :-) It's my version of the "15-minute" blog, and even it is a lot more than 15 minutes because I go into considerably more detail. In the process, I enumerate all of the toy demo app's many failings, and then fill in the gaps in the subsequent 10 lessons. (If you don't want to buy the screencasts, taking a look at the free online book at http://railstutorial.org/book will give you a sense of what gets covered.)

The bottom line is that there's a world of difference between a tiny toy app and a real-world production app. The Rails Tutorial screencasts do teach you a toy app along the way (Lesson 2), but preparing you to make industrial-strength webapps is their raison d'être (Lessons 3–12). As it turns out, that takes more than 15 minutes. :-)

P.S. The "1000 pages" number included the page count of the Rails 2.3 Tutorial book, which many people won't need (though it's still useful for people with legacy apps). The Rails 3 Tutorial book itself is only about 500 pages, and I've change the wording on the site to make it sound less intimidating. Thanks!
Lego Mindstorms Releases Minddroid for Android 2.1 and Above
It's a matter of setting up VPNs and IP-restricting where you can SSH in from. You can also set up port knocking and other SSH-related security measures. It depends how much convenience you're willing to trade for security.
Sometimes I wonder if the OS can put very heavily used files from the FS into RAM. Some software just sucks and keeps pulling the same files over and over...

... and the plus side is, if an application needs the RAM, no harm done, just dump the file from RAM and read it from disk.
> I said that if you're ok with $35,000 a year, why not get a job that pays $200,000 a year and donate $160,000?

First of all, not many $200000 jobs are available to people who are willing to make $35000.

And second, you totally neglect the non-monetary motivations and contributions of people who work for non-profits. Why do you think anyone but not this particular person can have the same contribution to the project for $160000? I'm sure Tim O'Reilly can and earns much more from his other ventures. That doesn't mean that just by donating amount equal to his salary at Gov 2.0 project anyone can make the same impact, don't you think?

And what if the person that's going to do it is a fresh millionaire who just sold his start-up? Would you still discourage him/her?
Can the apps built in MonoMac easily be ported to native Windows widgets? That would be a killer feature.
"Soon, computers will be fast."

- Billy Zelsnack
"Homophobia" is an odd word for "dislike of homosexuality". None of the people that I know with a negative view of homosexuality are afraid that homosexuals will sleep with them. Rather, they think it is wrong/unnatural/icky.
unless they don't TCK certify OpenJDK 7. Then we're back at square one.
Could you elaborate on this?

If this is indeed the case, I'd be very interested in tapping into it.
PromoteJS and Sustainability in Computer Science - JSConf EU 2010 Keynote
The problem for me is that if you are in that situation, it may work for a one off...but if you are poor, that isn't going to be the only occasion a situation like that comes up. If your solution is gambling to resolve problems, your luck will eventually run out and leave you in an even bigger mess than when you started.
Current Intel Core CPUs have 3 ALUs/core and 2 cores..
tl;dr: key paragraph:

The automaker says there is no direct mechanical link from the gas engine to the drive train. We're not gearheads, but the folks at Edmunds are, and they claim "GM lied."

If the existence of a direct linkage is what's going to drive your decision to buy this or not, then I think you've got some messed up priorities. Are you making a symbolic statement about what you think should be driving 21st century transportation, or are you looking for what is, in fact, the best transportation?

(I don't mean to imply that the Volt is or is not the best, just that this is a stupid criterion for deciding it.)
Note that this screencast offers a lot more than basic Rails. You get other concepts like basic Ruby, Git, and TDD.
Algorithm design is for the math people, implementation requires a form of paranoia combined with detailed knowledge about CPUs. In many, if not all, cases you will have to look at the assembly that your compiler produces to make sure that an implementation is safe against attacks that look at the timing of calls, their cache misses that affect timing of code on other CPUs, etc. .
Yep, and significantly more complex returns as well for the past 5-6 years.

Partnerships are very complex returns, and I was able to do a return for that.
PromoteJS - http://promotejs.com
Are We First Yet - http://arewefirstyet.com
Full transcript available below video
Rediscovering SEO
Thanks, but unfortunately I'm in Melbourne (edited to add it).

Yeah, I've been doing the trial thing also. Maybe I should keep trying, but some were charging $100-200 for just inspecting.
Amazing that people can complain that an open source tool is too well-documented.

The famous 'build a blog in 15 minutes' was Rails' elevator pitch: intriguing, representative, but by no means a complete picture. You still needed a full reference to get real work done. That's what this is.
I would just add:

0. We got started at the right time.
It's some kind of spam link that disables the back button---steer clear.
The market client also needs some improvement: for example, the search feature isn't very good. Searching for "ADW Launcher" brings up countless pages of themes for the ADW Launcher before showing the actual launcher app itself.
Startup idea for you: Modern e-commerce isn't enough
I don't know about you all, but for me, any productivity problems I have are strictly dominated by laziness, lack of motivation, and being easily distracted.

Even when I'm in the zone and getting shit done, my actual editing ability and low-level coding skills are never the bottleneck - I spend most my time strategizing. Actually banging out the code is trivial, but that seems to be what most people on HN fetishize...
Honestly, even if you understand the forms well, TurboTax is decent software to manage the process. OK it's crappy software... but it's better than spreadsheets.
Rackspace, Hostgator, Linode customers must file taxes in Texas from now on.
There's plenty of Rails documentation, as well as for-money books and screencasts, already in existence. Generally, the successful ones tend to be tight and light. "Agile development with Rails", not "Extensive 1000-page guide to Rails". Worth also pointing out that I'm criticising the commercial effort here, not the general goal ("help people use Rails").

Also, as I mentioned, I'm not part of the target market, so my criticism may be off-base.
Perhaps it's a moot point now: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/12/us/AP-US-Gays-in-...
Thanks for catching that. We've spent the last week moving into a new office and it must have slipped by as we were getting everything reconfigured. It's been locked down again.
Or drunken crossdressing jokers?
While it's important to know their motivations, and I appreciate knowing them, this doesn't necessarily nullify their results, especially if you're comparing them relative to one another.

"SquareTrade analyzed iPhone accidents for over 20,000 iPhone 4s covered by SquareTrade Care Plans and found a 82% increase in reported broken screens compared to the iPhone 3gs."

It's not science, but to me, this is fairly good evidence that the iPhone 4 screens break significantly more often. Either that or iPhone 4 users are twice as likely as iPhone 3gs owners to commit insurance fraud. Or SquareTrade is just lying through their teeth, but I'd find that a little hard to believe.
Agreed, it is a plus in any country to know the local language. But you can get by adequately in Amsterdam in English. I would argue better so than in most northern European cities, non-native English speaking.
Finding the right programmers for a startup
Hello all,

This is my first post on this site as i was just given the address by my father. A little background of me: I am a 21 college student from south Florida, pursing a degree in Business Management. My father attended Ycombinator about a month ago I believe and absolutely loved it. The reason I am posting is because we are in need of a programmer who could be a potential partner. We have an idea that needs to be developed and we feel it can be profitable. However, in order to do this we need someone to help us from design stages to the programming, so basically start to finish. We are able to pay them for the development cost and we are offering partnership within the business as well to help maintain the site, add features, and get the site well known. Please feel free to post here or email me at bdiamon@eagle.fgcu.edu to find out more information on the site itself.

Thank you,
Brett Diamond
I know of many female chefs of great repute and talent - and I know some very good female professors.

I don't see the link between "most good chefs are men" and "women should not be chefs". It's a bit like "no Black people ride at the front of the bus" and "Black people should not ride at the front of the bus" - you've conveniently assumed a level playing field where there likely is none, and you've also erroneously linked the current state of things to the ideal state of things.

As for the military - not being a military man I'm not sure I am qualified to comment... but are there not many more roles in the military that do not require the massive amounts of brawn that "only men" can provide?
I used Mockingbird (http://gomockingbird.com/) supplemented with Adobe Fireworks for the images. Mockingbird was free when I wrote the book, but I think they might charge now. It's still probably a good deal, though.
The story is a bit more interesting than the silly headline, and there's something to it; when international competitors invest heavily in subsidies, there's a ready-made 'arms race' argument for doing the same here. From a longer-term perspective, disruption of the fossil-fuel model has a huge potential payoff in the form of reduced strategic commitments.
I'm rather curious about those who had no opinion.

"Does the sun revolve around the earth?"
"Meh, maybe? Never thought about it. I don't really look up or care"
Right, but there's still a sex difference. So you're saying women lack attention to detail?
I just installed it... it makes me use Posterous from now on. Dead simple killing app!
Yubnub's "new command" page is a good example of an interface for creating new shortcuts.
http://yubnub.org/command/new?name=
Actually, donations come out of your post-tax income, and then you get a tax deduction (not a credit) for them, if you itemize your taxes.
Dude, way to rock a "boring" business helping people with a real, everyday problem instead of trying to boil the ocean. Congratulations on your success -- you deserve it! (Especially because you don't seem like the type to sit on your laurels. Well done.)
I sure hope nobody reads this and is fooled by it. It's terrible, terrible advice for three reasons.

1. Money has a declining marginal utility. Winning that $130 isn't nearly as positive as losing it would have been negative. The author neglects to mention what happens the other 53% of the time when someone with mounting bills loses the last money they had. Debt spiral is usually the result. Even if the odds were 50/50, or in fact even if they were slightly favorable but it were a one-time deal, it would be better not to gamble. You should really only gamble in situations where the expectation is more than enough to offset the declining marginal utility, or is repeatable enough to accomplish that.

#2. If someone has the discipline to go into a casino, double their money, and leave without gambling further, then they probably had the discipline to avoid this situation in the first place. Casinos make billions of dollars because most people can't do this.

#3. It's fairly rare in the real world that there isn't some option better than gambling. Even a payday loan place probably gives you a higher EV than a roulette wheel. Borrowing from a credit card probably does as well. Do either to bridge the gap while looking for a second job. Also driving with a suspended license is an option.

#3.5 (bonus reason): You're much better off making a don't pass bet at a craps table while you're there. I think that's the best bet you'll find in a casino that doesn't require skill. (There are better, some that are even positive expectation, but I'm assuming our person isn't a professional video poker player.)
Thanks. Yes, now I remember having read that article some time ago. My idea of phoning around and doing online research probably even came from there.
Sure, selection bias matters. I never said OKcupid was statistically valid. In fact, in my second comment I disparaged it.
And for God's sake, man, pay your tickets before they're overdue, a few hundred bucks is nothing compared to the pain of trying to get just about anything done at the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles!

It's true: I just moved to CT and had to deal with transferring a car title, registration and license from out of state and it was a nightmare. Definitely would've rather spent the 8 hours and ~$350 at a casino, of course.
It's got nothing to do with Twitter, brands have made big shifts before and failed due to public opinion. The 'New Coke' debacle happened before the web, and I don't recall the telephone being given credit.
Can you name the dentist if they're in the Bay Area?
If I recall correctly, PeepCode's Rails 2 screencasts are less than three hours total. That's fine if you're already an experienced Rails developer, but the Rails Tutorial screencasts are for people who want to learn Rails from scratch.

I recommend PeepCode (and Railscasts) as a follow-on to the Rails Tutorial. In fact, last year at GoGaRuCo I pitched the Rails Tutorial project to PeepCode founder Geoffrey Grosenbach as "From zero to PeepCode."
Adopted from What Color is Your Parachute's "real questions behind every interviewer". A cover letter with one paragraph per point has got me an interview every time (before becoming independent of work.)

1. why them?
2. are you competent?
3. are you special?
4. will you fit in?
5. can they afford you? // I leave this one out for a cover letter :-)

It's not a bad template for marketing anything.
Nice armchair psychoanalysis, but how does this fit in with the fact that most homophobes are old married folks, not young playboys? The people I know who do things like vote against gay marriage have been married for 20+ years, go to church, and have 3 kids.
FTA: "If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the last three Rails Rumbles, it’s that if you ask a user to create an account on your web application, then you may as well be asking them to leave."

Requiring users to sign in through a 3rd party site rather than offering them the chance to sign in directly provides the same, "you may leave," suggestion to a whole different class of users.

I know that without the capability to manage authentication with my own app as well as the hookup to the 3rd parties, it's a non-starter for me. I realize, of course, that other projects may not have this restriction. Very cool that you guys are putting this out there; I'm sure there are a ton of new Rails developers who will love this super simple integration.
Ugh, so tired of reading these posts. Has everyone so quickly forgotten Google IO? They know there are problems with the Market, they plan on having them fixed for the release of Gingerbread, which according to rumors (which indicate the SDK will be out next week) could be very soon.
Extend the content of the print version rather than duplicate it. Conceptually this is what NPR does with their website. The Daily Show website extends broadcast content similarly for their interviews.

Audio is an excellent medium for journalism and today is nearly as portable dead trees for many people. It's potentially salable and suitable for longer news stories.

Have an advertising policy which respects your readers as readers. The biggest asset of newspapers is trust. Highest bidder ads about my credit score destroy it.