skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Sorry, I don't think that is accurate.

Quoting wikipedia:

"[Friedman] claimed that, if the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of the banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businessmen could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing."

Intervening to prop up failing banks and creating money to buy bonds? Sounds a lot like... TARP.
I would like to point out that in this case, (not that I'm trying to sound overly supportive of the guy, but it's not that I hate him either), his dad fired him THREE times whilst working for him. His dad only hired him back after he had gone out and made something of himself (selling his own business for lots of money).
Tool of the Day- iClippy: an Improved Online Clipboard
And three -- I met two very good friends and my wife (just had our first anniversary) through OKCupid.
The demo doesn't seem to account for a stopped mouse. If you move the mouse slowly in one area, it gets really hot, but if you put your mouse in one spot and don't move, it doesn't get recorded at all. This seems like a big hole.
That was very funny!
Ask HN: "Pay with a Flattr", what do you think?
What do you think about the idea of "Pay with a Flattr" service for webapps? I have tried both www.paywithatweet.com and flattr.com on some of my webapps, and like both ideas.

Now I think that Flattr.com should launch a
service where users of webapps will pay using Flattr. This would mean forcing users to pay using Flattr to get access to the webapp. Would this work?
Offer HN: I will get you into Y Combinator
Google "ycombinator application". Excluding YCombinator itself, my guide for applying is the top hit. I have coached several teams over the past 3 years into getting an interview and accepted into YCombinator.

Obviously, I can't guarantee that every team will get in, but I can help the right teams (smart, passionate hackers) express themselves to maximize their chances. I understand precisely what he is looking for in a founder. Having taught several teams, including myself, to write the application, I have learned exactly how to express your best qualities.

The first time I applied, I did not know how to present myself. I did not get in. Since then, I have learned to do so through myself and also through helping others. I want to help other applicants avoid the same mistakes I did.

Also, I just love to talk to smart entrepreneurs about startup ideas.
I'll be in touch. (And I'm from Wales).
Introducing the First Dropper: Say so long to the Early Adopter
eyyy i thing that i know why is blocked!!! you are not using the correct player, use the official youtube player
I understand they are trying to get an idea that i have a very basic knowledge of programming, but, this has been a pretty good gauge on the quality of a company.

"Define polymorphism."
"Also your 20 days holiday is below the legal minimum."

No, as pointed out above, 20 days holiday, on top of 8 public holidays, is the legal minimum.
ReadyForZero (YC S10) announces funding
57(last one). Never Give up.
I program (design and implement) better than all of you. Always did.
Site looks good. Your call to action could be more prominent. Took a me a few seconds to find it because it didnt really stand out. Maybe changing the button color merging it with the register link that is higher up on the gray background. Because the button is orange, at first glance it doesnt stand out.

Your register for free option is a little confusing. I dont see a free plan on the pricing page, so it makes me wonder what I'm getting for free. Can this be changed to a trial period of 15 or 30 days?

Good job on highlighting a plan on the pricing page. Making the highlighted plan a little more prominent would be better. Right now, the only thing you've done is raised the gray box with professional. Adding more cues would be better, like a border around this one or maybe a shadow. Not too much, but a little extra to make it stand out more.
If the boss thinks you're goofing off, moving your desk will look like trying to sneak off and goof off more.
I think this talk is particularly pertinent given all the interest in event-loop-based systems like node.js lately.

"A lot of people, when they try one experiment with concurrency, they pick some braindead problem like serving constant strings in a little webserver loop in Python..."
Look what I found in the computer science building (pic)
Ask HN: going back to school, what books before CS?
Hello all, I'm going back to grad school to get my MS in CS starting next fall (in the US) and I'm wondering what books you would recommend reading before then? When I start, I'll have been out of school for 9 years, and I've been doing work with Java/Struts/Spring, Ruby/Rails, Python/Django since I graduated. It's been awhile since I did the academic stuff, and so I haven't worked a ton with Data Structures, Algorithms, etc. What would you recommend? Thanks.
Ah, I thought this was including public holidays.
I'd throw in a couple of comments on this one - I'm looking specifically at cart/checkout:

a) Including the product picture again in the "Cart Contents" overlay provides better process continuity, and that usually results in better conversion.

b) Push all of your fields to the left side of the page in "Delivery Info" and "Billing Info" - that will put those fields directly into the hot-zone of attention where users spend the most time looking - the less you make your users work the higher your conversion rate.

c) The page width is a little off in IE8 and FF creating a horizontal scroll bar in 1024x768 at the bottom of the page, this is one of those tiny little professionalism issues that people can subconsciously pick up on and ruins a sale - even if you're only seeing <10% of visitors in that resolution.

d) Under payment method you have a floating radio button but no options - I'd remove the radio button, and position the VISA / MC / etc logos into the cart box.

e) Showing an SSL certificate and reinforcing security heavily around where users are actually entering credit card info can result in huge gains - more on that here http://conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/07/proper-placement-of...

Good luck!
I design and implement programs better than all of you. Always did.
Your checkout page looks nice and simple. I only have a few tips: a) you can emphasize the total price (by perhaps increasing font or having it in a different color). Also, research has shown that #1 reason of cart abandonment is extra shipping costs. Visitors generally prefer to pay only what they think products costs. So, perhaps you can make that clear on the product pages itself (to set the right expectation). Also, perhaps you can minimize 'Coupon Code' tab and 'Newsletter' tab by default as it is not relevant to checkout.
BDD assumes a less/non-technical people can help you write the tests or confirm that you have met the requirement. This usually involves Business Analyst or Product Owner/Manager/Clients.

While it's nice, I found that usually these people are either:

1) too lazy to do that (cause they pay you to do the technical stuff) or

2) don't have time cause they have things to do as well.

I'm not suggesting that people should not do BDD or Acceptance Tests. But in situation where you cannot do that, it's not a big loss. TDD on the other hand, is the minimum requirement.

As a side note, Transloadit may not have these people/roles so it's not a big of a deal for them.
There we go, a potential weekend project! :)

Please upvote/comment if you would like to see this happening.
According to the BBC, In the city I live, there is around 8 unemployed people for every 1 job here.

I'd love to work/live in London, but I am a bit nervous about getting down there because I don't have a degree. I'm completely self taught.
1. Build something you are personally passionate about. You are your best focus group.

The first statement is great. The second is potentially dangerous and stupid if your reality distortion field is strongly polarized against what a real market wants. Do your homework and get real market research. Find a pain point or a genuine need. Believing that you're right and everyone else is wrong is a greased pole to hell in most cases. Caveat emptor.
> testing feels "expensive" to me

This is actually one of the bigger 'problems' with {T,B}DD; it's much harder to figure out how much time it takes to complete things.

BDD: Wrote the test, wrote the feature, checked it in, wall clock time, 1 hour. Next week, something unrelated changes, my tests show right where the problem is, 10 minute fix. Total time: 1:10.

No testing: wrote the feature, half an hour. Next week, something unrelated changes, breaks the feature, spend an hour fixing it. Total time: 1:30. And keep adding time when other things break later, too...

In projects with a high test coverage, I almost never spend any time debugging. That doesn't mean it's easy to recognize the saved time, though.
Well, I'm working on a full-screen display. :-)

Software demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qnL7479fbU

Source: http://github.com/hugs/pinmachine

Hardware demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUgbu0cE2-Q

Biggest issues are cost and size. I'm currently at "1977 Apple" stage - a big, expensive, hand-made prototype. But the biggest issue is cost per pin. Also, resolution is an issue... I'm going for "big and expensive" first, then will work on making it small and cheap overtime. I'm working with small dc motors first, but there are plenty of electromechanical tricks to get this down to braille-worthy stuff.
Oyunlar
More likely that being a person unlikely to get married causes eharmony use, but it's true that spending time fixing one's self is probably more productive than spending time on a dating site.
Sneak Peeks - Typographic of Code (MAX 2010)
Amen. Having a 'universal' feed URL across CMSes, domains, and years is one of FeedBurner's best features.
Poll: What programming language do you use for your app/startup?
Just trying to understand the top choices here at HN. Please pick any/all languages that you are using at your startup/side-project/day-job/learning.

If you are using a framework, you can lump it into the respective language.
Confessions of a solo founder
Clickity: http://wedoist.com
Looks like a pretty cool website!
I'd like to see some kind of explanation on the home page about what the site is or does. First impression when I visit is its just overwhelming. All these links but I'm not sure exactly what this is. I would probably go back under normal circumstances.

Also, when you first go to the home page, the first things that stand out are the google ads and the flickr images. Brings an association of spam or scams, which is probaby why I felt as described above.

This is basically an aggregrator, right? Tell me how I can save time coming here or how its better than all the other aggregators out there.
> They even outsourced me to develop a ticketing system for a [potentially recognisable car service] company, to the tune of more than half my annual salary for four weeks work.

And it didn't occur to them that this meant you were worth more than they thought? They're hopeless. Run away. Take some of your vacation days and go interview someplace where you can be a profit center instead of a cost center.
BDD isn't a Ruby library, it's a slight change in focus on what you test. As your sibling says, it's really just "TDD done correctly."

Here's the primary text: http://blog.dannorth.net/introducing-bdd/
Dexrex Gear Takes Archiving to Instant Messaging, Social Media, and Mobile
Well, did Tom Campbell run a major corporation nearly into the ground and leave with literally everybody saying he's a major screwup?

Everybody's been saying she was a disaster for half of a decade. And yes, it's relevant to someone who attempts to make "business experience" a reason to vote for them.
5 Optimization tips for a successful (banner advertising) campaign
Oyunla
Not really. According to this link

http://www.konarka.com/index.php/power-plastic/material-char...

the materials used are 100% recyclable.
I suppose while designing the OS, they felt by 1995 they would have released many new versions past the Lisa. And they were correct.
Keep On Learning (UX Resources)
Clickable: http://alphalab.org/survey_overview.aspx
Groupon and the Value of Copywriting
I'm using PHP because it's quick, and I know it. After things (hopefully) get going, I hope to migrate over to Python + Django.
This is a quote from him last week:

"Between the fag breaks, shit breaks, you aren't getting ANY work done!"

He laughed when I told him to go and fuck himself, like I was joking.
It's quite obvious that the "genuine" people were made to laugh. The giggles give it away. It spoils much of the experiment.
Well, I'm eager to hear what you think the candidate type of the best engineer is, why that type of candidate would fail to come up with a reasonable train of thought given the cited question in an interview, and how you select for that candidate type.

If questions like the one posted find a type of candidate who can think well under mild pressure, who can quickly brainstorm sensible approaches to technical problems, and who can communicate their ideas and reasoning to their peers, then that sounds like a pretty good outcome to me.
There are about 30 - 40 developers in my office and everyone browses the web whenever they feel like it. Our group has super tight deadlines (consumer electronics) and our boss' focus is always on making sure we hit all our deadlines no matter how tight our parent company makes the deadlines. That being said, all of our leadership (in house) are promoted Software and Electrical Engineers. This is true from our VP down to our team leaders and project managers.

I suspect it's different for someone working in an office with a lot of business people but I think it's important to find an employer that recognizes doing work on complicated problems isn't a linear process... It will often times now be something you can sit down and just DO. I can't even count the number of times I've spent 3 hours of over time in the office trying to solve a problem only to have the solution come to me in the shower the next morning. The mind must rest and be allowed to shift focus to something unrelated to the immediate activity at hand if someone wants creative solutions to tough problems.
Your boss has never managed more than one developer: You. Your boss doesn't really listen to you describing how you should be managed, so instead he compares you to other people he has managed, i.e. the sales guy and the designer guy.

Until your boss has personally experienced managing several developers, he doesn't have enough datapoints to know where you fall on the spectrum.

The only way he can get that experience is by you quitting so he has to hire a replacement. Arguing with him, pleading with him, explaining what you do, etc, won't give him the experience.

It also sounds like this is your first job, so do both yourself and your boss a favor: Quit.

You will get more experience of different workplaces so that you can accurately tell if they're good or bad workplaces. There's a reason most of the comments here (from more experienced developers) tell you to quit, and tell you that your workplace sucks.

Your boss will get more experience managing developers and a better appreciation for the value you bring.
"It turns out you are 12.4 times more likely to get married this year if you don't subscribe to Match.com."

Also, people in hospitals die more often than people not in hospitals.
How did he handle other users of the ocean?
I appreciate the feedback, but don't think I fall into, nor describe in the linked blog post, the interviewer category you describe (though it is certainly possible I do and just don't realize it).

Do you consider this question to be unanswerable? As I stated, I'll accept pretty much any viable answer, my goal is to get folk to design something ~realistic (okay, this is a simplistic system, but we have finite time in an interview slot).

Honestly, I think the question I blogged about is pretty straightforward, and exists for purposes of framing a discussion about real systems and constraints. There is no answer I was fishing for at any point I used this question.

"Questions like the one in this blog post are tell-tale signs of alpha-geek interview dominance gone wild," is so far off base from what I am trying to convey that I think I utterly failed to convey my point, which was quite literally the opposite :-(
We have to take 4 days over Christmas because the dealership is shut, I have used 15.5 days :(

Maybe after January.
I get ten days, of which five is mandatory while the office is closed over the Christmas to New Year break.
Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Design-Analysis-Algorithm...) is a good refresher.
I think you'd need a different paradigm. Right now each cell (if I understand the design) is a relatively complex mechanical entity. Scaling a display means scaling the number of cells linearly, which gets expensive fast.

But if you rethought the problem and built a sort of generic pixel-field display, only with each pixel being a pin, and a consistent way of activating them (perhaps something like e-ink), you could manufacture arbitrarily large screens with sub-linear cost.
What does Foursquare + Google + PushKart + Sociallybuzz have in common?
Ask HN: Books to improve my English.
I am a German living in Germany. I am dealing with english literature, websites, podcasts and videos on a daily basis. It almost feels like I was living abroad. The problem is that I often have the feeling that I am not good at writing english texts. I want to improve my style. Reading lots of information helps a little over time, but I want to actively work on it.

What books or websites would you recommend to really get into the subject?
If I had to recommend just one book overall, it'd be Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi's _Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming_ (http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/book.html). It's an extremely lucid overview of the different underlying models on which most programming languages are built, and how they interact when combined. It covers relational/logic programming and constraint programming, two models that IMHO don't get enough coverage. The bibliography also gives you plenty of jumping off points for whichever aspects pique your interest.

As for algorithms and data structures, I found that learning OCaml greatly improved my understanding of both. Working through the exercises in chapters 2-4 of _Developing Applications in Objective Caml_ (online: http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/oreilly-book/) would be a good approach. OCaml has an especially good notation for them - using it (rather than Java or C) will make them easier to reason about. You could probably work through those chapters in a weekend or two. Whether you use OCaml in the future or not, the insights and notation will stick.
The article doesn't make sense. It implies that the lower bound proved is exponential but much better than the conjectured lower bound (also exponential):

"Knuth had previously proved an exponential upper bound on the number of Topswops steps, and conjectured that one might also prove a matching lower bound. What Dr. Hal Sudborough and Dr. Linda Morales did, however, was to prove a lower bound that is much better than that proposed in Knuth’s conjecture..."

However, the paper cited says “A Quadratic Lower Bound for Topswops”, so the lower bound proved is much worse than the one conjectured by Knuth.
Zepto.js, a jQuery-compatible mobile JavaScript framework in 2K (presentation)
How the applicant seeks clarification is just as important as how he answers.. he's going to be presented with problems all the time.
When I pop the open-ended technical questions, there really is no right or wrong answer - it's just there to judge someone's real ability - I have some questions you can't fake your way through. You don't have to have every little detail right, but I can tell from how you answer whether or not you are afraid to ask for clarification, and whether you know the material, and to a good degree how well you know the material.
It's a conversation - not a one-way thing (at least in my case). I can tell if someone's nervous - and that's okay, too, but the job is going to be stressful, so after I explain not to be nervous and don't worry about getting every detail right.... but if you can't even begin to describe the systems I'm asking about, you don't belong on the team... same goes for if you don't seek clarification.
SEO Is Dead, And The New King Is ‘SMO’
Putting the Cyber in Cyber Warfare
Looks like Ruby users have most time on their hands to surf HN!
They're about equal (Boston vs. LA).
I'm applying this year. Working on the final touches as we speak. Looking forward to it!
Add F# please
In light of zeteo's comment, could you take a moment to actually research your naysaying before you go all NIMBY on the technology? How many environmentally-sensible technologies must we sacrifice at the hands of people who think they are environmentalists but are actually just unthinking naysayers? (Perhaps you won't mind if we replace them with thorium reactors?)
Can you have a baby and a startup? (not easily)
inspired by yesterday's thread of babies, i posted this to my email list.
Asking how it will fail is a gotcha? To my knowledge and experience thus far, all systems fail. The question is "given this one, that we now have a good shared understanding of, which you designed with the tools you are most familiar with, how is it going to fail?

Not one candidate I can think of has been either surprised by this question, or felt stuck, fwiw. Again, I may be completely self delusional, but I hope not!
Ask HN: Questions to ask potential co-founders?
Hey everyone,

I'm a non-technical guy behind a web project. I recently mass mailed my fellow undergraduates at my (small) university and noted that I am seeking people interested in working with me at a business and/or technical level. I gave them a link to the project, which is a functional prototype. I actually received a handful of very enthusiastic replies within the first few hours.

I also noted that I was considering a search for a technical co-founder. I'll be communicating more with a couple different people today who have expressed great enough interest.

Anybody have any good suggestions for questions or specific topics of discussion while meeting with them? Of course I have a few ideas and concerns, but I'm just curious about what others would advise.

Thanks!
Ask HN: Arguments for/against web templates
I am a civil engineer (hydrology). I've learned enough CSS, Js, PHP and MySQL on my own time to build what I want, how I want. My employer is interested in a website to handle floodplain queries. I'm comfortable with the project (especially since we are not an IT shop, and I was not hired for web dev, it's understood it could take some time). I've worked with geospatial data in OpenLayers and am learning the spatial functions in MySQL.

My concern is: since we are not an IT shop, it seems likely someone else here will suggest using a ready-made template. My gut reaction is: I'd spend more time learning what the template was doing than I would if I just built from the ground up.

So I am asking for arguments for and against using a web-site template for a geospatial database.

Thanks for any help.