skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I do both and I am trying to help other hackers figure out more about design as well.

A: I usually have a vision in mind for the project or the feature. To do this I try and break it down into smaller parts and optimize for the one thing I want the users to do for that part. For complicated designs I go through ideas on a notepad before I settle on something. The most important part of this process is to understand why a certain design element needs to be put in. If my design elements lack purpose I take them out.

Once I have that then I go about building stuff. Sometimes the end result will differ from the vision in which case it might literally be "back to the drawing board".

B: I haven't found too many recent ones. But I generally prefer patterns like these - http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

C: I'm generally against outsourcing UI/UX. I think specific icon and graphic design work can be outsourced. To me UI/UX is the app itself and early on you don't necessarily have a clear view of what it is going to be.

D: I started off as a developer and found the need to incorporate better design. I started by trying to understand what I like and why I like it. I found a couple of big problems: there weren't too many good resources that catered to our type, most design advice wasn't practical enough and improving my taste took a long while.

I'm putting together a series of posts on what I learnt, hopefully that helps people out. Feel free to get in touch via Twitter or email.
No, I don't actually have a personal twitter account. I tweet @page99test, if you'd like to follow.
Rare(Metals) and Foolish (States)
The truth about procrastination
Like you're crazy at first. Once you push through the initial self-doubt and start building something that people want, it's one of the most energizing things you can do.
Nope - don't need to sign up to anything except shrtn itself. Whenever a sale is made via your link then your account will be credited with the appropriate commission.
what gems are being a problem? there are frequently equivalents to the gems with similar APIs that do work with rails3. The rails community tends to be fickle and switch to 'next big things' a lot, which causes a bit of churn like this over time.

anyway, if you list them we might be able to make some suggestions.
StockGoodies Radio
For evidence of the risk please see my reply below http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839044 . I believe SIDS is not yet very well understood, but there's also risk of asphyxiation.

Also if you sleep fine, good for you. I wouldn't and couldn't sleep well knowing there's a risk (although small) of hurting a baby.
I never claimed to know what I was doing, and I'm not giving any advice. I was just making a statement about my personal preferences.
They didn't kill the Zune. WP7 is basically a superset of Zune - same service for music/video, same client software, (evolution/derivative of the) same UI. There're rumored to be phoneless WP7s in the works too.
Using Amazon EC2 as a web proxy
Paid to make the problem go away, new news cycle. AOL is primarily a consumer brand, ironically, with out consumers. This means that in order for AOL to purchase them they need to have moved from the producer market to the consumer market. Thus a story about startups financing is no longer relevant to most of their audience.
I would like to hear some examples of why this only sounds good on the surface, but in reality don't actually apply to startups...
OH GOD NO !

I'd rather have Microsoft's monopoly endure than have it replaced by Apple domination. Perhaps they make better software, but they're also much better at being evil.
How to Build an iPhone App: Getting Started the Right Way
Right. The article was about consumer products but you've identified the major differentiator between MS and the others. MS never gets developer buy-in and then hangs you out to dry. You can still build and support OLE controls TWO DECADES later. You can invest development time in MS and they won't deprecate Java (voluntarily) or Wave on you.
مشاهدة مباراة الزمالك والشرطة
>> originally arrested for another alleged offence last May. It would be interesting to know the nature of this crime. Was it technology related, or was the computer ceased for less direct relationship with the crime?
Re-encoding old videos from Flash to another format seems like a pretty basic hadoop-style problem that you could easily implement on EC2.

Of course this isn't free, but I remember reading something about NYT converting 100 years of archives to PDFs for a rather trivial amount of money (and time) by doing it this way.
When I was pregnant with my twins, I worked full time, mostly from home. The key was a sweet recliner, good laptop, and laptop stand. I got plenty done.

After they were born, I spent so much time nursing them for the first 2 months, that I had plenty of hack-y time (alternating with episodes of Buffy). You need a good nursing pillow and a comfortable seat, but you need those even if you're just watching Buffy. My beloved cooked all the meals, did most of the errands, and was generally as awesome and supportive as a man can be. It helps that he was working from home at the time.
Thanks for the generous offer - very timely too since I've been wrestling with Rails 3 for the past week on a relatively simple CRUD app (my username pretty accurately describes my level of programming experience :) ). I might well take you up on it

Can you be reached by email and do you have any experience integrating Rails apps with the Facebook platform?
The article inadvertently hints at the reason why Microsoft is failing. It mentions all of the markets where they lost to competitors. Perhaps they lost in all of these markets because they didn't focus on dominating a single market like the competitors that they lost to did.

Apple: Mobile Devices

Nintendo: Platform Gaming

Facebook: Social Networking

Google: Search

...
Found this sentence confusing: "One of their problems is that other people are cooler than they are because those people have technology that they haven't used yet."

You're saying early adopters want try to be impressive by using new technology? That one of early adopters' "problems" (that you are trying to provide a solution to) is jealousy?
I don't know if a law compelling you to reveal encryption keys to the government/police/courts is valid in the UK.

I do, however, know that such a law is morally reprehensible. Quite frankly, it is in the interest of the people to ensure encryption tools are entirely useable by criminals, gangsters, and terrorists, because that ensures they are entirely useable by lawful citizens as well.

Unlike guns (something possible to "defend liberty" as well as commit crime with), encryption has no victims, has no negative consequences. It can hide negative things, but it merely provides automation for knowing something you refuse to tell.

Edit: spelling
Ask HN: How to handle IP issues with full-time day job? [1]
Employee contracts for just about any big tech company includes provisions that automatically makes all types of IP (including inventions and copyrights) developed by the employee belong to the company. This applies even if the work is done completely on the sides and outside work hours.

California specifically has laws that allow employees to claim "inventions" of their own but still under terms that are more favorable to the employer [2]. There's no help for "copyrightable" works [3], which would include software, or even in principle a written plan for developing this software [4].

I certainly have this issue currently preventing me from doing any work to bootstrap while I am still employed. Most people I spoke to at SUS2010 who are working on "side projects" are completely unaware of the issue. Some are ignoring it thinking that it must somehow work out. Yet, I noted that YC submission form has a question about this.

On the other hand, almost every successful founder I spoke to, either did not have this issue (founded right after school, etc.), or did not do any work before quitting (which they did either before or after securing funding).

Some more details on the subject can be found in this excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Property-Open-Source-Protecting/dp/0596517963/

Here are some questions then:

How many people here have or had these issues?

How do/did you deal with this?

Is leaving the day job the only way out? Or possibly joining another job where you can avoid this issue, as kneath suggested [1]? Consulting jobs?

[1] Note: I had posted the same question as a comment to "Ask Tom Preston-Werner" on HN recently
(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1804443 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1805871). Am now opening to a wider set of readers and responses.

[2] See section 2870(a)(1), and 2872 (burden of proof) here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2870-2872

[3] See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire ("Within the scope of employment" here means not just work you do for the employer, but also anything you do that relates to the "field" of your work)

[4] In fact, even non-copyrightable and non-patentable works (whatever these mean) are included under this by my employment contract.

Reason for edit: Footnotes used asterisk before instead of [Number], where were misinterpreted by the system.
San Diego Hacker News Meetup #10
Try answering these questions:

Who is 'they' ? How many are "they" ? right now , where are "they"? Do you know even one of the "they"?

Ahh, its so much easier to give advise . If it makes you feel any better, I am also trying to find my version of "they".

In the meanwhile, get Steve Blank's Epiphany book and keep reading and applying until you have found the "they".

Good Luck !!
If nothing else, looks like Bin38 got a new website out of the deal.
I guess it's a little strange that they haven't tried to put IE on the Xbox--but I'm glad they haven't. The whole reason I have a game console is to have an appliance that is dedicated to video games. I have plenty of other devices that provide a superior browsing experience.
I'm not sure how anyone would be convinced that I find I can work faster with Firebug than other developer tools just by listing a bunch of features. shrug
How We BootStrapped PadPressed To Our First 10k In Sales
✓ Old story (October 6th).

✓ Original article omits context.

✓ US Constitution does not cover the British.

✓ Already covered. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1760700

No discussion required.
I am a programmer with fairly advanced photoshop skills. I am not a good designer. I know this because when I see good designs, I realize I NEVER could have come up with that.

If you're a programmer, you should be able to nail the science half of the equation. As for the art half, I would just shamelessly rip cool things you find when searching "css inspiration" or whatever ["great artists steal"].

It's easy to go overboard reading about UX and all the articles completely over-analyzing the topic. Unless your product is centered on revolutionary interface like hipmunk, you're probably safe just using established interaction patterns and getting feedback from "normal people".

Just see if your non-techie friends can handle it. If so you probably have enough to launch. Most big sites were ugly at launch...
Consumers nevered cared about a specific OS. They've always just wanted a set of applications. The problem is that Chrome only answers one class of apps that people must have... web browser.

But it lacks Office (Open Office and Google Docs are not replacements for most people). Lacks a decent gaming ecosystem -- does it even have the Sims? And is missing a lot of applications that users use along the long tail... such as CS5 and iTunes.

Chrome is a non-player IMO. I think a low cost Mac and the evolution of the iPad is a LOT scarier (by an order of magnitude) to Microsoft.
I think that all developers should be able to design layouts that make sense. Pure programmers (writing algorithms, optimizing, scaling, etc.) don't really need design skills.

You definitely need product developer(s) on your team if your startup is consumer facing at all. In such a small (2-3 person) team, everyone needs to do multiple jobs, so if none of you have decent design skills, then start practicing now.

Part A - Usually a proof-of-concept happens first either in basic wireframe mockups or basic/ugly code. Once you'er clear on the product you want to build, then full designs are done in Photoshop or, once in a while, direct HTML.

Part B - I would mostly ignore that stuff. Simply look at great/big sites and see what the do right, but more importantly look at what they could improve and do that yourself. Basically, make your interface design as simple as possible while having the minimum feature set to make your product useful - finding that balance is where you become a great product developer.

Part C - Don't outsource your design. If you commit to design as a core competency in your development team, then you understand that design is not just visual - design encapsulates everything that the user experiences with your product.

Part D - I started off as a cartoon animator in college, but found I was better at coding, then I realized that to make great products, I need to have great design. I didn't have a design monkey, so I started creating my own designs (poorly at first) taking inspiration from products I enjoyed. To overcome obstacles in design, I simply take the worst part of a page/workflow and fix that first... repeat until the product is due or there aren't any cringe-worthy features.
The desktop is irrelevant. Linux is, most probably, the most popular OS at your home. You can't buy a modern TV, blu-ray player, DVR, wireless router, smartphone or e-book reader without buying a Linux machine.
Actually all those things are great for the user. As for HN'ers it probably means they can do more things for people at lower cost, since business ideas realized as web apps are less tied to silo-like platforms.
Shouldn't the rejection be focused (as much as possible) around areas that you want to improve such as getting a conversation started with women and cold calling customers? Securing a bite of someone else's croissant is pretty low on my list of rejection fears.
I'm going to have to say that I'm not familiar with ROBs, since I never came across it. But, its definitely peaked my interest. From the preliminary reading I've done on it, it's a very aggressive tax planning vehicle and highly despised by the IRS. Which means it probably is as amazing as you say it is.

Allow me some time to read up on the case law in regards to this topic and I'll email you directly if you don't mind. This is something that would definitely be more than a 30 second answer and I'd definitely be interest in discussing it merits and shortcomings with you. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! No matter how many years I deal with taxes there's definitely going to be a lot that I need to learn lol.
Yes, the reality is terrible, but as with anything else, it's risk/reward. I would rather enjoy the reward of going outside, even though there's a chance I will be struck by a car.

In my opinion, the reward to the parents and the baby from co-sleeping outweighs the risks. You should of course take precautions to mitigate the risk.

Definitely avoid those sleeping positioners.
It could be that you just need to stick with it longer. If you are not out of funds, keep refining your product and trying to market it. Thats what I would do.
A) At what point? From the beginning. You said it yourself, you go through notebook pages with UI before even writing code. You need to have a structure in place before you begin anything. Sure you can morph it as you go, but you need a direct connection to what you are trying to achieve. At the same time you're coding some functionality, you should be thinking about how this is going to be displayed. It's of course not necessary to do any of the graphics or styling at this point, but it works better if you give it some thought and try to form some type of layout and broad design ideas as you go. It's worth doing photoshop mockups when you reach a point where the application development can benefit from being graphically beautiful (which can vary immensely... every project is an island). You draw the line at the first moment you can. If and when you reach a minimum point where your application could be used by the masses, freaking ship it. You can fix and add features later, but the moment you have enough to ship that thing out the door - do it. Software is never "finished" anyways, so you'll need to keep going at it anyways.

B) Almost all the information regarding UI usability and user experience holds up regardless of age. The concepts are the same now and when it was written. There are also a LOT of resources written in the last few years, so I'd disagree that all the information is old. In any case, it really doesn't matter, you're still going to need to come up with your own conclusions for your specific case. No amount of UI/XI reading is going to allow you to skip having to do you're own testing and to draw your own conclusions on what works for you.

C) In the web industry the designer/artist is generally also the guy that codes your Html/Css/Jquery. A front end developer is generally the person that designs interaction and pretty screens. The back end guy is the one doing the algorithms, database work, etc. You can outsource everything, though the results are usually not even on the same league as the worst results you can get from a good team that clicks working together. You can always have a contractor come in and work with you or your team if needed, and that can sometimes be a better compromise than outsourcing per se.

D)I started as a programmer at an early age, but I was also an artist. What put me on that path is that I wanted to know how to do everything. From Photoshop to Rails to C to server security and deployment. I started learning by doing. Don't look for guidance man, just work on a project and when you need something you're not comfortable doing, freaking do it anyways. Need to do graphics, test layouts, a/b testing? Read on it and start doing it asap. At some point you'll become decent at it, and then one day you're actually good at doing it too! Obstacles? There are no obstacles, only challenges. Challenge yourself and you'll come out a winner.
Of course people who build messaging systems can see themselves as competing with email. It is, however, a bad sign if they feel that way.

Specialized applications, such as task and project management, should have nice and efficient user interfaces. In the best cases, these UIs reflect the nature of the operations the product is designed for. Email, on the other hand, is a general-purpose messaging system and it really excels at two things: notification and also communication in small groups.

Taking this into account, it should become obvious why there is something wrong when a company considers themselves threatened or limited by email. And there is an even greater problem if it's the other way around and vendors feel like they are replacing email with something much better. Those ever-so-overwhelmingly celebrated visionaries at 37signals should consider why people use email in the first place, and then possibly take a step back and chill out.
I'm all for trying a lot of different things, but there's a point where a company needs to step back and look at why all their tries fail.
Techmeme takes feeds of news items and clusters them based on their timestamp, related keywords, and internal links to determine what the hottest stories are in Tech right now. It's an automated, super smart Tech news aggregator. It's not a CMS. It's a web app where you feed it RSS feeds, and it tells you what the hottest stories across all those sources are right now. It's awesome.

It's a crime that we don't have Techmeme-like sites for more verticals than Tech and Media news. That's what I'm interested in and have made progress on.
As the designer in a three person startup (the other two are coders), I can give some information on our process.

A - Our design process starts with a discussion of feature ideas and requirements from the code side. Then work goes in parallel until each team has a workable mockup/prototype. This period of work alone is critical to the development of the app from the visual and user experience side of things. It also gives me freedom to try lots of new ideas. I'll usually do a couple of revisions based on comments from my co-founders, and then get some outside opinions.

B - I fear that user interface and usability comes more from trial and error than reading. I haven't found a good resource for the technical side of design, but olalonde's link to uxmovement.com looks great.

C - Our startup has 2 coders and 1 designer. We're a rails shop, and I know enough ruby to implement my designs. This mix usually works really well as far as delegation of work. I'm not sure how standard this is.

D - Can't say much here since I started on the design side and have more recently been programming.

As an aside - if you're comfortable in css and are adding a new page or feature to an existing site, I've found that it can be fast to prototype in html rather than Photoshop/Illustrator.
"As long as the police stick to preventing robbery, forcible rape, and other assaults on liberty and property, corruption is not a problem. It is only when they begin interfering with the free market..."

What happens when a company grows so rich and powerful that it can influence your supposedly small government to protect company interests with new laws that have nothing to do with protecting liberty and property?
Developer/Programmer Analyst = looks for bugs.

Around here, it means "Integrates the code into live environments, does some statistical work, does some DB work"
Thanks, this was helpful, especially fields_for.

On the point of building my own, that's what I've done, but these felt like an obvious things to want (I implemented them both in my own PHP framework.) Thinking about it, the standard Rails CRUD index provides delete links instead of buttons; IMHO that is totally wrong, but when all you have is a hammer... Also, button_to is not good enough as it makes its own form, which breaks any solution to question 2.

On question 1, what I want is to generate submit buttons like <input type=submit name=some_non_clashing_string_that_identifies_this_button value=ButtonText> and then have this routed to a function nicely. I've not found a standard way of doing that; maybe I should write one? Could you see it being useful?
Having a baby is the most expensive thing you can do with your life, time and money.
> Seriously consider having the baby sleep in your bed with you, especially if you/your spouse are breastfeeding.

It might be worth pointing out that your 'baby' will in all likelihood still be sleeping with you in 6 years.
Another vote for a notepad + copying. It's the only system I've ever stuck to, and the only thing missing from it (very occasionally) is not having my list online.
Remember this concept: reverse innovation
Exciting development!
Facebook = Fail
uCentric.org WIN!

We know that many HN readers are Fb Fanboys, but we have just finished successfully testing our new secureNet social communication and sharing framework which starkly exposes Facebook's Auschwitz-like approach to personal privacy and makes Google redundant for (intelligent) personal users.

Results:
\100% secure
\100% user pwned and controlled
\100% IP secure with FULLY ENFORCEABLE copyright (in most civilized countries) over content
\100% you-centric
\0% middlemen
\0% robots, spiders, crawlers and unwanted "guests"
\0% monitoring
\0% tracking
\0% filtering
\0% probing
\0% assF77ing - EVER!

Codename: Communicado
Release:
Private Alpha - really soon!
Public alpha - in about 2 weeks to sort gi
Beta - Before end 2010
Launch - >Beta && <Jan 21, 2011

PS: Diaspora, MyCube, Appleseed, etc, etc, etc
= meddling-middlemen = FAIL = you just don't get it.

PS: no more alpha testers needed thanks.