skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The internet is a terrible distraction; you shouldn't be browsing on the company time. Looking up documentation is fine; the occasional news article on your lunch break is fine.

Whilst at work you should be 100% focused on the task at hand. On the flip side it’s important to realise you are working as a professional developer not a grunt on a factory assembly line, if you require time to rethink things instead of sidetracking with internet browsing, get thinking: draw diagrams, use a whiteboard, write notes, print out code. You know your boss is visual so use visual things.

Additionally it's quite clear you are frustrated with management, this generally happens when an inadequate communication system is in place.

Make it an issue to outline responsibilities and tasks to your line manager. Just write everything down that you do and email at the end of the work day. That way he can quantify your usefulness with his manager. It's a rule of work: make your managers life easier not harder. If an issue of work load arises again you have documented evidence to refer to.

Having a slanging match with a manager sounds awful, unprofessional and frankly doesn't say much for your or his attitude. Coming in late might be overlooked but you are essentially stealing from the company. 20x7x52/60/24 = 5. That's a work week you're taking off, I might overlook it but I wouldn't forget it.
Microsoft’s Dependence on Windows and Office
Do you even understand the purpose of HN?
Those who'd argue "corporations", usually mean big businesses operating in corrupt countries. They are right with their examples, say Shell in Nigeria or where was it -- but Government is usually involved too in these cases.

From a pure capitalist point of view, there will always be isolated instances of short-term enterprises destroying the source of their wealth --- their river, land, fishing or hunting grounds --- but the ones that will logically prevail are those that protect and future-proof their resources for long-term wealth gains, especially when the investment is very high (talk about oil, mining etc.) so that the return on investment will need to be earned over decades. It is not in the interest of the farmer to devalue his land. It is not in the interest of the fisher to exterminate all fish.

It may well be in the interest of global corporations to drain the natural resources of poor countries where the land is granted by the government rather than privately owned and only the short-term monetary gain matters to both parties. But libertarians also make a credible case that Big Corporations would have a much tougher time, and would be a lot smaller, in government-free or minimal-government environments.
Ask HN: Participating in Yahoo's HackU. Any suggestions?
I will be participating in Yahoo's 24-hour Hack-U competition starting tomorrow night, and can't think of any awesome ideas to build. I'd like to take the opportunity to give a little something back to HN, since I've learned so much here. With that in mind, I'd like to ask you for web services that you'd like to see developed.
As an American with a chronic condition living in Sweden I can agree with you. However the Swedish system does a lot to eliminate and streamline the system. Calling to get an appointment gets you on the phone with a nurse to triage you, so urgent things are seen urgently and non-urgent things get scheduled in. I know doctors and go to doctors in Sweden and they see drug company reps significantly less than American doctors do. They aren't allowed to meet with drug reps like happens in America. I went to a hematology/oncology clinic in the US and there was always drug reps coming and going, if they had cut that down they'd be able to see more patients, and keep their appointment times with their patients. However these doctors it turned out whored themselves out not so much for the free meals and such, but to collect as many free samples as they could so their poor patients could be given at least a partial supply of drugs they would otherwise not get.

For my particular condition a subcutaneous treatment was developed in Scandinavia and the UK. It costs half as much to treat a patient and requires no care from a nurse to administer the alternative IV. I can give myself my drugs on my own time instead of taking time off work to go into a clinic. The drug is finally making its way over the pond now, but uptake is slow. Not every person with my condition can go on the subcutaneous, but back of the envelope math says at the very least $100 million a year would be saved if all patients who could go on went on it. In addition 150,000 nurse hours would be freed up as well each year.

Let's not forget the personal savings of time being on the phone with the insurance company. In the year before I moved to Sweden I lost roughly a week of work to being on the phone with the insurance company cause things weren't billed right or they just decided that I didn't need my IV anymore or getting them to pay for things they pre-authorized, but decided to deny when the bill showed up. I have spent absolutely no time discussing those sort of things in the last 3.5 years I've lived in Sweden. That's time I spend earning money and paying taxes, which seems to be win-win.
Some good links/ideas here.

http://linuxfund.org/portland/
Thanks, I wasn't aware there was such a large performance difference.
You have a choice about how you define and label yourself, don't take this route. Life's a big challenge, insulting yourself just hinders things.
"It really isn't pushing the envelope anywhere."

I think quite the opposite. They're pushing the envelope nearly everywhere. But you don't make money by pushing the envelope. It's by finding what customers want to spend money on. The iPod wasn't pushing the envelope. But it was sexy.

Courier was sexy, but not realistic. I say Kinect is their most exciting product.
+1

Powell's has a separate science and technology bookstore. Even if you don't want to buy a book, it's worth visiting this separate building to see the quite small (but entertaining) collection of vintage computers and manuals.
> " No web developer in their right mind would drop support for IE - no one would hire them - and yet they seem to be fine taking that approach on mobile."

No consumer in their right mind would use IE on a mobile :/

FWIW my webapp is 20% Chrome, 55% Firefox, 19% IE (All mainly desktop users). So dropping support for IE isn't that insane.
Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance:

I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In...

14 pages, 60 screws.

Compare to a recent MacBook:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod...

3 pages. 3 screws.

That's progress.

(in fairness, that's the model with the door on the bottom - the more recent models have 14 screws to remove, but the disassembly isn't difficult compared to the iBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Pro-13... )
If you go to UT i highly recommend going to Austin Software Mentors meetings.
Powell's has a great technical bookstore a block away from their main store. Budget plenty of time to take it all in.

If the weather permits I would recommend riding a bike and taking public transportation to get around. Portland is much better than the bay area in this respect.

If you are into postgres be sure and say hi to the folks at Rentrak if you can. They have some great query / analytics technology built on it.

There are some fabulous farmer's markets there too.
There's no reason to not ask people to cover the costs as long as they're fair.
Many of the things mentioned above were in fact produced without government intervention by private enterprise before the widespread adoption of the government funded projects. They were not, however widely adopted, nor resulted in the technologies you are using on your computer sitting in front of you.

There is a reason why people joke about selling bridges yet simultaneously rely on bridges for their commutes in and out of work: some things, if you try to make them profitable from the get-go will never achieve the scale necessary for them to provide utility. One of the many functions of Government is to provide a mechanism for the economy to move beyond a suboptimal economic maxima. Spending money on infrastructure, like bridges, does exactly this. No private firms will build a bridge because they can't make money off of it, but all private firms benefit from the increased availability and mobility of labor. The pre-bridge state of affairs is a suboptimal maxima. (Protip: WWII military spending enabled the US to escape the suboptimal maxima of the Great Depression. That is, government spending, of which, military spending is among the least effective at creating jobs and improving the economy.)
I agree with you, but I'm gonna argue the other side right now since I see an objection to that particular line of argument.

Suppose I now say that welfare is a public good since without it we'd have poor folks either rioting or dying in the streets. I benefit from that and so do you.

Another line-blurring example: food in prison is a private good in that only one prisoner can eat it; however I don't have a problem with the government paying for that.
I'm not sure why anyone would disagree. A perfectly perfectly balanced reply in context.

Zepto has been positioned as compatible with jQuery - inviting opinion on the subject.

As the comparison was one of the core selling points of the argument for Zepto, it's actually wide open for discussion.
Pearl district is the place to be. Also if you like coffee, check out Barista.
This is an interesting idea actually. Never thought about that.

Brilliant!
I don't think Microsoft has to worry about its survival: Windows and Office will remain cash cows for the forseeable future. But they, like IBM before them, will lose all relevance to new directions in technology -- in fact, it's arguable that this has already been the case for years.

The biggest argument for this that I can see is their online services division -- i.e. Bing -- which lost more than half a billion dollars in one quarter (they lost a similarly gigantic amount in Q1 2009), and hasn't had a profitable quarter since 2005 [see http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsofts-o... ].

Even Microsoft publicly acknowledges that succeeding in online services is key for future growth, but they show no sign of being able to even begin approaching profitability in that space -- instead, they are losing more and more every year.
Are you an Xbox user? I know they take a big loss from that sector, but they have huge potential in that area. As one of the few devices that can run amazing games and feature growing amounts of non-gaming content, I think that will be very successful for them down the line.

Why buy other set top boxes if I can get all of their functionality plus amazing games at the same time?
Totally agree with this.

I've found that with my best clients and contractors, the "contract" is very, very short (a one pager, or an email perhaps). If you need more than that, you are probably working with the wrong person.
Almost reads like a tea party position statement. I love it. John carmack is now my hero.
This is pretty interesting. Do they ever convert BitCoins back to fiat money or precious metals at some point? Well I guess I can research this myself, I did come across BitCoins before. Fancy idea of backing currency by CPU power rather than a tangible, durable, universally accepted store-of-value but it's a step forward from fiat currency that is backed by the decree of Heli Ben and the gunned power of a state to tax future production...

I did not mean to imply you were criticizing. Your lessons are valid examples of a quasi-anarchic situation. People policing themselves, organizing networks of trust and reputation and self-protection.

Sounds like there is a market in there for mutually-trusted middlemen acting as, well, "trustees" or escrow services? Or is that built into BitCoin already. Of course if the scam only materializes after the transaction was already completed to mutual consent, that's a different matter. But what kinds of fraud are happening there?
Also, you would have to give up syntax coloring and style and font variations.

I'm pretty sure ed was dead by the time those were invented, the wiki claims the "one of the first" syntax highlighting editors was in 85.
Ask HN: Dynamic Subdomain Host?
I'm building a webapp where users will receive a subdomain where their app will live,

usercompany.ourapp.com

Any good recommended hosts? We have a private server with Dreamhost that might work, but ugh, I don't want to go with dreamhost.
It's quite amazing in the offline world too: just how much unwaranted (and usually creepy) attention women (all women, not just the attractive women) receive on a daily basis (on the street, at the gym, at work). On the other hand, it's also amazing how much rejection men receive every day: I wonder if the latter is one explanation of entrepreneurship being more attractive to men that it is to women.

I am not sure it's a reason to be reassured. You're standing out from "population of men actively looking for a mate online", not from "population of men in general".

It's not all that different from the programming job interview situation. Amongst candidates that are actively on the market, there's a percentage that are _always_ on the market because they are either horrible or have unrealistic expectations.
You can fake up a Silverlight host and then decode the bits. Not rocket science to just get the video.
Powell's books, and don't forget the separate technical books location:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/powells-city-of-books-portland-3
http://www.powells.com/locations/powells-technical-books/

Great coffee:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/coffeehouse-northwest-portland
http://stumptowncoffee.com/

Fun bars:
http://www.dougfirlounge.com/
http://www.rontoms.net/

Cool neighborhoods to explore:
- SE Hawthorne
- Pearl District
- Northwest
Agreed. I've tried a few systems and like this one the most.

The fact it doesn't do anything fancy is part of its appeal. The storage format is plain text so you can always view/edit it in any editor (there are plugins for vim, textmate, etc). Having it sync with an iPhone app is also very nice.
Nice, but clarify me on something: if I give you an eps of the logo, what else do you have to do to transform it into a decal ?
What is so abstract about the non-aggression axiom? I wouldn't be so quick to trust the macroeconomist over a computer scientist. I mean, does anyone really understand macroeconomics? Greenspan thought he did, ha.
There are 2 things that Portland does best. Strippers and beer:

http://www.devilspointbar.com/
http://www.sassysbar.com/welcome.html
http://www.luckydevillounge.com/
http://www.unionjacksclub.com/

http://www.hopworksbeer.com/
http://www.rogue.com/
http://www.mcmenamins.com/
http://www.rockbottom.com/

Have fun, and bring your umbrella
They remain on top due to anti-competitive and monopolistic business practices (for which they were convicted of), as well as other business tactics such numerous Linux/FOSS FUD, patent trolling, etc. Certainly not due to the quality of their products (which I have the misfortune of having to use a lot of). One hopes that in the end, open and superior products will prevail.
Pet peeve: I don't like the unit "kWh", since it's a unit of energy, divided by a unit of time, multiplied by a different unit of time, to give a unit of energy. Why don't they just give it in Joules?

kWh/day is even worse -- it's a unit of power made by dividing a unit of energy by a unit of time, multiplying it by a second unit of time, and dividing it by a third unit of time!

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go for a jog at 0.11 meter days per hour per second.
Apple sold 4,583 iPhones per hour in FY 2010
I think you're just misinformed about this issue.

http://feedingamerica.org/faces-of-hunger/hunger-in-america-...
I would be very surprised if people 200, 150, 100, 50 years ago didn't think that things are getting worse and worse with government spending. And yet somehow America grew to become the World Power, long-lasting businesses were created, government-funded research led to many advances etc. And very often all that happened while tax rates were much MUCH higher and government was very much involved. So I call out BS.
• Powell's Books (and Technical books)
• 23rd Street and NW Portland area
• Voodoo doughnuts
• Rose Garden
• OMSI
• the Pearl district
• Hawthorne district (around the Bagdad theatre)
• Events in Pioneer Courthouse Sq.
• Hit up the dozens of microbrews
• peek in the offices of weiden+kennedy
• shows at the doug fir lounge
• kennedy school
• take the OHSU tram once (weird and fun)
• some fun stuff around Alberta St. and the Hollywood district
• parks! (I like laurelhurst, the arboretum, and forest park)
• washington park zoo, if you like zoos. (really great for kids)
I'd love to hear more about your experiences.
Really easy to forget this stuff so thank you.
When I feel the answer to my success lies with other people I tend to overask. When I am confident my success lies with me my perspiration andinspiration, and a little luck, then I'm less likely to over-reach a relationship.
He is not arguing that everything is done/organized by the government. Which is what was tried in the Soviet Union. So I don't see how you had shoot down every one of his points, nor why you wanted to try that in the first place...
I love your attitude mate!
Why do people get hung up relishing their past? My future just keeps getting better. I mean, back then, didn't have the cutest daughter in the world.
The past was good. Present is great. Future is frickin awesome. Bring it on.
It read to me as "government performs most tasks inefficiently, and that's ok; but let's have it perform fewer tasks inefficiently so we can perform them more efficiently ourselves and have a little less fiscal drag on our lives.
>> "I was struck by the normalcy of the respondent's jobs"

> What job wouldn't be normal? If you're going to sample the general population, you're going to get normal jobs. Was he expecting everyone to be a CEO?

You missed the point. The point wasn't that there are people with normal jobs. The point is that there are people that described themselves as "loving what they do" with normal jobs. In other words, it didn't take a so-called dream job for these people to find total satisfaction with their work life.
"- its use/consumption by one party precludes its use by another party"

I'm glad you don't view intellectual property as legitimate property.
But what part actually earns you money?
But isn't the kinect the Wii360?
Wow, great list. Thanks!
I'm always surprised when I meet programmers or writers who just consider it a job. I've always thought that both were callings.

The best definition I've heard of a calling is "work you'd do for love even if nobody paid you."
Ask HN: Visting San Francisco before moving... what should I check out?
I'm planning on moving to Silicon Valley (San Francisco, Palo Alto, or Mountain View) in 6 months or so and I'm taking a trip with my co-founder next month to scope it out.

What should I definitely check out? Any frequent hacker haunts? Co-working offices? Other things of interest to the startup community?
Poor ROI might be better expressed by examining the defense budget itself, particularly when one remembers that the US defense budget is 46% of the military expenditures of the ENTIRE WORLD. http://static.globalissues.org/i/military/10/country-distrib...

Also consider that defense spending is 51% of discretionary spending and almost $500 billion more than any other discretionary spending category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budg...

Imagine if the company you worked for (or started) decided it was going to spend 51% of it's discretionary operational expenditures on a security system and security guards, yet there were furious debates about whether or not to provide health insurance to all employees? Also remember that the likelihood of being a victim of terrorism is less than that of winning the lottery.
RAC is very competitive, i suggest you move to elance or odesk or guru, where you can get decent paid projects. And portfolio is a must to win the bids there. i am in odesk for 3 yrs and now work as long term contractor for a US firm in Chino, CA. All thru odesk.
i dont have enough patience with elance, it is overly more competitive
I wasn't being sarcastic it looked like maybe there was a 2nd joke in the arrangement of the fives vs the ones. Oh well.
If you want to write async code in .NET, use F#.

You can compose and BeginOp EndOp functions into a function that returns an Async<T>

I've probably screwed up the exact function name but here's the psuedo code.

Example:
Imagine a C# class as follows

public class Foo {
public AsnycResult BeginGetBar(int bar_id) { // something }
public Bar EndGetBar(AsnycResult result) {
// something
return bar;
}
}

Now to consume in F# create an extension method

type Foo with
member x.AsyncGetBar = Async.FromAsyncResult(x.BeginGetBar, x.EndGetBar)

Now to use it

let somefunc = async {
let x = new Foo();
let! bar = x.AsyncGetBar(10);
// do something with bar
}

What F# does is create a call back that is the rest of the function after the let!/do! statement, basically your code is split into a call back everytime you use a let!/do! binding.

For a more interesting example lets say you want an async file copy.

let copy s1:Stream s2:Stream =
let buffer:byte[] = Array.init 8192
let rec copy = async {
let! read = s1.AsyncRead(0,buffer.Length,buffer)
match read with
| 0 -> ()
| x -> do! s2.AsyncWrite
return! copy()
}

The nice part about this is that copy is a fully reusable piece of code async code. So anytime you're in an async block and need to copy a file, so...

let move s1 s2 = async {
do! copy s1 s2
do! delete s1
}
Tollbooths?

And what about the military? Military protection is commonly cited as a public good, but sustaining the military requires massive government expenditures on private goods. How does that square with the idea that the government shouldn't pay for private goods?

I think you're being overly harsh on the idea that the public/private goods distinction isn't always black-and-white. There are many obvious gray areas.
Greetings from Austin (work for Gowalla right downtown)!! Sounds like fun, but like the majority of posters here, i do believe a flight out might be a little impractical.

If you're ever visiting the Austin branch of FB let me know.
The first Dirk Gently is actually basically an old-school Doctor Who serial.
Common enough strategy these days, though not usually from the big players. Double your price, you'll roughly halve your (new) customers - same revenue, but more profit because of less overhead.
do you think a small software to help filter and notify jobs of interest from CL can be helpful? what kinds of them do you use ?
Obligatory to post: http://xkcd.com/297/ (Lisp Cycles)
Check out PIE, the startup incubator housed at Wieden+Kennedy. Drop me a line at dan.hon@wk.com if you'd like an intro.
I can easily imagine how someone can wind up carrying a balance on their credit card via some sort of minor disaster.

What I don't understand is how a full third of the US population has managed to get themselves into that situation and not out, and are effectively borrowing money at some crazy (16%+ rate).
p.s.: You can find me on KGS, my user name is muloka. I'm just starting to break the 5k boundary.
i agree, network is really important.
Eat! Best food in the country. I like Ping in the international district.
There's no such as the Wii360. Can you restate your question more clearly?