skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I own an Acer Aspire One (1.6Ghz Atom, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive). While the battery life isn't bad (5 hours), performance is poor and the whole thing is too small to do much work on. I've also had constant problems with audio, video, and wifi in Ubuntu. Windows XP works alright, but it's not useful for much more than browsing the web.

I have been wanting something inexpensive-

I used to think this way. Now I realize that it's not worth skimping on something you spend a significant fraction of your life using. Instead of the up-front cost, think of the amount you'll be paying per hour for the life of the machine.

I'm going to use numbers that favor cheaper computers. Say you use it 4 hours a day and upgrade in 2 years. If you spend $500, you're paying about 17 cents per hour. $1500 is 50 cents per hour. If you're actually using the machine for development, you'll create many times that in value each hour, let's say $5. If you can improve your efficiency by 10% (50 cents/hour) by buying the $1500 machine, then it's worth buying.

I've followed my own advice and bought a maxed-out 11" Macbook Air. I love it enough that I'm using it as my main development machine.
1. Nothing is wrong with you.

2. Read this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1647146

3. Don't ever settle. It's better to be unhappy and searching than indifferent and resigned.
Among SCO's myriad claims, they alleged Linux violates its copyright over the SysV APIs and ABIs. I doubt the court got around to addressing that issue.
I think point four is true but difficult to achieve. Most CEOs I work with, who also act as the product manager/owner, have a hard time keeping up with the role of product manager: especially when there are two or more pairs working on their product.

Having someone who can share that product vision with you is, in my opinion, really important. This frees up the CEO to focus on other aspects of the business like customer development, funding, etc.
I'm also a Sorkin / WW fanboy and would add:

1) The movie isn't for y'all (i.e. SV programmers) - it's for everyone else. How Raiders of the Lost Ark is Spielberg's action-adventure archeology, The Social Network is a Sorkin-banter exercise.

2) Sorkin enjoys writing for intellectual ideology, which is very difficult to position in any form of entertainment. In a way, he's forced to choose personas capable of centering his complex dialog, be it the President of the United States or a 20-something self-made billionaire.
Ask HN: What is up with "Offer HN"
Why arnt these Offer HN posts deleted? I thought HN was supposed to have links/comments that are deeply interesting and provoke thought. Wont an excess number of these posts, which have spam-like tone, turn HN into a tech Craigslist? Whats next: Offer HN: Great work at home opportunity, make $1000+ a week!
Someone is eventually going to go to prison after stupidly uploading evidence of themselves wiretapping a wireless network they don't own.

There's also an interesting double standard here: would it be quite so acceptable to casually listen in on people's GSM calls or wireless house phone calls?
Yeah, I also thought he expected to serve it all from a single disk. Hopefully in real life it gets clear in the discussion.

It's a problem when asking interview questions: there are many ways in which the question may be unclear and the interviewer is mislead that the applicant can't answer. Another problem may be that the interview interferes with the thinking style of the applicant: you try to discuss it with him while he needs time to think by himself, or just the opposite: he thinks better in a discussion and you stay quiet while he sweats in stress.
Wow, on my last visit to the UK I just walked into an Apple store and bought an unlocked one there and then for a friend. They had stacks of them in stock. (they were selling one every 2 minutes or so though) The website says 1 week:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...

Actually, the Canadian website says 2 weeks:

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...

So whoever you're trying to buy one from - they're messing you around.
You have neurons in your intestines
Just.do.what.you.fuckin.want.

Seriously. Life is all about enjoying yourself.

I'm 21 now. Similar things used to hit me 1 year ago very often. Now that happens just once in a while. How I fixed this? I started enjoying myself whenever I can. What I changed? I stopped caring what I "should" do.

Go to library and read Orwell's "Down and out in Paris and London". And Zappo's "Delivering Happiness", at least the very last chapter. I believe those should help you quite a lot.
How I Will Become a Game Programmer
Nike Dunk High 6.0 Light Red White Shoes
XSS holes everywhere.
Offer HN: copy editing
I like to edit interesting copy. Or make boring copy by gracious or interesting people more flattering. Hit me with either either.
From catb:

"The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music — actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them ‘hackers’ too — and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. But in the rest of this document we will focus on the skills and attitudes of software hackers, and the traditions of the shared culture that originated the term ‘hacker’."

I don't believe that hacking is or should be confined to programming.
For me, it has always been best to learn by doing. Think of something you want to build and go for it. You'll certainly make mistakes but don't worry about it; the web is pretty forgiving on a small scale. When you need general help, try asking a question on SitePoint. There's StackOverflow too, but I feel like SitePoint has more a learning environment while StackOverflow is just a place to get answers.

With every project you complete, you'll discover new and better ways to do things. Just be open about asking questions and showing your code. If you ever find yourself thinking there's a better way to something, there probably is, so go ahead and make a thread on SitePoint.

To prove I'm not making all this up (assuming this link works), this is all of the threads I've made on SitePoint in ascending order: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/search.php?searchid=4499370 . Added disclaimer: In October 2005 I was 14, so excuse any poor writing in those posts
I remember creating my first site on geocities. A southpark fan site with links to download episodes (linked to another site hosting the of course). That obviously became the most popular feature. Think will have to get the torrent or at least part of it for a trip down memory lane. It is the digital equvilent of the 80's haircut
First mention I have heard of this kind of insurance need. More please?
Jon Bentley's "Programming pearls", definitely. This problem is somewhat comparable to the first "pearl" from this book. Anyway one of the best ever programming books :)
exactly! I really hope someone gives this a go. if i could take the time off work I would love to go there.

as soon as i left vienna, i immediately started looking for work there! alas not to many mechanical engineers required :(
Well I think you're probably to young to comment about this. Ask your parents. If you were alive 30 years ago, then I suppose you might be from somewhere other than Europe, Australia or New Zealand.
Personally I just don't click offers for now, as it just don't worth the time to go over all the offers in the current form.
don't abandon ANY of your values.

But make sure that they're YOUR values.
My friends and I figured out that the counter showing beer consumption at a restaurant with a beer tap on each table wouldn't increase if we poured an amount smaller than the smallest amount necessary to increment the counter. Many glasses of beer were had by pouring tiny amounts repeatedly.
Tips on Converting VOB Videos to AVI on Mac OS X
If you have copied the VOB files from DVD Discs, and also want to convert these VOB files to AVI on your Mac, how to easily accomplished your goal without losing the quality of the video?
Explained: Real-time heatmap example
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Let me tell you an even easier way hack - download Firesheep
The nice thing here is:

The app already was pulled from the market.
The market works (pretty much like wikipedia) through openness and a broad community to monitor it without heavy censorship from one vendor.
That's a charismatic performance. It's an important choice of words how he says "we in silicon valley"... it really gets the audience on side.

But I think he's disingenuous, and I think he's been coached. The way he pitches this; it's as if, when he was building facebook, he was like a hobby botanist marvelling at a new flower he'd discovered in his favourite meadow. That the entire exercise was just about the thrill of creation and discovery.

You only have to watch the "new" section of HN for a day to see that most hackers are acutely aware of the monetary potential of their creations, and in some cases far more interested in the glamour of being an entrepreneur than the thrill and art of creating software.

I'm not saying that the two are mutually exclusive - I certainly work very passionately on things I believe in and aspire to make millions of dollars as a result, but I think in this video clip Zuck is doing a little Hollywood framing of his own.
A couple of years ago I made the mistake of committing to too many projects. (I'd just started free-lancing and put a few feelers out and they all came in at the same time! Typical!)

Think I was pulling 16 hours a day consistently for two or three months. Managed to meet all deadlines, but in hindsight I think I made a couple of poor design decisions - and I didn't question some of the things clients asked for (just cracked on and did them without offering much input).

Now I make a conscious effort to say no (which I don't like to do, but must) when I don't think I have the spare capacity.

Only problem with freelancing is how difficult it is to find time for your side-projects. Am also trying to sort out enough head room to be able to focus on my own stuff. Good luck with it!
Any idea why they offered it? ie. I might try AdWords if they started me with $125.
Take a look at Sinatra.
I believe that the people doing the "digital breaking and entering" are called "programmers", just as pg claimed.
Andy Rubin speaks at Stanford (2004)
I'm a musician, and have a folder full of songs in my repertoire. I used to strictly alphabetize, but now I use dividers lettered A-Z (hash table), with each letter organized alpha at first, but move-to-front whenever I perform a song (MRU). I can now often find the song I want in 1 or 2 lookups, which really beats binary search.
omg. wolves.
That sounds like a problem where computer science techniques must be applied to solve. Lucily there aren't just forks.
I remembered sorting out stuff by asking a few classmates to sort some of it individually and then combine them.
<rant>I've got a better idea: use postgis and get rid of mysql and its quirks.

Yep, I just reinstalled an old app yesterday, and for some unfathomable reason it loses communication with mysql at some point (it worked perfectly for what, 6 years?). Gosh, I hate mysql.</rant>
Wondershare Halloween Giveaway
In addition to the review of Flash Gallery Factory Deluxe earlier this month, Wondershare will gives away 3 licenses of Flash Gallery Factory Deluxe on web3mantra for the coming Halloween holiday. With this software, You can make a slideshow with photos from the Halloween party. You can check an couples Halloween costume slideshow here.
I like this idea a lot, but actually doing it would require a tremendous effort, considering all the different (and crappy) internet banking apps around the world.
But sure, it could start with 1 bank, then add support for others in time.
I think this will be a good addition for a lot of people.
My first reaction is just like that as well.
Sorry for the author of that post.
Two Out Rally, Baseball MMORPG Opens Beta Today
If you like Python, Theano may be useful to you (haven't actually tried it):

http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/

Theano is a Python library that allows you to define, optimize, and evaluate mathematical expressions involving multi-dimensional arrays efficiently. Theano features:

- tight integration with numpy

- transparent use of a GPU

- symbolic differentiation

- speed and stability optimizations

- dynamic C code generation

- extensive unit-testing and self-verification
One positive: I really like your typography. Which fonts are you using?
true, the distance calculation must NOT be in the WHERE clause if you want to use indexes (and you want).

What I'm doing, given a max distance and a search point, is to calculate the bounding box in which I want to search in filter results with

WHERE lat BETWEEN lat_min AND lat_max AND lng BETWEEN lng_min AND lng_max

Calculating latitude min/max is trivial knowing that 1 latitude degree is 111.2KM. Longitude is a bit more convoluted because longitude degree size changes moving north/south.

$lat_min = $lat - $range_km * (1 / 111.2);
$lat_max = $lat + $range_km * (1 / 111.2);

$k = $range_km/6371.04;
$lng_min = $lng - rad2deg($k/cos(deg2rad($lat)));
$lng_max = $lng + rad2deg($k/cos(deg2rad($lat)));
I count to 31 with one hand.

I use the standard count up to 5 with one hand just for communication purpose.
Haversine formula (the distance between Long Lat coordinates)
Nah, no tracking. But maybe I should, that would be interesting.

The reason I make those claims is because I don't do much else at the moment except "work" (which for me equals fun). I don't play any video games anymore except the one I work on, and even then it's usually only once a week. I don't use facebook. Etc. Hacker News is my outlet, typically before bed (like now).

Think of it this way... there are 168 hours in a week. A "proper" amount of sleep is 8 hours a day, which is 1/3 of a day. So 168 * (2/3) = 112 waking hours. Throw in the fact that I often have trouble sleeping, or go without sleep, and... well, you get the idea.

I'm not claiming that I typically work 100 hours. This week in particular has been unique. I'm just saying, for me personally, when I'm passionate about a thing, I wind up way, way more productive by obsessing over it and pushing myself than if I try to "balance" myself.

Also, when I'm in "hardcore work" mode, I can only focus on exactly one project. There is little or no room for any other projects, such as side projects. Even doing an unrelated small bugfix has the potential to completely destroy my enthusiasm / flow.

There are downsides, of course... one example that springs to mind is: my right wrist has been hurting me. Badly, actually. I've been ignoring it, but that's stupid obviously. I think it's possibly because of the shape of my mouse. (I've heard that I should get a "splint" to prevent horizontal / vertical wrist movement.)

Also I need to take care to ensure good nutrition, which I've been slacking on. Also, Vitamin D pills + B12 pills.
Ask HN: Should I revive a dead project?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Re1QJMXLE

This was the first start-up that I did, and I'm looking at it now going "holy cow, we built that!?!?"

Is it worth reviving?
If I were to write another IDE (or, being too productive and unwise)
geospatial index do NOT work if you're using InnoDB; so you must choose between geospatial queries or transactions (that MyISAM don't support).
Your point about being fine tuned for low memory+power devices is spot on. Each app process on an Android phone is given 16mb of native heap space to play with - it's a lot for some functions but requires disciplined memory use to write stable apps (sorely lacking still).
I think PHP's strength is coming from the large amount of web hosting companies offering it. It seems to be the "default" they offer, along with MySQL. Also, those hosting providers are so cheap that for some it is the only choice that they have (including myself).

While I have been learning Python for over a month now, I still do not have a server to run my stuff on. I run it on my local machine but it feels different when you have it "out there".

After a month of looking at and learning Python, I fell in love with it. Bottom line, if web hosting companies offer Python as one their "default" installations, then I would directly jump right in.

Python is nice because it has great web frameworks available - and at the same time, I can use it as tools to parse my huge CSV files (and other tasks) while I'm offline.

Python is a very "comfortable" language to learn - I never had that feeling when I tried to learn Ruby.
Is that actually also legal to wiretap networks that they own? What about the classic method of setting "Free WiFi" using simple tools and a 3G phone? Does that make it "legal" to wiretap in US, at least?
It's not that simple. If the font size is adjusted, you probably want scalable UI as well (or it would break the harmony). I can see the benefits of that, but then again, if I bought a high-DPI & high-resolution screen, I want it to accommodate more stuff, which would not be the case if the stuff was scaled up.
Hey Lanerapp, I'll take you on this offer: would you mind proofreading my headlines on http://gmbhnews.com/make-mobile-site/ ? The very first taglines on the white zone. Thanks for the offer.

Edit:If you don't mind, please to send me your suggestions via email (see profile)
I'm interested as well (really, as someone who uses sphinx for that currently).
No, that's not pricey. Consider all the elements that would need to be created to make even one page. Once you have elements in place, you can reuse them on other pages. So the first page has a bigger cost for the designer.
Joel Spolsky. Former Microsoft software engineer, now has a company that makes FogBugz. One of the great software opinionators, like Paul Graham.
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Honest question: if it's unfathomable, what makes you think it's caused by mysql, rather than some system update, driver or app dependency issue ?
Ask HN: What to do with pre-launch emails?
So I've had my pre-launch site up over at http://collectivejam.com/ for 3 or 4 days now, and have collected around 300 emails. It's steadily increasing, which is great.

The thing is, I've only got one email planned, and that's the launch email. I'm not sure when I should email the list, with updates, with questions, with requests for developers, etc?

The only other thing I've been doing is emailing people who's email or site I recognise.

What do you think? What sort of emails should I send out?
Seconded; I've been using it with the thinking_sphinx rubygems and it always worked great.
Sounds like a whole project, running something around 50-75 hours or so. At a hourly rate of $50, I'd say that would be somewhere around $3000-3500.
I guess the MacBook Pro lineup will shift towards higher-DPI screens in the near future. The next-generation 15" MBP will probably have the 1680x1050 screen by default.
What do you use for doing mockups?
I'm actually sad that I didn't put my first website on geocities now! I had my own web hosting from my ISP, so I had a fabulously easy to remember url of "homepages.tig.com.au/~liedra" which was lost as soon as my family upgraded to a cable connection from dialup. And no, archive.org didn't manage to catch it :( I think it had a page devoted to Nick Cave and some terrible poetry! Go go websites of a 17 year old! :)

The interesting thing was that at the time my friends and I (who had ISP-based homepages) looked down on Geocities because it was "lame" comparatively. Now I'm sad that I don't have any records of that original page (possibly on an ancient CD-R though? but most of those early ones have degraded now...)
I have a home page, full of useful (to me) links and kept under version control. But I always get rid of the homepage button --- it's a waste of pixels.
I think the point is that CSS3 is hardware-accelerated on platforms like the iPad / iPhone, whereas the canvas isn't - it runs like a bit of a dog on those two.

I personally would prefer using the canvas though, especially if it becomes HW accelerated across the board.
earlier submission: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1838736
Firesheep is just an automated GUI for what we've been doing all along. Ettercap, wireshark, etc are far more flexible and can be used to execute a wider variety of attacks. Firesheep, for example, won't ARP poison on a wired network.
Ask HN: Where are the best internships?
Heya HN, long time reader, first time writer here :)

I'm a CS student in my 3rd year in Scotland, trying to find a summer internship. I'm looking around for internships but I'd like some more opinions on what's the best approach.

Should I be aiming to get in with a huge tech company (IBM, Google, FB, etc...) or do those generally end up with you lost in a huge crowd? Similarly, should I aim for smaller, local tech companies, or will that just end up with me not working on anything substantial?

Finally, if any HNers have had a particularly good internship, would you mind sharing any tips? (Asking where you worked in particular seems rather shady)
Idea for a start-up that I will never start
I was thinking today that sooner or later the sequencing of the humane genome will be trivial or at least very easy. And then all hell will break loose: all that information will be compressed in files and shared/uploaded/sold/purchased/you-name-it. A team of biologists and computer scientists could develop a file format: let's say '.dna' to compress and standardize this type of data.
Do you find this science-fiction, impossible, trivial, is it already done?
What about sitting on an exercise ball? Have read quite a few articles in HN about the benefit of doing so.
Anecdote on Haversine: in 1.6, MongoDB's built-in "geonear" was using non-spherical indexing, but I needed to get more accurate results in a project, so I queried 3 times more records and used Haversine afterward to sort records again, client-side. Here's the ruby code:

http://gist.github.com/559482

Since then, MongoDB 1.7 has been released with spherical sort support (http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Geospatial+Indexing#Geos...)
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Whatever you do. Make sure you invite people to tweet about the signup page after they submit. That way it will spread virally.
I just got my 4 after waiting since launch. Some parts of Australia are still backlogged.
I've been using either MySQL with Sphinx or MongoDB with the built-in geonear successfully.

If you're already using MongoDB, it's really dead-easy to setup (see the docs).
yes, actually is at best an overview since many important details are missing (the presentation time was 20 minutes),a a few more are still a work in progress.

Currently implemented in my cluster branch: MIGRATE, and the basic PING/PONG with gossip. I'm working at the rest full time, so I hope to have some alpha to show in two months at max.